A robotic virtual assistant is heading to the ISS

In recent years many of us have begun to relying on Alexa, Siri, and other virtual assistants to play our music, set our alarms, and schedule our appointments. Now, the Airbus company is designing a similar mission assistant to help astronauts complete everyday tasks on the International Space Station. Airbus is developing the Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN (nicknamed CIMON) in collaboration with Space Administration at the German Aerospace Center. It's set to be the first time that artificial intelligence (AI) has been used on the ISS in this manner. CIMON takes the form of a spherical, free-flying robot that can move independently around the station It's about the size of a medicine ball, and weighs roughly 11 pounds.