The next frontier: Robot to help astronaut in space odyssey

Last night, I started inspiring science fiction novels from Florida.

The crew interactive mobile companion, or CIMON, is the size of a basketball and is an English speaking robot that can help the German astronaut Alexander Gerst experiment at the International Space Station.

"What you are going to do with CIMON is to improve the efficiency of astronauts," says Matthias Biniok, a chip manufacturer's IBM engineer, one of the chief architects of CIMON Artificial Intelligence .

CIMON will deliver a step-by-step guide to Gerst in the three planned scientific experiments of the European modules of the space station.

Currently, the astronauts are reading these instructions from their laptops, but this is a hard work, reacting well like CIMON, the possibility that a hands-free companion might be a substitute there is.

"Now our main job is to save time by supporting the daily work of the astronaut because it is most valuable and expensive on the International Space Station" Binioni said.

The German Aerospace Center has held a three-hour conference at CIMON, and how robots can be useful in experiments such as crystal growth research, eight mounted camera tests, exercises to help Gerst solve the Rubik's cube .

Biniok said that the concept of CIMON was inspired by the 1940s Space Science Fiction series, and the sensory brain type robot called Professor Simon commanded a future astronaut named captain. CIMON is similar to Perceptual Computer HAL of Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: Space Roaming".

CIMON Hardware Contractor German engineer at Airbus, Philipp Schulien says that expanding the capacity of the astronaut in the universe is important for future space exploration missions such as Mars exploration that will take off in 2020 Stated.

Mr. Schulien said, "In the long-term mission, there may be some sort of influence such as group thinking effect," said behavioral phenomenon that isolated people are moved to make unjust decisions over the long term Stated. "Long-term isolated groups tend to stop communicating with the ground," he said.

Schulien said that humanoid robots such as CIMON can help relieve the lost direction astronauts may feel in the universe.

CIMON was one of the 2,676 kilograms of cargo launched to the International Space Station on the SpaceS Falcon 9 rocket on Friday. I am planning to arrive at the station on Monday.

Another inspiration: Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke 2001: Space roaming, an astronaut astronaut crosses the universe through a mysterious portal. This story is an unforgettable movie and a novel. For the next generation who knows who can get inspiration from the movie StarCraft in 2014, the imaginary astronaut team will search for a resident planet around a distant galaxy black hole

2001: "Space Roaming" is the story of a man fighting a deadly computer on the way to humanity. This story, like the Earth, the Moon, the Universe, took place from 2001 to 2003. The main character is David Bowman, an astronaut trained in many different space fields. The opponent is HAL 9000, an artificial intelligence computer. Another important player is Dr. Haywood Floyd who came to Discovery's Bowman partner Frank Pool and the Moon Survey TMA-1.

Biniok said that the concept of CIMON was inspired by the 1940s Space Science Fiction series, and the sensory brain type robot called Professor Simon commanded a future astronaut named captain. CIMON is also consistent with computer HAL based on the information of Stanley Kubrick's movie "2001: Space Roaming". Mr. Schulien said, "In the long-term mission, there may be some sort of influence such as group thinking effect," said behavioral phenomenon that isolated people are moved to make unjust decisions over the long term Stated. "Long-term isolated groups tend to stop communicating with the ground," he said.

Many readers will recognize Stanley Kubrick's "2001 - Space Odyssey" movie. There, refusing to allow the crew to return to the ship, considering that the installed computer HAL 9000 poses a threat to the "presence" by the astronaut. Other movies such as "Ex-Machina", "i-Robot", "Terminator" and the like advocate fear of similar artificial intelligence systems and since their cognitive abilities are controlled by human hands, We can not protect them. Of course, there are also movies that focus on good aspects of artificial intelligence such as "200th Anniversary".