CIMON-2 makes its successful debut on the ISS

CIMON-2, the updated version of the CIMON astronaut assistant, developed and built by Airbus for the German Aerospace Center Space Administration (DLR), has now demonstrated its capabilities during initial tests on the International Space Station (ISS). The free-flying, spherical technology demonstrator with artificial intelligence (AI) showed off a number of its features during interactions with ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. CIMON-2 started its journey to the ISS on 05 December 2019, launching with the CRS-19 supply mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is scheduled to stay on the ISS for up to three years. Just shy of two months after the successful first use of CIMON-2, the project team has now received the analysis. With the new improved hardware and complex software working so well, the CIMON team from DLR, Airbus, IBM, Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (LMU) and the ESA User Support Centre Biotesc in Lucerne (Switzerland) are extremely satisfied with CIMON-2’s performance. This continued success of the CIMON project is yet another pioneering achievement in the use of AI in human space flight. www.airbus.com