from the and-how-does-that-make-you-feel dept.
CIMON 2 (Crew Interactive MObile companioN 2) is a free-floating spherical robot designed to recognize emotions of astronauts, that strongly resembles an oversized Tamagotchi.
"The overall goal is to really create a true companion. The relationship between an astronaut and CIMON is really important," Matthias Biniok, the lead architect for CIMON 2, said.
"It's trying to understand if the astronaut is sad, is he angry, joyful and so on."
CIMON 2 is a successor to CIMON, launched in 2018, however "CIMON 2 will be more sociable with crew members."
In times of conflict or disagreement among astronauts, one of CIMON's most important purposes would be to serve as "an objective outsider that you can talk to if you're alone, or could actually help let the group collaborate again," he said.
The betazoid beach ball was included in SpaceX's 19th resupply mission to the space station which launched on December 5th.
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[Update (06:00 EDT / 10:00 UTC): Launch was a success. Dragon module separated cleanly and is on route to the ISS.]
CRS-15 Mission Overview (PDF)
SpaceX is targeting Friday, June 29 for an instantaneous launch of its fifteenth Commercial Resupply Services mission (CRS-15) at 5:42 a.m. EDT, or 9:42 UTC, from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Dragon will separate from Falcon 9's second stage about nine minutes and thirty seconds after liftoff and attach to the space station on Monday, July 2. An instantaneous backup launch opportunity is available on Sunday, July 1 at 4:54 a.m. EDT, or 8:54 UTC.
Both Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft for the CRS-15 mission are flight-proven. Falcon 9's first stage previously supported the TESS mission in April 2018, and Dragon previously supported the CRS-9 mission in July 2016. SpaceX will not attempt to recover Falcon 9's first stage after launch.
Follow along on the YouTube Live Stream.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @09:13AM (2 children)
hope it doesn’t get a taste for cookies.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:10PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 09 2019, @05:31PM
I was like why's this guy's name CIMON and not KVN and what are the chances this thing is less annoying?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Sunday December 08 2019, @12:29PM (3 children)
"I sense anger, Dave"
Gee, no kidding. He's yelling about opening the pod-bay door, and you sense anger! So good having you aboard, HAL-Troi!
Always hated her.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Sunday December 08 2019, @03:12PM (2 children)
We all did. When Encounter at Farpoint came out one insightful friend of mine noted ~ A bridge officer responsible for making sure the crew is thinking right...The Soviet Union had those!
I miss that guy, I should go look him up.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jbWolf on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:40PM (1 child)
I can't argue against Encounter at Farpoint and a few episodes like it where she was making sure the crew was "thinking right". However, in some episodes, they did do a much better job with her character. Although the episode isn't the greatest, Marina Sirtis did a fantastic job in The Loss [imdb.com] as Troi and she wasn't even making sure people were doing the right thing. Another good episode with a mind reader much more powerful than even her mother was Tin Man [imdb.com]. Troi, of course, was a part of that episode too.
www.jb-wolf.com [jb-wolf.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday December 10 2019, @12:54AM
The only episode I saw with Troi that was 'worthy' was where she learned, through command training, that sometimes you need to order someone (Geordi) to do something which would/could kill them.
Other than that, I found her useless. Riker too.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday December 08 2019, @12:34PM (1 child)
Hopefully they also though well about how to react to those emotions. You don't want the robot starting to test out what makes the astronauts angry.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by legont on Sunday December 08 2019, @02:53PM
It probably just sends data back home where it is used for a periodic performance evaluation and bonus decision.
Coming to a work place near you.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Sunday December 08 2019, @12:59PM
work in the ISS, they said...
you'll be mission critical they said...
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Sunday December 08 2019, @02:05PM (1 child)
This word alone, I do not think it means what you think it means...
I want to hear more about these space station arguments, like, what do you argue about?
Who does this dishes? Who owes who a hundred bucks? If you are all going to die or not?
Like really when was the last knock down drag out throw down argument on the space station and what was it over, anybody know?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:06PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:01PM (5 children)
It's not like astronauts on the space shuttle were completely chaste - there were some members of the 100-mile-high club. Problem was that some were married, so no talking about that ...
Good exercise, stress reliever, morale booster. We worry so much about their mental state while requiring them to live like incels. They can't even masturbate in peace except for a tiny window when their vitals aren't being monitored. "Don't come knockin' if this module's a-rockin
Or at least get them a dog. You know, you're pissed off or sad, take the dog out for a spacewalk. Maybe they can be trained to be tethered but still fetch tools that astronauts lose their grip on . A few we'll placed magnets on the doggie suit should do it. You could name him or her Astro.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @04:48PM (4 children)
That's Husdon - always thinking about penis.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @05:10PM (3 children)
Sigmund Fraud said that it has penis envy.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 08 2019, @06:31PM (2 children)
He's known as Sigmund Fraud because he never studied a normal person. Not even by looking in the mirror, which wouldn't have worked. Most of his theories are just him projecting his own problems.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 08 2019, @09:16PM (1 child)
Resident tranny passing judgement on "normal"?
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday December 08 2019, @11:03PM
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday December 08 2019, @07:13PM
Does it have big flappy ears and randomly interject with 「オマエモナー」?
(Score: 2) by Muad'Dave on Monday December 09 2019, @12:49PM
... out of that thing and it' be out the airlock as quick as poop thru a goose.