IBM Corp.’s Watson is heading to space, specifically the International Space Station, in the form of an 11-pound, artificially intelligent smiling orb.

The orb, dubbed CIMON, short for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion, will be taken to the ISS in June by German astronaut and scientist Alexander Gerst. It has been designed as an experimental assistance system to support astronauts in performing routine work.

Complete with an “expressive digital face,” CIMON will initially assist Gerst in running a series of tests, including an experiment with crystals, solving a Rubik magic cube based on videos, and a complex medical experiment.

“CIMON’s digital face, voice and use of artificial intelligence make it a ‘colleague’ to the crew members,” IBM said in a blog post Monday. “This collegial ‘working relationship’ facilitates how astronauts work through their prescribed checklists of experiments, now entering into a genuine dialogue with their interactive assistant.”

Using Watson as its AI base, CIMON is being trained to identify its environment and its human interaction partners, along with text, speech and image processing capabilities and the ability to retrieve specific information and findings.

In a separate statement, Manfred Jaumann, head of microgravity payloads at Airbus SE, which designed the hardware, said that “CIMON will be the first AI-based mission and flight assistance system,” a sort of “free flyer, a kind of flying brain” that will interact with, aid and learn from astronauts.

The research project behind CIMON eventually will be expanded to study psychological group effects that can develop in small teams over a long period of time and occur during long-term space missions. That’s an important consideration for space exploration should multiple plans to send men to Mars come to fruition. “We predict that assistance systems of this kind also have a bright future right here on earth, such as in hospitals or to support nursing care,” IBM noted.

CIMON is scheduled to head to space with the ISS Expedition 56/57 crew June 6 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Image: Airbus