SpaceX Makes Special Delivery of Ice Cream, Coffee, A Robot and Identical Brown Mice to International Space Station

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the International Space Station early Monday, July 2 carrying nearly 3 tons of supplies for astronauts – an AI powered robot, super-caffeinated coffee, Texas blueberries and an extra special treat: ice cream bars.

SpaceX’s Dragon, which astronauts captured using a robotic arm at about 6:54 a.m. EDT is carrying a batch of Death Wish Coffee — billed as the "world's strongest coffee" — for astronauts to enjoy in orbit.

"We like to keep our astronauts super-caffeinated because they work harder," Kirk Shireman, NASA's space station program manager, joked just after SpaceX launched the Dragon mission Friday, June 2).

The nearly 3000 kg delivery includes the round robot Cimon, pronounced Simon. Slightly bigger than a basketball, the AI robot from the German Space Agency is meant to assist German astronaut Alexander Gerst with science experiments. Cimon’s brain will constantly be updated by IBM so its intelligence — and role — keep growing.

The astronauts also received Texas blueberries which are part of a traditional load of fresh fruit and vegetables supplies hauled to the space station for NASA on the Dragon spacecraft. But the ice cream, Shireman said, is extra special. "Don't tell the crew, but there are some frozen treats that will be up there as well, a few ice cream bars," he said. "Very few, unfortunately, because most of our frozen space is for science."

In fact, 1,757 kg of the cargo aboard Dragon — more than half of its supplies — are dedicated to science. That gear includes new plants to grow, like lettuce and wasabi mustard, as well as an experiment to test how algae could serve as a potential food source and life support boost on long space missions.

Dragon's arrival marked SpaceX's 15th delivery mission to the space station for NASA under a multibillion-dollar resupply contract. Dragon will stay linked to the space station for about a month before returning to Earth filled with science experiment results and other gear. NASA officials said its arrival today marked the 30th time astronauts have captured a visiting spacecraft with the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, which was built by the Canadian Space Agency.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 03, 2018 11:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).