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Say hello to Int-Ball, the newest and cutest member of the International Space Station 【Video】

Scott Wilson Jul 22, 2017
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This little Japanese camera drone is trying its hardest to do its job well!

The International Space Station is a thing of beauty — different countries coming together for the goal of science and space exploration. When we last checked in with it, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui was tweeting our unbelievable photos from the space station that took our breath away… just like the vacuum of space really would.

But now it seems that Kimiya Yui’s photographs may soon be one-upped by a new photographer aboard the International Space Station: the JEM (Japanese Experiment Module) Internal Ball Camera (“Int-Ball” for short), a camera drone that can record video.

▼ Here’s a video of Int-Ball in action, complete with its own
adorable “I’m gonna try real hard guys!” soundtrack.

Int-Ball was only just delivered to the Japanese Experiment Module on June 4, so it’s still pretty new to its job. Due to zero-gravity, Int-Ball can float around wherever it needs to, being controlled remotely by the ground at JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Tsukuba Space Center.

Its goal is to reduce to zero the amount of time on-board crew needs to spend on photographing/videoing things. Considering that currently takes up about 10 percent of their time, that’s a pretty important job for such a cute little round robot.

▼ Here’s a close up of Int-Ball,
and a photo of it happily hovering around.

世界に先駆けてISS内で実現した「きぼう」船内ドローン”Int-Ball”（JEM自律移動型船内カメラ）!　JAXAを中心とした開発チームの努力の結晶です。https://t.co/x1mvlOZK1v pic.twitter.com/CY7rPbJeAk

— 若田光一 WAKATA Koichi (@Astro_Wakata) July 14, 2017

Of course, since Int-Ball just happened to be designed in such an adorable way, it’s managed to capture the heart of the Internet, already resulting in fan art:

▼ Here’s Int-Ball getting into all sorts of space station situations.
I personally love the one where it’s all warm and wearing the sweater best.

This cute little guy, called Int-Ball, is now floating on the ISS. He's so adorable, I had to draw him!😄 #IntBall @Space_Station @JAXA_en pic.twitter.com/45eyV43G4x

— OJhat (@TheOJhat) July 19, 2017

▼ Int-Ball wobbling and saying: “I’ll try my best!”

https://twitter.com/ohisian319/status/888390871288209408

▼ Make your own Int-Ball papercraft!

果たして出来上がるのか？
#IntBall pic.twitter.com/rqgaatkaCg

— いとーT[最近はペーパークラフト作家] (@itoht2) July 20, 2017

▼ And Int-Ball hanging out with Haro from the Gundam series.
The words at the bottom say: “Looking forward to seeing what you can do!”

新しいISSのの「撮影クルー」に任命された「Int-Ball」くん！金井さんの頼もしい相棒になれるといいね！https://t.co/ciydi6Cos4 pic.twitter.com/YtqZD9UOvt

— とも★はやぶさ2玉手箱をありがとう！(*ˊᗜˋ)ﾉ行ってらっしゃい！ (@kittenblue0706) July 14, 2017

We’re looking forward to seeing more of Int-Ball too, especially once more of the Internet catches wind of it. We have a feeling that we’ll start seeing it Photoshopped into plenty of hilarious scenarios, just like when the Internet went crazy with astronaut Koichi Wakata’s photo of a zero-gravity space droplet.

Source: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency via Laughing Squid
Top image: YouTube/JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構