Earthly Dr. have boldly go where no medics have pass before , as they used a remote - operated automaton to perform simulate surgical operation aboard the International Space Station ( ISS ) . If you ’re implicated about which astronaut had to act the guinea squealer , though , do n’t worry – the surgical procedure was fix to a bunch of rubber bands for now .
The all - important robot , which is only about the size of a microwave oven , was transported to the ISS on aSpaceXFalcon 9 roquette at the closing of January 2024 , and installed by NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara on February 8 , according toAFP . Called spaceMIRA , it was developed by Nebraska - basedVirtual Incisionas the “ world ’s first miniaturized robotic - aid surgery ” system .
Just a couple of days after , surgeons at Virtual Incision ’s headquarters – which sits about 400 km ( 250 miles ) below the ISS ’s position in orbit – postulate control of spaceMIRA and performed imitate surgery on the elastic mock tissue paper .
Six surgeons took turn , using one of the automaton ’s hands to apply tension to the tissue while using the other to dissect it with scissor grip . It ’s a technique that ’s used in heap of surgical operation , and it die without a hinderance .
The compact intent and dexterity that spaceMIRA can offer are key to its potential . “ It chip in small hands and eyes to the surgeon ( on Earth ) and allows them to do a stack of procedures minimally invasively , ” Virtual Incision ’s cofounder and CTO Shane Farritor toldCNN .
It does have some restriction , a major one being the prison term hold between the center of operations on Earth and the golem on the ISS – around 0.85 seconds . That might not sound like a raft , but as colorectal surgeon Dr Michael Jobst , who was demand in the demo , told CNN , “ Five sec would be an eternity in surgery , and a split second gear or a half a endorsement is going to be important . So , this was a big challenge . ”
Still , these successful tests stand for a big tone forward in the quest to improve access to medical care in space – a quest that has already get word aStar Trek - esqueholographic doctorported to the ISS .
foresightful - catch space travelis coming , and many aspiration ofcolonizingstrange new worlds or building the next generation ofspace stations . Given what we know about the many and variedunpleasant aesculapian situationsall this might herald – it was even the issue of thefirst feature picture show shot in place – it ’s a good job that space operating room is on the face of it progressing so well .
But the engineering science behind spaceMIRA could also have lots of useful applications much airless to home , as Farritor explained .
“ There are a lot of places in the US … that do n’t have access to specialists , and if you could do telesurgery like this , where you could have an expert dial in from a larger metropolis into a rural area and assist with some surgical care , I think that ’s got Brobdingnagian advantages . ”
John Murphy , president and CEO of Virtual Incision , echo this in astatement . “ As thrilling as it is to have our technology in space , we have a bun in the oven the wallop of this research will be most famous on Earth . The introduction of [ miniaturized robotic - serve surgery ] has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by make every operating room robot ready . ”
Whether it be in the remotest realm of our major planet or manner up in electron orbit , whenmedical issuesstrike , help can feel more distant than ever . Thanks to engineering like this , operating surgeon could have the probability to perform life - save procedures from C of Roman mile – and maybe one day , a whole world – away .
