'Change the world': Earth-based surgeons successfully perform experiment with robot in space
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Scientists are taking surgeries to space.
Aboard the I.S.S, a tiny robot successfully performed a surgery experiment controlled by doctors – here on earth.
The invention could not only help astronauts on long-duration missions but also modernize medicine on Earth.
Last month, at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the surgery robot about the size of someone’s forearm, weighing only two pounds, lifted off. Researchers are hoping to take medicine to new heights and new places with their technology.
"The surgeon controlled it from right here in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the robot performed tasks up on the International Space Station," said Shane Farritor who helped build and design the surgery robot.
On Saturday, six scientists on Earth successfully controlled the robot 250 miles away in space during a tissue experiment.
"We’re going to make little robots that go inside the body rather than big robots that reach in from the outside," Farritor said, noting how his technology is different from current larger robot surgery tools on the market.
His start-up company, Virtual Incision, is the company behind the robot NASA and the military are interested in and sponsoring to help perfect the technology.
Here’s how it works. The surgeons use a console and tell the robot arms where to go and what to do. Doctors can see the robot's perspective on a large screen in front of them.
The goal is to take life-saving treatments to hard-to-reach places.
"That’s one of the things we’re most excited about is applications here on earth," said Farritor.
Space Coast surgeons are also excited.
"Honestly, it’s a game changer," said Health First general surgeon Mo Hammoud.
In the United States, one-third of counties do not currently have access to a local surgeon, and that shortage could rise to more than 30,000 within the next ten years.
"If they can go to a centralized location and there’s no surgeon there, the robot is there and they can do the surgery. That would be amazing, and it’s going to basically change the world, to be honest with you," Hammoud concluded.
This surgery robot will come back down to earth in the coming months. Researchers will analyze the data it collected and are gearing up for more experiments in the future with their tiny surgeons.