NASA Performs Zero-G Robot Surgery for Mars, Iraq

An anonymous reader writes "With rapid-response surgery needed in Iraq and super-long-distance medicine a far-off necessity for a manned trip to Mars, NASA recently sent eight astronauts, roboticists and surgeons on its 'Vomit Comet,' pitting real doctors against new robotic ones. As if the prospect of a portable robo-OR deploying to Iraq by 2009 weren't enticing enough, one of the surgeons on board promised this in his flight blog: 'So far, surgery by hand is still the most efficient way to get the job done in a mobile, extreme environment. But robots are advancing rapidly... The solution that roboticists are working on now is to CAT scan a patient's entire body and beam the results back to Earth. Then a surgeon could program an operation and beam it back to upload into a robo-surgeon, which could carry out procedures like a player piano.'"

Comments

Beware ...

[foobsr]

which could carry out procedures like a player piano.'

... if the patient is not well tuned.

CC.

It will work like this:

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

sternum cut... done. Pericardium incision ... done. Heart stop ... done. ....buffering.....

Re:It will work like this:

[Hanners1979]

If you don't have private health insurance, you'll end up with RealSurgeon, that fills you with tracking devices, then starts buffering data endlessly and kills you in the process.

Well Duh

[Wellington Grey]

the robot seemed to hold its own--until its compensation software was turned off. "The difference was huge," Kamler says. "It was virtually impossible [for it] to tie a knot."

Well, you try turning off some vital part of the human surgon and see how well he does.

The human surgon did very well until we removed his eyes. "The difference was huge," said the robotic overload. "Not only could he barely tie a knot, but he also couldn't stop screaming."

-Grey

brilliant

[circletimessquare]

1. use robot surgeon to excise iraq from earth
2. float iraq to mars in zero G
3. use robot surgeon to graft iraq onto mars
4. iraq problem solved!

that's what the article was about, right?

what is this RTFM acronym i keep seeing mean?

Re:brilliant

[Grandiloquence]

I'm guessing this is what it will take to finally get the neocons to support manned space exploration. After all, we'll need to fight the terrorists "over there" instead of "over here"!

New Amazon Service

[nacturation]

I'll wait until Amazon rolls out the sequel to its Mechanical Turk concept, the Mechanical Doc. You pay thousands of people $1 each to perform incisions, clamp stuff, remove this, stitch up that, and voila! Open source surgery! After all, one pair of eyes may not be able to spot a problem but thousands of eyes should be able to correct any ailment.

Paging Dr. Joplin...

[Rob T Firefly]

I, for one, can't wait to have my life-saving surgery done with a ragtime score.

Re:I'm sure

[Arthur B.]

A quick internet search will show there's no ground for your blame of capitalism. In the future we'll have robotic sex-slave with downloadable procedures. The day the bj.bite virus hits is going to be a very sad day.

Re:I'm sure

[Big Hairy Ian]

It does give BSOD more emphasis