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

Propogation Delay?

[Anonymous Coward]

How do they plan on performing surgery to someone on mars? There is a rather large prorogation delay, even if data is sent at the speed of light, this is not fast enough to perform surgery. Things happen quickly, the surgeon needs feedback, etc. If the surgeon cuts a little too much, he won't know for 10 seconds, after cutting way too much? I'd rather have an untrained pilot (or the doctor they send to mars) perform surgery.

Re:Propogation Delay?

[Entropius]

Right, but the idea is that simply recording motions from the doctor and playing them back with a robot won't work.

The player piano only works because a piano is a predictable, static thing. It responds in exactly the same way to the same stimulus, every time. The body is not. Fast-acting feedback mechanisms are important for all sorts of things, from maintaining balance to doing surgery.

If we're using musical metaphors: if you take a choir and teach them a piece, then give them earplugs and ask them to perform it, they'll drift out of tune rather quickly; singers rely on constant aural feedback to stay in tune with each other.

Re:Player piano?

[datablaster]

ambitious plan--perhaps too ambitious. why not start with a robotic ointment-squeezer or band-aid applier...see how that works out first