A ``remotely operated surgical robot'' will be sent to the International Space Station
In recent years, plans to send manned spacecraft to the moon and Mars are progressing, but one of the challenges in space development far from the earth is the lack of doctors who can operate on the injured and sick. Therefore, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to send a small remote surgical robot ' Miniaturized In-vivo Robotic Assistant (MIRA) ' developed by researchers at the
Virtual Incision's Miniaturized Robotic-Assisted Surgery Device Will Launch into Space in 2024 – Virtual Incision Corporation
https://virtualincision.com/nasa-grant/
A Remote Surgical Robot is Going to the International Space Station - Universe Today
https://www.universetoday.com/157027/a-remote-surgical-robot-is-going-to-the-international-space-station/
MIRA, a small telesurgery robot, was developed by the research team of Shane Farritor, an engineering professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a medical startup, Virtual Incision . Virtual Incision is a startup founded in 2006 by Dmitry Oleynikov, a former professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and has attracted more than $ 100 million (about 13.6 billion yen) from venture capital.
You can see what kind of surgical robot MIRA is by watching the following video.
MIRA™ Surgical Robotic Platform-YouTube
MIRA is a small robot weighing about 2 pounds (about 900 g), with a surgical arm and light at the end of an elongated stick.
At the end of the bifurcated arm is a device similar to small tweezers and scissors for incision ... ...
It can be operated remotely by a doctor.
Performs delicate work with extremely smooth movements.
One of the advantages of MIRA compared to conventional surgical robots is that ``insert instruments can be inserted through local incisions to perform less invasive surgery on the abdomen and intestines.'' Another advantage is that 'surgeons can remotely operate robots to provide remote surgical services to locations isolated from medical infrastructure.'
These advantages are useful in providing medical services to underserved areas on Earth, but they are also useful in spacecraft and on the moon, where medical services are similarly underserved. Therefore, NASA plans to provide a subsidy of $ 100,000 (about 13.6 million yen) through the US Department of Energy's program to `` test MIRA by sending it to the International Space Station in 2024 ''.
'The MIRA platform was designed to make robotic surgery accessible to every operating room on the planet by providing a miniaturized robotic surgical device,' said John Murphy, CEO of Virtual Incision. 'We will work with NASA to send it to the space station and see how far MIRA can operate.'
In August 2021, telesurgery using MIRA was performed at Bryan Medical Center in Lincoln as part of a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clinical trial. Michael Jobst, M.D., who used MIRA to remove the right half of the colon, said MIRA is a breakthrough platform for surgery. I am very happy to be the first doctor in the world to use the system.'
In another clinical trial, former astronaut Clayton Anderson remotely controlled MIRA from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to perform surgical-like tasks in a room at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, 1,450 kilometers away. It is said that it was successful.
Farritor is working with graduate student Rachael Wagner to prepare MIRA for the International Space Station in 2024. This includes software creation, changes to fit MIRA in the experiment locker of the International Space Station, and checks for robustness that can withstand rocket launches.
In the experiments conducted on the International Space Station, MIRA autonomously performs various tasks without being operated from the ground. Scheduled tasks include `` cutting a tight rubber band '' that simulates cutting the skin, and `` pushing a metal ring along the wire '' assuming delicate movements. The main purpose of this experiment is not to demonstrate the autonomous operation function of MIRA, but to check whether the robot can operate properly in zero gravity.
Farritor said, ``NASA has ambitious plans for long-term space travel, and it is important to test technologies that may be useful on missions that take months to years.MIRA is a robot-assisted surgery. We're pushing the boundaries of what's possible in 2020. We hope we can go a step further and help determine what's possible in the future as space travel becomes more of a reality for humanity. I'm looking forward to it,' he said.
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