Six surgeons on earth made history by successfully controlling a surgical machine located on the International Space Station (ISS) two days ago. The Miniaturized In Vivo Robotic Assistant (SpaceMIRA) robot was brought to the ISS earlier this year. Previously MIRA had successfully performed remote surgery on earth.
Six surgeons in Lincoln, Nebraska control SpaceMIRA, which orbits the earth at an altitude of 402 kilometers. To see the precision, the surgeon had to make 20 cuts on 10 rubber bands that were substitutes for human tissue. They found that there is a time gap between 0.5-0.75 seconds which is large. Therefore, to avoid mistakes, surgeons make small movements first before slowly making larger movements to avoid any mistakes when making cuts.
Tests are being conducted to see if a system that can be used to perform surgery in space using robots is possible. When in orbit or on a mission to Mars, there may not be a surgeon who can perform emergency surgery on an injured crew. Robotic systems like SpaceMIRA allow experts on earth to perform remote surgeries in space.
The SpaceMIRA system was developed by the firm Virtual Incision with the help of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). Robotic surgery technology is now a reality and no longer a fiction, in fact it was performed at the Kuala Lumpur Hospital in 2022.