First Zero-Gravity Surgery a Success 85
MattSparkes writes "Slashdot reported earlier this week that the first ever zero gravity surgery was to take place. Today the team of doctors successfully carried out the operation, removing a benign tumour from the forearm of a 46-year-old volunteer.
"Now we know that a human being can be operated on in space without too many difficulties," team leader Dominique Martin said after the flight.
The studies show that minor surgery is possible even during long-term inhabitation of space."
Lucky guy (Score:3, Funny)
Mind you, having his hand in a bucket of ice for the flight back would make them quite immobile.
Luckily surgeons here on Earth managed to reattach them.
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ick (Score:1)
Anyone doing Zero Gravity Copulation research? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anyone doing Zero Gravity Copulation research? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:Anyone doing Zero Gravity Copulation research? (Score:4, Insightful)
Astronauts are going to be very highly trained and motivated. No woman who has gotten herself that far would bang someone on a mission, and no guy that intelligent and ambitious would risk his entire life and career on a stupid stunt like that.
My opinion of course
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However, while the media jumped on it, I'm pretty sure it was a non issue. They've got tight enough schedules as it is on those missions without dealing with one extra biological experiment.
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But what if a pair of crew members are married, like Mark C. Lee and Jan Davis of STS-47? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-47 [wikipedia.org]
I have vague memories that they were on different shifts.
You should read Anousheh Ansari talking about how astronauts get along [xprize.org] --- she was deeply impressed at how professional they are. I'd expect that a decent astronaut wouldn't do anything like that, simply because there's too much of a risk of making life harder for his or her co-workers.
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Re:Anyone doing Zero Gravity Copulation research? (Score:4, Funny)
I followed your link and I found it quite informative and not very vague on the matter. "the first married couple to fly on the same space mission" ... "biotechnology" ... "fluid dynamics" ... "acceleration measurements" ... "Life sciences included experiments on human health ... human physiology and behavior ... biological rhythms. Test subjects included the crew..." One would think that sex in space would involve at least a few of those.
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Payload Commander Mark C. Lee
Those NASA guys have a twisted sense of humor.
Re:Anyone doing Zero Gravity Copulation research? (Score:4, Insightful)
I did hear that they supposedly shot a porn in a flight just like the surgeons. Never saw it, and wouldn't want to. They call those things "Vomit Comets" for a reason. I half expected to hear the doctors puked on their patient. They must have trained in Zero-G ahead of time.
There's also a document floating around that discusses an alleged series of experiments in the cargo bay of the shuttle. Sex in Zero-G sounds awesome, but the lack gravity would make it tricky to get any leverage. The doc claims they tried several things, including ropes and a tube large enough to hold both "subjects." The document's probably a fake, but it does raise enough salient points to be an interesting read. Happy hunting.
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Now that I've fixed your misplaced bold tags, what's the downside? (Giggity giggity goo!)
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All you wanted to know and more...
Re:Anyone doing Zero Gravity Copulation research? (Score:5, Funny)
As to which astronaut actually had to copulate with the mice, I don't know.
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But i found something else: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_in_space [wikipedia.org]
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----
the 1st 10% of a project takes 90% of the time. the last 90% of the project take up the other 90% of the time...
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Probably requires bungee cords.... (Score:2)
Long term? (Score:5, Interesting)
They were at zero-g for 20 seconds at a time. How does that prove the same techniques will work after the body has been in zero-g for long periods of time? TFA makes no mention of this.
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The issue is one of surgical techinique, that is to say whether or not the surgeons can manipulate the tools and patient in a manner to do the procedure.
But yes, the whole thing is really a bit silly, the statements made rather sillier and they could have gotten largely the same "results" by sending up a manicurist.
KFG
Re:Long term? (Score:4, Insightful)
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I love this kind of marketing-speak. People are told, "X is possible" and they assume it means "X is routine." What it actually means is, "Under the most carefully controlled conditions we tried X and didn't fail completely."
Just think of all the times marketing has pushed for early release of an insufficiently tested app and you'll get the picture.
This is an interesting and important step forwa
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If the surgery had failed, it wouldn't have proven that it couldn't be done, but since the surgery worked, it proved that in at least some circumstances, it can be done (it can be done because it HAS been done).
In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Lots of blood (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Lots of blood (Score:5, Informative)
I don't expect space operating theatres to look anything like Star Trek VI, with blood drops drifting about aimlessly.
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At least, thanks to gravity, the blood pools and make it possible to just put a suction tube in the pool. In zero G, the problem is different, therefore, tools will probably differ too. Blood won't pool, but will probably "bubble". It could be an advantage if you need to work deeper in the wound where the blood would usually g
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Next medical challenge (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Next medical challenge (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Next medical challenge (Score:5, Funny)
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Mars, here we come (Score:3, Insightful)
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What did it prove? That it is possible to cut human tissue during weightlessness, that it is possible to suck away blood without gravity, that it is possible to sew it back together while there is no weight attached. Personally, I did not doubt that this would be possible, but then, IANAM.
What it didn't prove is whether there are any effects on the healing process, which would be, at least in my opinion, at the very least as, if not more, interesting. How does the hum
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Of course, it remains to be seen if NASA or any of the other space agencies will want to pay for serious medical research in LEO.
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On one of the missions, a small defect in an astronaut's glove eventually chaffed a hole in his skin and in the glove - his blood was leaking out into space. It was a minor injury, and the gloves are so uncomfortable anyway, so the astronaut didn't even notice until he came back inside. It turns out that the blood boils when it leaves the skin, but the platelet action is not effected so a clot forms anyway. Good thing too, sinc
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In short, we won't know 'til we actually have someone operated in space and his recovery monitored there, too. The big question is just, who's gonna be the poor guinea pig? Having an OP is usually something you want to be done in the most favorable conditions. After all
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-nB
I dont get it... (Score:3, Insightful)
If there are complications its as likely that they are from the gravity fluctuations as from the near-zero gravity. There could still be complications with near zero g surgery, but they were mitigated by only being in zero g for 30 second intervals.
If they are looking at the procedures of surgery in near zero gravity, what have they learned? According to the original article this is preparation for tele-robotic surgery, not preperation for surgeons in space. So what lessons from this would apply to a robot?
I understand baby steps into these things, but this just does not seem all that useful.
Wouldnt it be more useful to send a rat up to the space station and walk astronauts through a procedure? Sure it would be a more expensive (the fuel to get a 1 pound rat into space vs the jet fuel and crew for 6 hours) but I would think the results would be much more telling.
At least thats my professional non-astronaut non-surgeon non-scientist non-accountant opinion.
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At this point, it's not like the ISS is equipped to deal with science. As everyone who watches the program knows, the crew up there is there to babysit and look good for the manned spaceflight program.
Be on the lookout for more like this.
robot controlled surgery? (Score:2, Interesting)
the only thing i can think of that they meant otherwise was that the "zero gravity" twenty second portion would be robot controlled. can anyone clear this up for me?
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http://depts.washington.edu/drrpt/2003/stories/cl
They are used primarily in small area's like brain surgery, and where collateral nerve damage is critical and can be kept to a minimum.
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I still feel that they should have robots doing the same kind of surgery here as they would e in space, and it is not likely that brain surgery will be happening in space....yet.
Robot doctors (Score:2, Funny)
-- Just f****** great, now they are going to outsource surgeons jobs to non English speaking countries.
-- Please hold while i look up you appendix.
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Next step a challenge (Score:2, Insightful)
However, the graphicness of animal testing is usually swept under the carpet, and is not inherently compatible with the publicness of recent space missions. The anti-animal-testing lobby will have an easy time of fighting such a test, especially if the scientists want to keep the animal alive for inspection (which begs the question how do you
Info: this was a pretty light surgery... (Score:2, Insightful)
I know a surgeon who has a buch of lipomas (like moles, some people just tend to get those benign tumors), and who routinely removes them on himself (only needs assistance if the lipoma is on his arm and he needs a second hand).
That is to say, I am not that impressed, this is
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Anti-septic? (Score:4, Interesting)
-matthew
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Just imagine every cough, sneeze, loose liquid, food, etc just floating around and sticking to things. Even if you filter the air, you've still got stuff stuck the the walls. Mold is a pretty big problem in space, from what I understand.
-matthew
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