Doctors in the United States were able, for the first time in history, to perform surgery remotely from Earth in space. This was made possible by the miniature robot SpaceMIRA, developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
SpaceMIRA was sent to the International Space Station on January 30. On January 10, it became the first surgical robot on the space station and was used by 6 surgeons to perform the first test of remote surgery in space.
How testing was performed using spaceMIRA
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MIRA stands for “Miniaturized In Vivo Robotic Assistant”, and is the world's only miniaturized robot-assisted surgical device.
Led by UNL's Shane Faritor, the Lederer Professor of Engineering and co-founder of Virtual Incision, the Nebraska research team used MIRA's unique design to create SpaceMIRA. This redundancy enables pre-programmed and long-distance telesurgical operating modes.
On board a SpaceX rocket, the robot, which is about 30 cm long and weighs 2 kg, was sent to the space station orbiting 400 km above the Earth. The test was performed with the participation of 6 surgeons.
To simulate the procedure, 10 elastic bands were attached to metal plates around the robot. Surgeons need to position the equipment correctly to use their “hands” to grasp, stretch, and make cuts in each strip.
“This is simply incredible,” Dmitry Olenikov, chief surgeon at Virtual Incision, said during testing with SpaceMIRA, Nebraska Today reported. Oleynikov is also a co-founder of Virtual Incision and worked with Farritor on developing the robot.
Liver surgeon Yuman Fong of City of Hope Cancer Center in Los Angeles also witnessed the procedure. While watching a Houston surgeon guide the robot using hand and foot controls, he said:
“Tell the astronauts they have six extra surgeons today.”
spaceMIRA represents advances in surgery in space and on Earth
According to Variator, “SpaceMIRA’s success on a space station orbiting 400 kilometers above Earth indicates how useful it will be for healthcare facilities on Earth.” Many surgeons who attended the test shared the same opinion.
Dr. Ted Voloyannis, of the University of Texas Oncology at Houston, who has performed more than 1,000 robotic-assisted surgeries over the past 15 years, said it was a “big leap in the field of surgery,” especially given its small size.
“This robot is less expensive. Training is easier and will be available to small communities that do not have specialized surgeons,” Voloyannis explained.
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