Abstract
The target of human flight in space has changed from permanence on the International Space Station to missions beyond low earth orbit and the Lunar Gateway for deep space exploration and Missions to Mars. Several conditions affecting space missions had to be considered: for example the effect of weightlessness and radiations on the human body, behavioral health decrements or communication latency, and consumable resupply. Telemedicine and telerobotic applications, robot-assisted surgery with some hints on experimental surgical procedures carried out in previous missions, had to be considered as well. The need for greater crew autonomy in health issues is related to the increasing severity of medical and surgical interventions that could occur in these missions, and the presence of a highly trained surgeon on board would be recommended. A surgical robot could be a valuable aid but only inasfar as it is provided with multiple functions, including the capability to perform certain procedures autonomously. Space missions in deep space or on other planets present new challenges for crew health. Providing a multi-function surgical robot is the new frontier. Research in this field shall be paving the way for the development of new structured plans for human health in space, as well as providing new suggestions for clinical applications on Earth.
Highlights
For more than 50 years space exploration has been growing, allowing new achievements in basic science and technology that proved useful for Earth issues, in sectors like[1] health care, space jobs creation, technological improvements to every day products, weather forecasts and communications, satellite data on climate change, and natural disaster prediction
Telepresence technology allows human exploration at multiple sites included those considered too dangerous for astronauts
Regarding the containment of body fluids on the one hand and the prevention of contamination of the surgical field by environmental debris and bacteria on the other, laparoscopy and robot assisted minimal invasive surgery (RAMIS) are considered effective because they are able to separate the surgical field from the environment maintaining the integrity of the abdominal wall[4,19]
Summary
For more than 50 years space exploration has been growing, allowing new achievements in basic science and technology that proved useful for Earth issues, in sectors like[1] health care, space jobs creation, technological improvements to every day products, weather forecasts and communications, satellite data on climate change, and natural disaster prediction. On Earth, this technology shall support human exploration in hostile environments, lowering costs and risks Astronaut health, both during long-term space flights and/or settlements on another planet, is one of the topics under study. The robotic surgical systems currently present in our Operative Room (OR) on Earth are too bulky and heavy for space flights and need room and assistance by qualified personnel to allow the operator to perform surgery. These robots are master–slave teleoperated devices, but space research has been developing pre-programmed, more autonomous multi functional surgical robots, capable of performing procedures autonomously[5,6].
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