LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- What happens when astronauts are hurtling toward Mars on a years-long space voyage and one is injured, requiring emergency surgery in a environment lacking gravity?
It may sound like science fiction, but it's one of the challenges NASA faces in its goal of putting astronauts on Mars by 2035. And it has spurred a University of Louisville researcher to test a potentially lifesaving surgical device aimed at helping make zero-gravity surgery possible.
George Pantalos, a professor of surgery and bioengineering, and colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University are conducting four days of tests this week in Houston aboard a NASA zero-gravity jet known as the "vomit comet," which flies in gut-churning parabolic arcs to generate 20 to 30 seconds of weightlessness.
They're testing prototypes of an "aqueous immersion surgical system" -- an airtight and watertight dome with surgical ports that would be filled with saline and surround a wound in a zero-gravity environment. The idea is to stop bleeding and contain fluids that would otherwise float through the spacecraft, potentially endangering the patient and crew.
To test the concept, the researchers used plastic containers inside a prenatal care box. The researchers, held in place by foot straps, successfully controlled artificial blood coursing through a simulated vein Tuesday. On Wednesday, they conducted a simulated surgical procedure on a pig's heart.
"We're grateful that it turned out so well," Pantalos said by phone Tuesday night from Ellington Field at the Johnson Space Center Reduced Gravity Program, adding that he hopes the device eventually could be used in other challenging environments, such as war zones.
Pantalos, 60, is working on the device with Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon bioengineering researchers James Antaki, Jennifer Hayden and James Burgess.
Although the United States has retired its space shuttle program, President Obama in 2010 announced that his goal is to have a manned flight reach an asteroid by 2025 and Mars by the mid-2030s, a round-trip mission likely to take several years.
Interest in Mars has grown recently with NASA's successful landing of the Curiosity rover, which landed on the red planet in August after an eight-month journey.
Pantalos is one of many researchers working on the challenges of extended space travel. Those include health care concerns, such as the rapid loss of bone density, wounds that heal slowly in space and the possibility of having to do medical procedures using remote-controlled robots.
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Researchers test zero-gravity surgery device
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