NASA R2 Robot May Help in Space Medical Emergencies

[John Keefer]

NASA R2 Robot May Help in Space Medical Emergencies


OK, not that R2 unit, but a robot that can be used with the help of medical personnel on Earth to be a surrogate physician in space.

NASA is putting its $2.5 million robot through additional training for the International Space Station, and one of those duties would be as an emergency medical physician.

Robonaut 2 (or R2) is no where near the level of The Doctor, the emergency medical hologram of Star Trek Voyager, but it is making strides that would allow medical personnel on Earth to utilize its capabilities to help sick or injured astronauts.

NASA has created a video showing the robotic physician in action, such as doing an ultrasound, and administering an injection with a syringe. The tests used an R2 unit based on Earth, but the Robonaut already has a twin aboard the ISS [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/robonaut.html#.UwOBmIXX_pI].

Check out the video to see how far robotics has come.


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[Erttheking]

Can we please cut the US military budget in half and give the rest to NASA? I think we've mastered the art of killing people, I'd rather see more innovations in helping people and expanding our horizons, these guys seem to be on that track.

 

[tangoprime]

Please, please, please make the initialization sound when turning this thing on "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

 

[Strazdas]

Can we please cut the US military budget in half and give the rest to NASA? I think we've mastered the art of killing people, I'd rather see more innovations in helping people and expanding our horizons, these guys seem to be on that track.

If we were to DOUBLE the NASA budget from the military budget, it would not likely consist a drop of 1% military budget. I agree that we should do more than that, but apperently according to surveys majority of americans think that NASA takes majority of their taxes already. There is no cure from stupidity.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Can we please cut the US military budget in half and give the rest to NASA? I think we've mastered the art of killing people, I'd rather see more innovations in helping people and expanding our horizons, these guys seem to be on that track.

As much as I personally would love to see my country explore greater innovations than perfecting our missile-guided drones, a sadly dominant portion of the voting majority that makes up the democracy is pretty Conservative. I don't mean to generalize, but I mean along the realms of "Extreme Conservatism, Pro-Army, Pro-Traditional Marriage" jazz and all that stuffs.

I don't want to make any more broad sweeps than that, since generalizing like that only seems to attract the ire of the Internet, but all I can really say is that there simply isn't enough widespread support in the country to warrant doing something like, you know, financing NASA... or frankly pooling more resources into things that don't involve guns.