Space Doctor?

SRI international, a research and development company has recently begun testing their teleoperated surgery robot in zero G. The setup has already been tested underwater and works just fine, but now SRI is making the push to space. The company has developed software that compensates for changes in gravity as well as under moments of turbulence. The final step is to have to similar surgical procedures in simulated weightlessness, aboard the NASA C-9 aircraft; one of these to be performed on board and one to be performed tele-(whatever).

If it weren't for the lag time in signals while being very far away from the earth this would seem like the perfect solution for a manned trip to mars. We could just send them up with one of these and if there are any surgical procedure that need to be done they could be performed by experts on earth. However, this lag makes that possibility null and void. Still, it doesn't mean that this technology won't be useful on mars. If there is ever a steady population on and orbiting mars, it's going to be hard to ensure peoples safety.

Scenario: There are only enough supplies to keep 2 crew members on the surface of mars at any given time. The rest are orbiting the planet in a station or something. One of the two on the surface gets appendicitis, and needs and operation. There are two ways to plan for this eventuality: 1. You always make the doctor the second person. 2. You have a remote surgical device. I know which I would choose.

Check out the article at: "First Zero-Gravity Surgical Robot Demonstration"