A team of four astronauts are to "splashdown" to an undersea laboratory in the US, to help conduct the first wireless robot-assisted surgery. Meanwhile in Canada - 2000 kilometres away from the operating table - a surgeon prepares to perform the procedures.
This will be the first time that surgical procedures, performed from a vast distance away, will utilise airwaves rather than undersea cables to transmit the information. This proceducre is named NEEMO 7.
Although the procedures, which include a gall bladder removal, will actually be carried out on a surgical training dummy, the NASA experiment is being seen as a crucial proof-of-principle. If the surgery is successful, it is hoped that astronauts will eventually be allowed to receive emergency surgical care while aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Under the sea Surgeon at St Joseph's Hospital in Ontario, will be using the robotic surgical system to control the robot
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