French perform "Zero-gravity" operation in Airbus

glatt · 09-28-2006, 07:52 AM

In an experiment to stimulate a surgery in space, French surgeons performed the first "zero gravity" operation on a human. I put "zero gravity" in quotes, because they simulated microgravity in an Airbus doing parabolic climbs and dives. I find this amazing. You have probably heard of this before, where a plane climbs to a high altitude and then dives. During the dive, you are falling, and the plane is falling with you, so you feel like you are weightless. At the bottom of the dive, the plane has to pull out, and you gain all your weight back plus a bunch extra. Everything that was floating comes crashing down around you, and you fall on your ass.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to perform a surgery in conditions like that. You feel like throwing up, you have only 22 seconds of weightlessness at a time to do one step of the surgery, and then you quickly have to brace yourself for the enevitable pull out of the dive.

The patient is a bungee jumper who had a fatty cyst in his forearm. He volunteered to be a lab rat. It took a few hours to perform the surgery, which would probably be a simple 20 minute deal on the ground.

If they can pull this off on a roller coaster, I'm sure it can be done on the ISS.

Spexxvet · 09-28-2006, 07:54 AM

Being the French, I'm surprised they didn't experiment with a weightless blow-job first.

footfootfoot · 09-29-2006, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Being the French, I'm surprised they didn't experiment with a weightless blow-job first.

SteveDallas · 09-29-2006, 08:14 AM

They probably did and it was censored from the American press.

09-28-2006, 07:52 AM	#1
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	French perform "Zero-gravity" operation in Airbus In an experiment to stimulate a surgery in space, French surgeons performed the first "zero gravity" operation on a human. I put "zero gravity" in quotes, because they simulated microgravity in an Airbus doing parabolic climbs and dives. I find this amazing. You have probably heard of this before, where a plane climbs to a high altitude and then dives. During the dive, you are falling, and the plane is falling with you, so you feel like you are weightless. At the bottom of the dive, the plane has to pull out, and you gain all your weight back plus a bunch extra. Everything that was floating comes crashing down around you, and you fall on your ass. I can't imagine how hard it must be to perform a surgery in conditions like that. You feel like throwing up, you have only 22 seconds of weightlessness at a time to do one step of the surgery, and then you quickly have to brace yourself for the enevitable pull out of the dive. The patient is a bungee jumper who had a fatty cyst in his forearm. He volunteered to be a lab rat. It took a few hours to perform the surgery, which would probably be a simple 20 minute deal on the ground. If they can pull this off on a roller coaster, I'm sure it can be done on the ISS.

09-28-2006, 07:54 AM	#2
Spexxvet Makes some feel uncomfortable Join Date: Dec 2005 Posts: 10,346	Being the French, I'm surprised they didn't experiment with a weightless blow-job first. __________________ "I'm certainly free, nay compelled, to spread the gospel of Spex. " - xoxoxoBruce

09-29-2006, 08:14 AM	#4
SteveDallas Your Bartender Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Philly Burbs, PA Posts: 7,651	They probably did and it was censored from the American press.

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