2pnet.net OT News:- French doctors have successfully remove a cyst on an “avid bungee-jumper” in near zero-gravity. The surgery was performed during a special flight in a modified Airbus A300 which ducked in and out of weightlessness.

The aircraft made some 30 parabolas during the flight, says the Associated Press, going on:

“The operation, announced Monday by chief surgeon Dominique Martin and the French space agency, is part of a project backed by the European Space Agency that aims to develop earth-guided surgical space robots. The patient, Philippe Sanchot, was chosen because he is an avid bungee-jumper, and accustomed to dramatic gravitational shifts, said Frederique Albertoni, a spokeswoman for the Bordeaux hospital where Martin works.”

Martin and his team became the first doctors to perform microsurgery under zero-gravity conditions earlier this year, mending the artery in a rat’s tail, adds the story.

“In addition to drop towers, sounding rockets, recoverable satellites and capsules, space shuttles, and space stations, parabolic flight has become a full-fledged means of accessing microgravity,” says Novespace, going on:

“Parabolic flight was first introduced for astronaut training; but today it is mainly used for testing of space technology and for short duration scientific experiments.

“Novespace, subsidiary of the French Space Agency (CNES), was involved in the startup of parabolic flight in Europe in 1988 with the Caravelle Zero-G. Novespace has since then organized more than 50 parabolic flight campaigns.”

For the techies and pilots among you, here, Novespace explains how the manoeuvre is handled.

“Starting from a steady normal horizontal flight, the aircraft takes a 1.8 g load factor, nosing up to 45° and climbing to 23 000 Ft over an interval of about twenty seconds. This is the entry pull-up phase.

“Then the engine thrust is considerably reduced, to the point where it just overcomes the aerodynamic drag, and the pilot kills the lift. This transitory phase of “injection” separating the 1.8 g pull-up from the zero g parabola lasts fewer than five seconds.

“The aircraft is then in microgravity phase for some twenty-five seconds. A symmetrical 1.8g pullout phase is then executed on the down side of the parabola to bring the aircraft back to its steady horizontal flight in about 20 seconds. There is an interval of two minutes between two parabolas.”

New Scientist has Martin saying, “We weren’t trying to perform technical feats but to carry out a feasibility test. Now we know that a human being can be operated on in space without too many difficulties.”

In the upper right CNES/Novespace pic, unidentified scientists look on as Sanchot undergoes the operation on his arm.

Also See:
Associated Press - French surgeons to operate on human in zero-gravity for first time, September 25, 2004
New Scientist - Doctors remove tumour in first zero-g surgery, September 27, 2006

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