Medtronic’s Tiny Micra Pacemaker Going on a Space Flight
 

Medtronic’s Tiny Micra Pacemaker Going on a Space Flight
https://www.medgadget.com/wp-content...ce-300x230.jpghttps://www.medgadget.com/wp-content...cra-device.jpg These days astronauts are some of the healthiest and physically robust individuals that NASA can get a hold of. But one day we may see all kinds of people going to space, even those with heart conditions. Shelbi Klings****, a Nebraska high school student had the idea to test whether an existing pacemaker is able to handle the vibrations, radiation, and weightlessness of space to get a sense of*whether pacemakers have a future in the final frontier.

https://www.medgadget.com/wp-content...mall-small.jpgMedtronic‘s Micra pacemaker is so small that it*fits inside the heart and is delivered in a minimally invasive fashion. Conveniently, it is also small e**ugh to fit inside a 4 cm square box that’s a standard size of the Cubes in Space project. Cubes in Space relies on NASA sounding rockets to deliver a bunch of small high school experiments into space for a few minutes, but*without putting them into orbit. The rocket flies in a parabolic trajectory and the flight lasts only about ten minutes. Nevertheless, this is long e**ugh, and the flight is traumatic e**ugh, to get a pretty good idea of the pacemaker’s performance.

The flight is scheduled for Thursday, June 22 and can be seen live at this link. We wish the Micra a safe flight and hoping to hear that it will have worked just fine throughout the journey, as it will keep open the possibility of visits to space for a lot of people.

Via: Medtronic…

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Medgadget?d=yIl2AUoC8zA http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Medgadget?d=qj6IDK7rITs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Medg...84:gIN9vFwOqvQ
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Medgadget/~4/2K7_3f7KSuA