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Digital Planet: Privatising the ISS

Factual: Science & Nature

cropped_ISS-Nasa.jpg

13/02/2018 GMT

Privatising the ISS

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Privatising the ISS

Can the International Space Station be privatised?

Privatising the ISS; Millirobots in medicine; 	HoloLens and surgery; Bioni Samp: music in the key of ‘bee’

The Trump administration is reportedly devising plans to privatise the International Space Station. If this goes ahead what might it mean for the international collaboration on the exploration of space?  Click talks with Kate Arkless Gray.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have invented a magnetically controlled soft robot only four millimetres in size that can walk, crawl or roll through uneven terrain, carry cargo, climb onto the water surface, and even swim in it.  Click talks to Professor Metin Sitti, Director of the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute, about the future use of millirobots in medicine – in delivering drugs and targeting cancerous cells.

HoloLens is aiding surgeons in theatres as they carry out operations on legs.  Click talks to Philip Pratt about how augmented reality helps surgeons “see through” tissue to reconnect blood vessels.

Click hears from the musician Bioni Samp about his technology that enables him to mimic and amplify the sound of bees.  Bioni Samp translates bee behaviours and sounds into electronic music to help raise awareness of the ecological issues threatening them.


(Photo caption: This digital still (2008) camera's wide shot affords a panoramic view of STS-122's final leg of work on the International Space Station – Credit: Nasa)


Producer: Colin Grant

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