>> [Music] For generations, we dreamed about a place
to live and work in space.
A place where life up there would benefit life down here.
Today, that dream has come true.
Research on the International Space Station improves lives all
over the world.
The Station's benefits for humanity grow everyday.
And they can be told by the lives that have been changed.
[ Music ]
>> Is that 2?
Can you say 2?
I found a big lump in the side of my face and I kept going
to doctor after doctor.
[ Music ]
And I was in so much pain at that time,
I was like dying in bed.
It hurt so bad.
I've never been in so much pain.
[ Music ]
I went for my first MRI and then it showed up with
like hundreds of tumors all over.
And then they sent to me not Dr. Sutherland [assumed spelling]
but someone who works in his office.
And he thought it was neurofibromatosis which I had.
>> We didn't even realize what that was.
We'd always heard it called the Elephant Man disease.
There's different types of neurofibromatosis.
One of them the tumors grow on the outside of your skin.
The other one the tumors grow on the inside
and hers grow on the inside.
>> A long time ago when we was thinking about this,
we approached McDonald Detlonger and Associates [phonetic].
That's a company that happens to be located in Canada
that built robots for space.
They built what Canadians called Canadiron.
And then they constructed the special purpose dextris
manipulator [phonetic] for the International Space Station.
And the idea was if they could build such complex robots,
perhaps in collaboration with medicine, we could build a robot
that could operate inside an MRI machine.
>> We did not realize that it was built of the same material
as the space arm and we're quite amazed that's what he had made
it out of.
>> It's the multi dexterity of the robot
and that robot could perform tasks
that made us become increasingly confident
that we could overcome the challenges related
to building a robot that could operate inside an MRI machine
with the precision, the accuracy,
and the dexterity of a neurosurgeon.
It just so happened that the first individual was a
young woman.
And the young woman harbored a fairly complex tumor underneath
the front part of her brain.
A machine like NER [phonetic] can manipulate tools
at an accuracy of 50 microns.
That is overwhelmingly superior
to what the best surgeon might be able to do.
>> I think it's fabulous and to me, it's actually mind boggling
that someone can take that material and put it
into a life saving device that can help millions of people.
[ Music ]
I honestly think that right now I'd be bed ridden.
I would not be able to get out of bed
if it was not for my doctors.
My parents would be taking care of my kids right now.
[ Music ]
I guess like I'm glad that it hopefully helped people
who have my disease and I hope that it helps people
who need surgery in the future.
If they're ever propositioned with a chance in the future
to have something done like this, I hope they take it.
[ Music ]
[ Silence ] ------------------------------b1d249f7a3cf--