ISRO's Rocket Technology To Power Human Hearts
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Rocket science may not be able to fix broken hearts, but very soon technology mastered at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) may be able to help patients who are in need for a heart transplant.
Materials and mechanisms used on Indian rockets have been tweaked by ISRO to make a device which some describe as a step towards the making of an ‘artificial heart’.
The heart assist device has been tested on animals and found to be successful.
Better known for orbiting satellites and flying giant rockets, the multi-talented team at ISRO made this heart pump as a spinoff technology development in the spare time. Cardiologists are very excited with this development as it offers a lease of life to terminally-ill patients since heart transplant still remains out of reach for most.
Using materials and knowhow perfected to make lightweight rockets and satellites, scientists at ISRO have perfected a device that assists the human heart to pump blood especially in cases where the left ventricle, the most powerful part of a human heart, starts to fail.
Called the ‘left ventricular assist device’ this small electrical device can pump 3-5 litres of blood every minute. Kiran Kumar, the chairman of ISRO said this rocket technology offered an alternate system to pump blood in very ill patients and can definitely save human lives.
The special pump made by the Indian space agency can also be powered using an indigenously made highly energy dense battery, the Lithium Ion cell, that has also for the first time been made in India again by another team of rocket scientists.
The pump, which weighs about 100 grams can be fitted inside the body or placed externally and it needs a hook up to a battery to power it.
Made from a special alloy of titanium the device is ‘bio-compatible’ says K Sivan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), in Thiruvananthapuram where the special heart pump has been mastered.
Rocket scientists at VSSC use titanium alloys for making rocket engines and satellite components as a consequence they have total mastery on the metallurgy and manufacturing of the material. The same material that is flown on rocket engines has been remodeled to make the compact but high tech pump.
Sivan says “we have seen that the device is meeting all the bio-mechanical requirements, and the pumping requirement. This particular device was tested on six animals. It was tested for 6 hours, and after that, the other organs of the animal were checked. They were intact. This is a very great achievement. It’s a successful device. Definitely it is a major step towards the ultimate development of an artificial heart by ISRO.”
The device pumps blood using a common technology called a centrifugal pump. The electronics and the magnets used in the tiny pump have been fabricated by the same engineers who make lightweight systems used on Indian satellites. The pump had to designed in such a fashion that even with continuous operation it should not heat up and should obviously be fail proof.
