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spc14.1.mp3
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When Mark arrived on the space station he thought that he would go straight into hospital but the doctor said, "We cannot do this operation straight away. When you go into space there are many things in your body that will change. Your heart does not have to work as hard as when you are standing upright on earth. We will have to wait until things settle down."
spc14.2.mp3
For the next 3 days I want you to relax and get used to being on the space station.
Mark found that things were very strange. He had to move around in a number of tunnels. "Why do we not have bigger rooms?" said Mark.
"If you were in a big room and you floated off the floor you could just float around and you would find it very difficult to move about," said the doctor." When you are in tunnels you can just push against the tunnel wall and move along easily."
spc14.3.mp3
When Mark did go in for his operation he saw that there was a lady surgeon already there. He was surprised to see that she had metal strips on the back of her gown. There was also one on the hat which covered her head.
spc14.4.mp3
"I can guess what you are going to ask me," she said. I have little strips of metal on my clothing and there are electromagnets on the wall.
These can be switched on to hold me steady in position while I do the operation. It is very difficult to operate if you are floating around in zero gravity. I can ask my assistant to switch on the magnets when I want to be anchored in one position."
We will put metal strips on your back to hold you down and there will be magnets under the operating table.
When Mark woke up after his operation the doctor said," I have taken the skin from your leg and I think it would be better if we started to treat you with the spider straight away. Don't worry. This spider does not bite. It will simply spin a web over your leg and the skin cells that are left there will start making new ones very quickly. You should recover very quickly."
The doctor put the spider on Mark's leg but it would not stay there. It just seemed to float around the room. "Never mind," said the doctor, "We will just push your bed under that thing and turn on the air.
The air from these nozzles is controlled by a computer. The spider can change position on your leg and the air jets will follow it so it will not drift off."
Some little nozzles started blowing air at the spider, keeping it in place. But now there was another problem.
spc14.6.mp3
spc14.5.mp3
When the spider moved it was very tickly and the air jets seemed to make the tickling worse. Mark started to laugh." Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! "he went. "I'm sorry but I just can't help it. Ha! Ha! Ha! "
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