Scientists Seek Device for Space Surgery

Bailey said Crum has received requests from cancer patients to try curing them using an ultrasound machine.

"Legally, we're in no position to do that," he said. "We're moving as fast as we can, but we can't do that."

Kushmerick's team is also working to create "the digital human," a series of mathematical problems to figure out how everything from molecules to cells to organs work together to determine the effects of space travel on the body.