Steve Austin was a U.S. astronaut who was gravely injured when his spacecraft crashed back to earth. He was rebuilt, almost from the ground up by government-approved experimental surgeries, giving him powerful prosthetics.
The “Six Million Dollar Man” first aired in 1973, starring Lee Majors, and it ran for five seasons. I remember that show, and I was amazed, as were millions of others, with what he could do with his prosthetic limbs and eyes.
Today’s prosthetics are getting closer and closer to that reality.
Companies have made enormous progress in both the aesthetics and functionality of prosthetics, which can be passive (more cosmetic than functional) or more involved. More real-looking artificial limbs can now be made using 3D printers. They’re a tremendous improvement from what was available only a few years back. There are also body-powered prosthetics, where the movements of the upper body, shoulder, and chest are captured and used to open or close an artificial hand….