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Long-term cryogenic and hibernative sleep may be the key to getting humans to Mars — and beyond. But with research and funding active concerns, it may first come to a spa near you.
Our bodies aren't meant for space. It's heartbreaking for science fiction fans to hear, but it's also a self-evident fact. Our bodies require too much maintenance to speed through the stars. We need a steady supply of those things absent from space —namely water, food and oxygen. We crave warmth but won't find it in deep space, where the average temperature is minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit.
Even if we could survive in an icy vacuum without sustenance, we'd probably go insane without distractions and room to move. In 2013, participants in a 17-month Russian spaceflight simulation became depressed and lethargic in the cramped quarters. They grew desperate for privacy and often skipped exercises that would be crucial during a real spaceflight.
Ensuring space travellers stay healthy and active during long flights is a puzzle with two pieces: cargo and weight. Food, water, exercise equipment and televisions are heavy. Fuel is expensive and volatile. The more weight you're bringing into space, the more fuel you need. But aeronautic engineers (of SpaceWorks) believe they have found the key to solving that puzzle: put your space travellers to sleep.
https://vanwinkles.com/latest-science-of-cryogenic-sleep-human-hibernation-for-space-travel
[Also Covered By]: http://gizmodo.com/how-traveling-to-deep-space-in-cryogenic-sleep-could-ac-1725605323
[Related Blog]: http://spacetorpor.blogspot.com/
[Related NASA Coverage]: http://www.nasa.gov/content/torpor-inducing-transfer-habitat-for-human-stasis-to-mars/
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday August 22 2015, @01:25PM
So they finally got around to watching a rerun of Alien? As they note this has been known as an option in sci-fi for quite some time. Cameron figured it out before 1979 and I doubt he came up with the idea. Either you learn how to travel really fast or you learn some tech that makes the passage of time irrelevant -- Which I guess would include cryogenic sleeping chambers. Who cares if it takes X years to get there if everyone is "sleeping". The question is of cause what fuels the cryogenic chambers, how much does that weigh and who will maintain and defend us from the aliens while everyone is a sleep -- our robotic android overlords? If they are already around sending humans just seems silly.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Saturday August 22 2015, @04:22PM
So they finally got around to watching a rerun of Alien? As they note this has been known as an option in sci-fi for quite some time. Cameron figured it out before 1979 and I doubt he came up with the idea.
Holy crap. No, Cameron did not figure it out before 1979, he hadn't even made his piranha movie then. It was Ridley Scott who figured it out in 1979, since he directed Alien. Cameron did the 1986 sequel "Aliens". Turn in your geek card and go read about the Kardashians; this is basic knowledge here. It's like saying Captain Picard was in the 1960s Star Trek episodes.
The question is of cause what fuels the cryogenic chambers, how much does that weigh and who will maintain and defend us from the aliens while everyone is a sleep -- our robotic android overlords? If they are already around sending humans just seems silly.
How much will they weigh??? This is space, there's no gravity, so there's no weight.
You did manage to hit on the main problem with cryo-sleep: who maintains them? We aren't very good yet at making machines which run for years without problems, much less decades, centuries, or millennia. They'd probably need to have a few crewmembers wake up every so often to check on things, or worse, have a rotation schedule so there's always at least one person awake during the voyage in case the "wake up" function fails.
As for androids, we haven't developed any kind of real AI yet, and there's no telling when or even if that will ever happen. Hopefully never, because if we develop machines that are smarter than us, it won't be much of a leap for the machines to conclude that we're obsolete and too dangerous and destructive, and that we need to be phased out or eliminated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2015, @01:10AM
Holy holy crap. Ridley Scott figured this out in 1979??? Watch the beginning of (the good) Planet of the Apes. What about Lost In Space before that? Buck Rogers? Rip Van Winkle??
Ridley Scott came up with the idea? Holy shit! Talk about geek cards!
(Score: 2) by Farkus888 on Sunday August 23 2015, @03:40AM
Weight is still very relevant until it is in space. If food and water systems for us to be awake are lighter than the freezer for cryogenic sleep then the logistics of launching are easier if we are awake and bored.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday August 23 2015, @03:00PM
No, weight isn't important at all. Only Americans think it is, because they cannot understand mass due to their unit system and poor education.
What's important is MASS. Even in space with zero-g, mass has inertia; more mass requires more thrust and more fuel to move around.