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Lewis Sean

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The Koyal Group Info Mag Nasa is Funding Research on Deep Sleep for Transporting Astronauts to Mars

started by Lewis Sean on 05 Nov 14
  • Lewis Sean
    #1 Lewis Sean on 05 Nov 14
     

    Putting
    space travelers into a state of deep sleep
    has been a staple of interstellar science
    fiction for quite some time, but despite originating as a far-fetched concept,
    the idea of using suspended animation to enable deep space travel might soon
    become science fact.



     



    If
    you're unfamiliar with the concept, here's a quick rundown. Traveling far into
    space is a tricky endeavor. With existing technology, traveling to a planet
    like Mars takes about 180 days, for example. Keeping a crew of people alive
    (and entertained) in space for that long isn't hard, but it does require a lot
    of food, water, energy, and other supplies. This makes manned long-distance
    space travel extremely expensive, since hauling more supplies requires huge
    amounts of storage space, and thousands of additional dollars just to get it
    all that stuff into orbit.



     



    In
    theory, suspended animation would help solve this problem. If astronauts could
    be placed in a deep sleep during the journey, they would require far fewer
    resources along the way. Instead, they could just be put to sleep at the
    beginning and woken back up when they arrive at their destination.



     



    Now,
    with a manned mission to Mars likely in its sights, NASA has begun to explore
    the viability of such an idea, and has recently funded a study by Atlanta-based
    aerospace engineering firm SpaceWorks Enterprises to help work out the kinks in
    the process.



     



    Related: Cryostasis isn't
    sci-fi: surgeons will soon use suspended animation to revive gunshot victims



     



    The
    bulk of the study revolves around placing humans in torpor - a state in which
    metabolic and physiological activity is drastically slowed down. To do this,
    the company has developed a three-stage system. Step one involves sedating the
    person and using a neuromuscular blockade to prevent movement, whereas step two
    is to physically lower the person's body temperature by about 10 degrees
    farenheit, thereby reducing cellular activity and metabolic rate by around 50
    to 70 percent. This is achieved with the help of cooling pads and a nasally-inhaled
    coolant that lowers the subject's temperature from the inside out. Then, once
    in torpor, the subject is hooked into an intravenous drip that supplies their
    body with all the nutrients needed to keep them alive.



     



    Using
    these methods, SpaceWorks has reportedly managed to keep a person in stasis for
    a week - an impressive feat, but even so, there's still much work to be done
    before the technology is ready for primetime. In addition to extending the
    length of the stasis period, the company has a handful of other hurdles to
    overcome. The potential onset of pneumonia, muscle atrophy, and bone loss have
    yet to be addressed; and the long term-effects of stasis on human organs is
    still largely unknown. SpaceWorks still has a long road ahead of it, but with a
    few more years of research, it's not unreasonable to think that suspended
    animation, cryostasis, torpor -whatever you want to call it- might finally
    bring a manned mission to Mars within reach.

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