Human Hibernation Could Be the Key to Future Space… – RIDE by Kelley Blue Book

Posted: December 15, 2019 at 12:46 am

A new report by the European Space Agency reveals that we are closer to human hibernated space travel than most might think. In fact, the ESA predicts that the suspended transport mode, typically associated with sci-fi flicks like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and Passengers, could actually be possible in 20 years.

The reality of traveling safely in space in some deep, suspended coma-like state until you reach a final destination might be right around the corner.

Well, thats if the calculations by the European Space Agency (ESA) are correct.

According to a recent report by the Europe-based space organization, we are only about two decades from the point where human hibernated space travel could become a real mode of transportation.

The ESAs findings stem from a more comprehensive study aimed at exploring and developing new technology to enhance the capabilities of space travel for professional astronauts. The ESA and its SciSpacE Team have been using an existing mission to send six humans to Mars and back, to study the viability of human hibernation in space, to help enhance space travel in areas like weight reduction.

The research, now being headed by the ESAs Concurrent Design Facility (CDF), has been focusing on the logistics needed to bring the idea to reality, like protection against radiation and power consumption.

We looked at how an astronaut team could be best put into hibernation, what to do in case of emergencies, how to handle human safety and even what impact hibernation would have on the psychology of the team, says Robin Biesbroek, of the ESAs CDF team, in the ESA press release. Finally, we created an initial sketch of the habitat architecture and created a roadmap to achieve a validated approach to hibernate humans to Mars within 20 years.

Based on the ESAs report, the six astronauts could be transported to Mars in small individual pods that would double as cabins when the crew was awake. A drug would be administered to induce whats known as torpor, a tern used for the hibernating state.

The soft-shell pods would be darkened, with the temperature significantly reduced in the compartments to keep the astronauts cool during their projected 180-day Earth-to-Mars cruise.

The hibernating cruise phase would end with a 21-day recuperation period, according to ESA research. However, based on the agencys experience with animal hibernation, the ESA believes that the crew would not experience any bone or muscle wastage during hibernation.

Of course, the ESA still has a lot of research that needs to be done before any concrete plans are actually put in place to send astronauts on hibernated space trips. We aim to build on this in future, by researching the brain pathways that are activated or blocked during initiation of hibernation, starting with animals and proceeding to people, explains ESAs SciSpacE Team Leader Jennifer Ngo-Anh, in the press release.

In short, were a long way from the point where the average person will be able to book a hibernated space trip in a pod thatll be opened ten years later on Mars, with all their physical elements still intact.

For decades, the idea of hibernated human space travel has been limited to Syfy films like Alien and Passengers. The research being done by the European Space Agency (ESA) continues to shed new light on the real viability of the process, but it also highlights the advancements being made in transportation, in ways never imagined.

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Human Hibernation Could Be the Key to Future Space... - RIDE by Kelley Blue Book

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