In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, three astronauts travel to the far-off planet Jupiter, placed in cryogenic hibernation to survive the long flight. Now, a group of researchers at NASA are considering using this science-fictional concept to transport real astronauts to Mars.
One of the problems with putting an astronaut on Mars is the huge amount of food and other resources he or she would need to survive the trip. Flying to Mars could take six months, and NASA estimated that the food for astronauts alone over that time frame could weigh up to 200 tons. However, if NASA was able to put astronauts in some kind of stasis, it would greatly reduce the amount of resources needed for the trip, and make flying to Mars much more feasible.
"Ultimately, it's what we'll have to do," said John Bradford, who works for SpaceWorks, the company that wrote the study about hibernation for NASA.
A state of medically induced stasis is called therapeutic torpor. Patients have safely been in therapeutic torpor for up to a week at a time when medically necessary. One Chinese study of trauma patients placed in therapeutic torpor that Bradford cited found that patients could be safely placed in torpor for up to two weeks. However, it would be a big feat to be able to withstand months of therapeutic torpor, especially in outer space. In zero gravity, muscle tends to atrophy unless astronauts keep exercising.
More research needs to be done on making therapeutic torpor safe for long periods of time, Bradford said.
"It may take some time to get it to the state of effectiveness we want it to go to," Bradford said.
One way to get around the dangers of long-term hibernation might be to have rotating shifts of hibernation, where one astronaut is awake while the other five are sleeping. This could let the astronauts each have a chance to exercise his or her muscles, as well as making sure all systems are running smoothly, while conserving fuel by having the other five astronauts in hibernation.
The astronauts would then take turns waking each other up, one at a time. The astronaut on duty would wake up one of her crew members slowly, over two or three days. Then, when he is awake, he would put her into hibernation, and repeat the process with another crew member.
Bradford said that this is how he envisions the first manned mission to Mars.
