The idea is to put astronauts in a deep sleep state not very different to suspended animation, specialists explain

Oct 7, 2014 20:55 GMT  ·  By

Folks at NASA (the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration) are dead set on landing humans on the Red Planet, and they all seem to agree that, at least as far as this little project is concerned, sooner definitely trumps later.

What's interesting is that, according to recent media reports, the Administration is so determined to send people to Mars that it does not shy away from investing in science fiction-like technologies. Not when these technologies can benefit its agenda.

Long story short, word has it that last year NASA agreed to fund research looking to establish whether it might be possible to have astronauts of the future sleep their way to Mars.

Not too long ago, aeronautics research and consulting firm SpaceWorks has announced to the world that, contrary to what some might assume, having astronauts sleep for days on end until they reach Mars is not such a far-fetched idea after all.

Putting the astronauts to sleep

The technology that SpaceWorks and NASA have taken a liking to is known to the scientific community as therapeutic hypothermia. The idea is to cool down an astronaut's body by pumping them full of coolant introduced through the nose.

When the astronaut's body reaches a temperature of about 89-93 degrees Fahrenheit (31.6-33.8 degrees Celsius), they should go into a deep sleep state known as torpor and maintain it until coolant is no longer delivered and the body temperature begins to up.

By the looks of it, this technology is already employed by hospitals treating trauma patients in a critical condition. Still, no patient has until now been kept in such a state for more than one week, IGN informs.

“Therapeutic torpor has been around in theory since the 1980s, and really since 2003 has been a staple for critical care trauma patients in hospitals,” SpaceWorks Enterprises aerospace engineer Mark Schaffer said in a statement.

Seeing how a one-way trip to Mars is expected to take 180 days at the very least, there is little doubt that there is plenty of work left to do until NASA can even hope to have sleeping astronauts shipped to the Red Planet.

The benefits of this technology

For starters, having astronauts sleep until they make it to Mars would ensure that they do not die of boredom while sitting in a fairly small room waiting to travel over 350 million miles (560 million kilometers) and reach the Red Planet.

Besides, the crew's food and water requirements would be reduced to a considerable extent, and seeing how they would be sleeping the entire ride, they would not require all that much space. Simply put, NASA could build way smaller spacecraft. It is estimated that, all in all, this technology could halve the weight requirements of a Mars mission.

Mind you, the idea to get astronauts to fall asleep and only wake them up when they finally reach Mars might sound very good on paper, but the fact of the matter is that way more research is needed for NASA to consider therapeutic hypothermia a viable option.