In a September 15th article in the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Spectrum magazine, Evan Ackerman
has a report entitled "Putting Humans in Stasis is the Best Way of Getting Us to Mars"
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Evan Ackerman, IEEE Spectrum
Aerospace company SpaceWorks, with funding from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, is exploring the idea of having voyagers to Mars do what all professional travelers do when confronted by uncomfortably long transit times: use whatever technologies or pharmaceuticals are available in order to make themselves totally unaware of as much of the experience as possible. A trip to Mars is going to take more than a couple of Ambien, though. That’s why SpaceWorks is working on space habitats that will keep humans comfortably in stasis for the entire trip.
When it says “stasis,” SpaceWorks is talking about putting astronauts in an “inactive, low-metabolic torpor state for mission transit phases.” So, it's not the kind of sci-fi stasis where people are completely frozen and inert (also known as hansoloization), but rather something more akin to hibernation, where the body’s systems just slow way, way down. Fortunately, we know that it's possible to do this, because for many animals, it's a seasonally recurring phenomenon that’s no big deal. What SpaceWorks is trying to figure out is how humans can snooze away for months at a time like bears do. |
Article here -
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-o...etting-to-mars
SpaceWorks web site here -
http://spaceworkseng.com/
Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitat for Human Stasis to Mars presentation
http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploa...-2-28-2014.pdf
Torpor Inducing Transfer Habitat for Human Stasis to Mars: Executive Summary
http://www.sei.aero/eng/papers/uploa...iveSummary.pdf
