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ESA To Study Human Hibernation
colonist writes "The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to study human hibernation for long-duration space voyages (a la 'Alien', '2001'). Although 'practical hibernation mechanisms are at least a decade away', ESA researchers will make initial inquiries into DADLE (D-Ala,D-Leu-enkephalin), an opium-like drug that triggers hibernation in ground squirrels and human cells. Other subjects of interest include dobutamine, a drug that maintains muscle, and the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate."
Study making smarter bears capable of space travel! They already hibernate.
Perhaps all long-journey astronauts should be women. There is a well known but seldom used gene present in women that causes immediate hibernation. It has been called the sex-gene. Once the word sex is mentioned the women immediately roll over and are asleep within seconds. This will continue until sex has not been mentioned for at least eight hours. If an automated speaker was constructed to force the sex-gene into operation every 6 or so hours the women should (in theory) remain unconscious.
Yes my gf reads Slashdot. No, I am not getting any tonight.
for inspiration. They can sleep for days at a time.
The Dude abides.
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Hell ya, I'd go hibernate, and very likely get paid for it. Can you say, "Test subject"?
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This is just the start of a decade long project. Wake me when they capable of making me sleep for a decade.
This type of research is the future of human space exploration, at least for the forseeable future. Sorry, but light speed, or anything near light speed, just isn't going to happen anytime soon.
The only downside to this is that the space traveler may seem like the trip only lasted a short time period, when it in fact took 10 years. By the time he gets back home his family will have aged 20 years. It actually may be the closest we get to time travel as well (want to see the future? just hybernate for 100 years).
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ESA researchers will make initial inquiries into DADLE (D-Ala,D-Leu-enkephalin), an opium-like drug that triggers hibernation in ground squirrels and human cells. Other subjects of interest include dobutamine, a drug that maintains muscle, and the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate."
An alternative solution is to design a virtual environment simulator that will make ground squirrels and Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemurs believe they are jumping across tree branches, when in fact they are piloting an interstellar spaceships.
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I wonder if tumors stop growing during hibernation. If they do, then everybody with (expected-) fatal cancer can just hibernate until there's a cure.
Likewise aging...
As long as it's cheap enough I can afford it on my unemployment check, I believe it would be a good idea to simply hibernate for 20-25 years, and bypass the entire recession!
Where can I buy some of this stuff?
"Don't worry sir, the device you're about to trust your life to is the result of years of research with the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur."
Interesting but I think they're going to need to work out how to prevent bone loss if you're going to hibernate for a significant portion of the time in space. Anyway I hope there going for a basic science approach to the subject because if dobutamine maintains muscle mass during hibernation then it might also help with coma/bed-ridden patients.
Having someone sleep indefinately is only a matter of controlled sedatives. I imagine their biggest problem is going to be organ atrophy.
If they solve that, then they'll have an extremely valuable spinoff technology that will help everyone from the temporarily wheelchair-bound to the hospitalized.
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Also, if the eventual mechanism is based on bear hibernation, how are the astronauts going to wake up and poo in the woods periodically?
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I want to hibernate and wake up in 5 years. So I can afford a Quake 3 compatible video card!
Having a name like that is a survival mechanism. You see, when anybody's hunting them, by the time they say, "Hey, there's a Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur!" it's gotten away clean.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
The lid above rises and a light comes on. You are in a sponge-lined coffin. The only exit is out.
The panel has 10 buttons: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey and white.
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
I wondered the same thing - and going ahead with this, would it be easier to operate on somebody in hibernation?
Would hibernation be part of a safer anesthetic protocol for surgury? Put the patient into hibernation with local pain killers rather than forcing them into unconsciousness?
This could be a very useful spin-off of this technology and maybe be more important to humanity than facilitating very long duration space-flight.
myke
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Sounds like the perfect way to eliminate (subjectively) that pesky wait for Longhorn.....
Let me get this right, the ESA is creating an opium like drug to put people into hibernation on long space voyages.
And this drug work's successfully on ground squirrels.
Why not just send the squirrels into space, and skip humanity altogether?
People discover the meaning of life between getting piss drunk and the following hangover.
Of course, the last time I heard something like that, it was from a bartender who suggested a drink and told me "it was as close to legal opium as you could get".
So, one interesting night later, I have this advice: Stay away from Chartreuse.
...send them to my cubicle. The second I enter it, all mental and physical functions shut down for hours.
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A trait it is about to regret <sound of skull-saw starting up>
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You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Some humans gain weight and lower activity when the days get shorter. Is it possible that we have a vestigial hibernation response already?
1. Radiation shielding on long term voyages seems to be a real bear of a problem for manned spaceflight to the planets. It might be feasable to put a bunch of shielding around a small compartment with a hybernaut where it wouldn't be feasable to shield all the working and sleeping areas for an awake astronaut.
2. By extension, a 2001-like approach becomes workable - Put part of the crew into hybernation, rotate them in and out as needed. In 2001, this was supposed to be because the planetside geologists and such had little to do until Discovery was close to Jupiter, and then the security/paranoia factor kicked in. In the real case, a ship might rotate crew to even out radiation exposure, or put a crewman who was loosing bone mass faster than others into hybernation to protect his health.
Who is John Cabal?
You know, the ESA doesn't have to spend a dime. All they have to do is drop someone into my job -- it keeps me slowed down, makes me want to sleep, and destroys my motivation.
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Setting huge plans in motion while sleeping away, they end up with an entire section of the populace that tries to "live" as long as they possibly can. It is really an interesting take on how things like this could kind of get out of hand.
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