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Hibernating to Mars
neutron_p writes "Manned missions beyond the Moon are no longer wild dreams. NASA plans a manned mission to Mars before 2020. With automatic systems in control, astronauts would face the challenge of living in a confined space with not much to do for an extremely long period. 'Might as well sleep it off!' Studies initiated by ESA have gone one step further. Wouldn't it be nice if astronauts could hibernate! ESA biologists are conducting investigations into the physiological mechanisms that mammals use to hibernate."
This strikes me as having two BIG problems right from the start:
This would be great, if it works, but I bet we end up doing it the hard way...
"I'm a scientist! I don't think, I observe!" - Dr. Clayton Forrester
It would suck to be stuck in a spaceship for three years, sure. But it would also suck to fall asleep and wake up three years later -- and three years older, with absolutely nothing to show for it. Sure, external sources of damage would be nearly eliminated, so you wouldn't be three years shorter of telomeres. Also, being in one place for the duration means hard radiation shielding is much more practical than trying to hard shield the entire ship.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
This is funny, but it's actually on the right track. Rather than developing machines that we can sleep in for long periods of time, we should be looking at modifying humans (genetically or otherwise) so that they can survive a long trip through space. Nature has adapted us to life on Earth, we must adapt ourselves to living in other environments. Best of all would be to transplant our consciousness into durable robotic chassis with interchangeable/hot-swappable components so that we can effectively live forever and survive anywhere.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I thought that astronauts needed daily exercise to avoid bone and muscle loss.
Wouldn't sleeping during the trip be detrimental to their health?
Oh, and I don't thing that using small electric jolts to stimulate the muscles would work. There was a class action lawsuit against a company that sold such a device as exercise equipment because it didn't work. Repetitive arm movements to type and to use the mouse require more muscular strength than those devices produce but you don't see computer geeks (like me) with super strong forearms and wrists.
Cheers,
Adolfo
Induction of hibernation has a much more practical purpose here on earth -- organ transplant.
If we could force an ex-planted organ into hibernation, then we wouldn't have to rush around trying to get organs into people within 6-12 hrs (it is different for each organ type).
Hiberation may also inhibit the reperfusion injury that often complicates transplant as well.
That's just the obvious use of medical hiberation. We already know that somebody can not be declared dead until they are "cold and dead." This is because the many cases of people appearing to be brain dead --especially children-- who have a complete recovery after warming. (So if you are going to drown, please do so in a very cold lake.)
Imagine the day when people who are dying at home get placed into hiberation until they can be brought to the hospital and worked up. Instead of blindly trying treatments in the field, one could slow down the dying process until a cause of injury is found.
It has always amazed me that so many animals hiberate, but we can figure out how to translate that into humans.
we could do the research, but without an obvious need such as space flight creates, we generally wouldn't.
Uh huh. Because it's almost impossible to raise funds for medical research. There's just no demand for living longer and surviving incurable diseases, you see. And governments won't touch it with a bargepole; political suicide.
I don't buy this whole line of reasoning, to be honest. For one thing, it's misleading. The USA's Pentagon system shovels money into military tech in the hopes that something genuinely useful will fall out as a side-effect. And it often does, if only because a lot of military-funded research ends up being anything but military. But you can pump that money directly into civilian-oriented research instead. Japan's MITI used to do this (interestingly, their funding breakdown by tech segment was almost identical to the Pentagon's) and was rather more efficient in terms of ROI.
More importantly, though, I think it sets the arena of debate all wrong. It's not about the spin-offs, nice though they are. The Apollo project was IMO the single most heroic and awe-inspiring achievement in human history. It wasn't an R&D lab for non-stick frying pans. Defending it in those terms feels demeaning.
As for this particular problem, I suggest that instead of training humans to hibernate, NASA should consider training groundhogs to fly spaceships.