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NASA Eyes Crew Deep Sleep Option For Mars Mission
astroengine writes: A NASA-backed study explores an innovative way to dramatically cut the cost of a human expedition to Mars — put the crew in stasis. The deep sleep, called torpor, would reduce astronauts' metabolic functions with existing medical procedures. Torpor also can occur naturally in cases of hypothermia. "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," aerospace engineer Mark Schaffer, with SpaceWorks Enterprises in Atlanta, said at the International Astronomical Congress in Toronto this week. "Protocols exist in most major medical centers for inducing therapeutic hypothermia on patients to essentially keep them alive until they can get the kind of treatment that they need." Coupled with intravenous feeding, a crew could be put in hibernation for the transit time to Mars, which under the best-case scenario would take 180 days one-way.
Well, the article has the following text pretty much at the top:
"During interplanetary transit, the crew would receive low-level electrical impulses to key muscle groups to prevent muscular atrophy."
This won't help with bone density loss, lowered heart strength, or a number of other issues.
Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick Two.
IV feeding doesn't mean that your muscles are actually going to be being built. Unless you're using them, your body doesn't try to repair and build them up.
When your body temperature is lowered, and your metabolism is reduced, you also reduce the physiological processes that cause muscle deterioration. Also you can "exercise" in your sleep by using mild electric pulses to contract your muscles.