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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.
The problem with this idea is that if anything goes wrong there's no hospital you can rush the people to, and there is always a risk of something going wrong when you start messing with biological systems like this. I suppose we are getting more data about the process regularly from hospitals, but NASA is going to want to do a lot of their own experiments first. I guess since we are nowhere near getting ready to launch the Mars mission it isn't too bad. They still have time.
I read the internet for the articles.
What if they never wake up?
They'll be dead.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
At the risk of proposing simplistic answers to these technical questions (as per /. standard), I don't know why NASA isn't considering nuclear propulsion as their first choice for crewed missions to Mars. The nuclear thermal engines were investigated intensively and test articles tested and built in the 60's and were ostensibly cancelled only because there was no mission for them, not due to technical show-stoppers. Once you have a nuclear capability, trips around the Solar System become nearly routine. NASA should let Musk work on chemical rockets for his Mars trips and spend tax money on nuclear which the private guys can't do.
There are no conceivable circumstances where Earth would be less suitable for life than Mars. Even during the worst extinction level events, Earth was a paradise compared to Mars.
But what of lack of gravity? How does the sleeping one deal with bone loss?
Lack of gravity causes your heart and bones to weaken. The heart problem can be ameliorated by putting your legs in a partial vacuum suction, pulling blood away from your body core. This simulates the pooling of blood in your legs while standing on Earth. Then you heart has to work to pump it back up. For the bones, I dunno, but likely the lower body temperature and reduced metabolism would reduce bone deterioration as well. So you would have done loss during deep sleep, but likely less than you would if you were awake.
A better long term solution is to genetically modify humans to make them better adapted to life in space.