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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.
If they are just sleeping (or in whatever state they are in) will not their muscles deteriorate? After having no nourishment for several weeks most people will waste away to nothing.
"Maybe this world is another planet's hell"
Aldous Huxley
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.
going to watch the kettle? so to speak.
I imagine they would have to have one hell of an upgrade in remote control or assisted
intelligence to handle any emergencies.
~G
One just has to be careful of the acronym used for the computers name, and assiduously avoid omnipresent red-glowing video eyes. Then you'll be fine.
Nasa is using a combination appropach to this statis project. Whereas before drugs and temperature controlled environments had to be used, the far more economical approach of C-SPAN recordings of US Senator Robert Byrd are used to maintain a comatose like state. This is induced with a combination of John Kerry lectures and once astronauts must be awakened, the system automatically switches to arguments against climate change as presented by the congressional science committee.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Send 'em there first and they'll have a huge incentive to figure out the food conundrum.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
So, we've saved 180 days worth of food and consumables for each passenger, but have done so at great risk to them. Okay, sure. Now, if we can just keep them in that state, we may not need the substantially greater amount of supplies that are necessary to sustain life once they actually arrive at their destination.
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.
Captain: "Please re-animate the mars crew!"
HAL 9000: "Windows 420 refuses to boot in secure mode.",
"Would you like to play a game of solitaire on Windows XP instead?"
All information points to Torpor as a short term treatment option - indeed there are animals but those are adapted to that condition, humans are not.
The first set of problems that comes to my mind are kidney stones -> Solution catheter/bladder flushning -> next problem infections in the urinary tract due to catheters. Due to the urinary tract not being "flushed" regularly keeping the germs in the lower urinary system. This problem is also much more challenging for women.
Also the subjection of different germ kinds to the lower temperature needs to be taken into account.
Different germ populations have different temperature ranges were they show different reproduction rates. If the cold condition does not favour the reproduction rate that the lactic acid producing germs over the germs from No.2
this can lead to -> Vaginal flora will be less acidic = starting point for "unwanted/dangerous" germs from No.2
Don't think that when your body is in this "pseudo stasis"
germs are too, they aren't.
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.
OR I just figured out a clever idea, that might piss of any aliens the encounter. Feed the astronauts beans, attach hoses to their butts nad use "natural gas" for thrust. In a perfect vacuum I'm sure farts do give some accelertion... think of it like an organic Ion engine
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.
I hereby coin the word "torpornauts," which had zero Google hits when I checked.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
When the sun goes red giant, Mars is likely to be engulfed, too. Feel free to try again.
I wonder what happens to guts microbes with 180 days of intravenous feeding. If we fail to slow down their metabolism too, they will start to eat the host's bowels.