posted 10-06-2014 10:31 AM            

The deep sleep, called torpor, would reduce astronauts' metabolic functions with existing medical procedures. Torpor also can occur naturally in cases of hypothermia.

...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.

So far, the duration of a patient's time in torpor state has been limited to about one week.

"We haven't had the need to keep someone in (therapeutic torpor) for longer than seven days," Schaffer said. "For human Mars missions, we need to push that to 90 days, 180 days. Those are the types of mission flight times we're talking about."

posted 10-06-2014 10:34 AM               

"Rather than being stuck in a can for 180 days, you go to sleep, you wake up and you're there," he said.

More research is needed to assure prolonged stasis is safe, but initial results are promising, Schaffer added.

"We have not seen any show-stoppers on the medical side or on the engineering side," he said.

posted 10-22-2014 01:10 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by dabolton:
Putting people to sleep is a common scenario in space movies but in reality how would it affect a person psychologically?

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I imagine that once you've selected and trained motivated people who're expecting it they'll cope just fine. Some medics have a penchant for assuming that just because human's haven't done something before that implies it can't be done. Usually, they're eventually proved wrong.

A bit cheeky claiming an approach is innovative when, as you say, it's been bread and butter in sci-fi for decades. Perhaps "realising a dream" would have been more appropriate.

posted 12-07-2014 03:54 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
SpaceWorks Enterprises' Mark Schaffer, who is conducting the NASA-backed study, says stasis could have a potential psychological advantage.

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