Step Aside Bears, Astronauts Will Also Hibernate on their Way to Mars

Plans for putting the first man on Mars are already well-underway by most of the world's top astronomical agencies. And that's only the beginning. Not only are there plans for exploring the red planet using manned expeditions, but there are also private sector ventures looking to colonize the planet Mars. And it's not getting there that's the problem.

Amongst the main issues facing trips to Mars is the 180 day trek it will take to arrive to the planet, something that astronauts would have to endure on their way there and on their way back. But, utilizing current technology and existing medical practices, one private sector company is suggesting that they may have an answer that lies in slumber.

Last week at the International Astronomical Congress, aerospace engineer Mark Schaffer, working with SpaceWorks Enterprises, said that their NASA-backed study is exploring the possibility of using induced deep-sleep travel to mitigate the extravagant costs of human expeditions to Mars, while keeping the astronauts safe.

The deep sleep Schaffer discussed is known as "torpor" and is a fairly common practice used to lower metabolic functions, though it has only been limited to roughly a maximum of a week on Earth. In order to make the process feasible, not only would the company need to create a mechanism for intravenous feeding throughout the trip, monitoring devices included, but also they would need to push the 7 day sleep to a much deeper form of human hibernation.

"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" Schaffer says. "[But the problem is] we haven't had the need to keep someone in therapeutic torpor for longer than seven days."

"For human Mars missions, we need to push that to or 180 days. Those are the types of mission flight times we're talking about."

To enter stasis, the bodies would need to be gradually cooled, via an internasal coolant solution, dow to the 89 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit needed to induce torpor. While the process is mildly uncomfortable, Schaffer says that inhaling a coolant internally will allow the reduction of body temperature without the external tissue damage and shivering seen with alternative cooling pads placed on the skin. Once in hibernation the astronauts would be sustained with intravenous food and saline solutions, until the coolant is shut off allowing the astronauts to come out of the slumber on their own.

And while the process may not be the most comfortable for those involved, SpaceWorks assures that the implications of the research will allow for the missions to be made at not only more affordable costs, but also in much smaller ships. It has been estimated that if stasis proves efficient and plausible for upcoming missions, that the Mars spacecraft's weight could see a huge reduction from the 400 tons currently approximated down to 220 tons since the process will eliminate the need for food, water and workout gear during the 180 days of flight time.