It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Cryosleep: It's Not Just Sci fi Anymore

page: 1
7
<<   2 >>

log in

join
share:

posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 12:10 AM
link   
According to the article, at the end of last year, NASA, together with the Atlanta-based SpaceWorks Enterprises, unveiled plans to dramatically change the way we do space travel through the use of Cryosleep. This Cryo-sleep is achieved through the use of what's called a "Topor state" where an astronauts living areas would have the pressure decreased. When the pressure is decreased the body's core temperature drops to a hypothermic state where the body experiences Topor; short term hyphenation.



How it would work
Standard living quarters in a space shuttle would be replaced with a torpor habitat, in which the pressurized volume would be greatly decreased. The chamber would allow for six crew members to coexist in a torpor state simultaneously. A hypothermic state would likely be induced by cooling the body’s core temperature (induced in one of three ways), which would happen slowly over a few hours.

While the crew members are in a hypothermic state, various sensors would be hooked up to them so that their conditions could be monitored. They would receive nutrition intravenously through TPN — total parenteral nutrition. The liquid would contains all the essential elements for a human body to function. In addition, a catheter would be inserted to drain urine. Because no solids are consumed, the digestive system, and therefore the need for bowel function, would be inactive. Electromagnetic muscle stimulation would protect key muscle groups from atrophy.

The crew would be in this medically induced hypothermic state for 14 days at a time, with crew members taking turns being awake for two or three days at a time to ensure the needs of the crew and ship are met.

The benefits of this scenario? A major reduction in consumables due to an inactive crew, a dramatically lower pressurized volume required for living quarters, and the ability to eliminate things like a food galley, exercise equipment, entertainment, et cetera. Indeed, SpaceWorks says the mass of a shuttle with a crew in torpor would be 19.8 tons, less than half the mass of the reference habitat.


Sounds legit as a possibility but I'm no real scientist. What I wanna know is what do the real wizards and scientists of ATS have to say?

www.mnn.com...



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 12:25 AM
link   
a reply to: lostbook




Sounds legit as a possibility but I'm no real scientist. What I wanna know is what do the real wizards and scientists of ATS have to say?


You are a Scientist, we all are, NASA just has the funds to do the research.

I would say that if they can't bring Walt Disney back yet they aren't ready.

Plus, if they are doing 14 day intervals with one person awake at a time, the repetetive cryo sleep could cause probelems with brain function and such. Makes more sense to do one extended cryosleep rather than going in and out over and over again if going a far distance. An A.I. being could easily watch after the ship for a long period of time if they have a safe course set for wherever they are going. Maybe to the Moon for the first time.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 02:01 AM
link   
Sounds interesting. How would they be revived? I didn't see that part mentioned. I hope they're not relying on a computer. Computers crash or otherwise malfunction.
The catheter part sounds unpleasant. I had one once and after it was out I was afraid to pee for a week. It burned.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 02:20 AM
link   
Same here definitely traumatizing..you just brought back a really bad memory. . reply to: Skid Mark



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 03:26 AM
link   
this is so dumb.

First off the solution to psychological problems due to cramped confinement is to eliminate cramped quarters. pay the damned extra cost for a real space ship instead of going into space in a converted telephone booth. Go big or go home. It's fully justified because a large robustly designed ship could last 100s of years and perform thousands of missions. What's more expensive? building a ship from scratch every time we do something in space or building it once and milking that sucker for forever?

Secondly make the damned space ship go faster. we actually know how to do this.

Thirdly; if one must consider primitive suspended animation or torpor then reserve it for extreme duration missions and not something that we can do quickly with reasonable technological development near term; like an earth mars transit.
edit on 18-4-2015 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)

edit on 18-4-2015 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)

edit on 18-4-2015 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)

edit on 18-4-2015 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 04:04 AM
link   
a reply to: iDope

Im guessing they haven't worked out the health risked with long term stasis. The only reason I could see a 14 day interval. This is terrible, for woman & men, catheter insertion and removal is not fun, even worse I imagine in Zero-G, cramped environment so far away from home. Not to mention the pressure on the psyche just from being dropped down to near freezing (relative to human temps) levels, and brought back repeatedly (in the middle of cold dead space to top it all off.

Not a good time at all.
edit on 18-4-2015 by boncho because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 04:05 AM
link   
Sounds like the beginnings of a perfectly good and horrible space thriller that ends with everyone dead.

Don't all space movies have this already?

It's kind'a like running upstairs, with a murderer running around. Yes, run upstairs, where your easier to corner, and be killed.

Yes, get in the space cryo-tube, so you can travel across the solar system, find aliens that want to eat you, and get munched on like freshly crisped carrots.

/sarc

Hmm, indeed, the psychological effects should be studied a bit more on this one, I think.

I can only imagine just how much fun this would be on ones sleep cycles.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 04:14 AM
link   
zero G catheter insertion, i can see it now!



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 04:33 AM
link   
I really would not want poop in my gut for 14 days, it would either fester, and burst my gut, or turn solid and be extremely difficult to pass, or a mixture of both, unless the last meal was an inert jelly like lubricant to ensure nothing untoward happened while I was 'asleep' and transit was smooth when I was awakened.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 04:59 AM
link   
a reply to: pikestaff
How do bears hibernate? They must deal with this somehow, right? They are mammals like us.

Maybe we need to learn some tricks from them.

The idea probably needs a lot more research.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 02:57 PM
link   
a reply to: Cygnis





Those tubes are one step away from a coffin.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 04:15 PM
link   

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
a reply to: pikestaff
How do bears hibernate? They must deal with this somehow, right? They are mammals like us.

Maybe we need to learn some tricks from them.

The idea probably needs a lot more research.


At the bottom of the article there is a link that takes you to the PDF. Where it explains that this method is essentially the same methodology bears use.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 05:04 PM
link   

originally posted by: pikestaff
I really would not want poop in my gut for 14 days, it would either fester, and burst my gut, or turn solid and be extremely difficult to pass, or a mixture of both, unless the last meal was an inert jelly like lubricant to ensure nothing untoward happened while I was 'asleep' and transit was smooth when I was awakened.


Don't worry - you won't need to poop - you won't be consuming any solids. Everything will be absorbed with only excess water being released.

Not having a food galley just seems to be a very bad bad idea. I just imagine one astronaut having some serious cravings for a big juicy BBQ beefburger with all the dressings, and going for the nearest substitute.

They should really be looking at ways of constructing the equivalent of an ocean cruise liner in space. Those are constructed using the mega-cell method of constructing multistory sections of the ship in a hanger, then assembling those sections in the
dock yard. In that way they can build an entire ship with the minimum of effort.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 05:08 PM
link   

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
a reply to: pikestaff
How do bears hibernate? They must deal with this somehow, right? They are mammals like us.

Maybe we need to learn some tricks from them.

The idea probably needs a lot more research.


Bears build up fat reserve in the Autumn. Then they go into hibernation where body temperature goes down and heart rate slows. By the time that they wake up in Spring, all those fat reserves have been burned off.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 06:20 PM
link   

originally posted by: stormcell

originally posted by: Arbitrageur
a reply to: pikestaff
How do bears hibernate? They must deal with this somehow, right? They are mammals like us.

Maybe we need to learn some tricks from them.

The idea probably needs a lot more research.


Bears build up fat reserve in the Autumn. Then they go into hibernation where body temperature goes down and heart rate slows. By the time that they wake up in Spring, all those fat reserves have been burned off.


Interesting...Thanks for that.



posted on Apr, 18 2015 @ 07:16 PM
link   
a reply to: lostbook


Interesting but there are down side's to slowed metabolic rate, exposure to chromosome damage through particle radiation is one, were the cell's do not repair as fast and thus a higher build up of cumulative damage will occur relative to the time spent in slowed metabolic state's (the same as being in a higher density particle radiation field for a shorter time).

This would necessitate heavy shielding or advanced EM shielding to deflect space born particle radiation and minimise saturation especially for prolonged space flight.

There are some real benefit's to this technology's though such as operations were a patient may be kept in a very low state of metabolism and so enable more complex and longer procedures to be carried out far more safely.

When and if they can truly shield the body and slow the metabolic rate while maintaining life viability and the ability to resuscitate then this will truly come into it's own as a long duration mission tool for manned flight's but we really need to colonise the moon before we send people off on longer mission's and to do so before the corporations turn it into an open caste mine with robotic He3 extractor's.
edit on 18-4-2015 by LABTECH767 because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 19 2015 @ 12:56 AM
link   
one of the ideas behind torpor is that the shielded area can be much smaller. This means less mass on the ship. again this results in sticking people in a flying phone booth instead of providing more robust long service life spaceships that people won't fry on or go bat poop crazy.
edit on 19-4-2015 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)



posted on Apr, 19 2015 @ 12:43 PM
link   

originally posted by: stormbringer1701
one of the ideas behind torpor is that the shielded area can be much smaller. This means less mass on the ship. again this results in sticking people in a flying phone booth instead of providing more robust long service life spaceships that people won't fry on or go bat poop crazy.


Response in the picture.



posted on Apr, 19 2015 @ 03:48 PM
link   
While this sounds promising, it's still not viable.
If the mission length dictates 14 stasis periods then you are looking at a verrrry long mission.
That puts long term food storage higher up the list.
Just how long can you store foods?
Even MRE's can get nasty after 5 years.



posted on Apr, 19 2015 @ 04:32 PM
link   

originally posted by: samkent
While this sounds promising, it's still not viable.
If the mission length dictates 14 stasis periods then you are looking at a verrrry long mission.
That puts long term food storage higher up the list.
Just how long can you store foods?
Even MRE's can get nasty after 5 years.
Freeze Dried Food can last 40 or more years. storage time goes up with lower temperatures and proper humidity. MREs in proper storage can be maintained well above the recommended lifetime. The military does this. they just open random meals or meals known to have storage issues for inspection every once in a while. even regular canned goods and jar stored items can last a century in edible but unappealing form.

Even improper storage conditions won't prevent the preservation of nitrogen flushed canned goods. the 40 year example i used was stored in someone's attic during the nuclear bomb shelter building years. it gets hot in attics. and they are not humidity controlled.


EDIT: I am reasonably confident that if stored at 33 degrees in proper humidity properly prepared food in nitrogen flushed or oxygen absorber protected cans would last about 100 years probably longer. and in earth gravity the food so stored actually tastes pretty good. great in some cases. if i understand correctly though almost no amount of culinary genius makes food taste good in a zero g space environment. there is a physiological issue involved.
edit on 19-4-2015 by stormbringer1701 because: (no reason given)







 
7
<<   2 >>

log in

join