Deep Sleep Exploration

[Super George]

How far away are we from being able to place astronauts into a deep sleep (cryogenic sleep?) to avoid the problem of resourses being stretched and boredom setting in?

[nacnud]

Well it's easy to place astronauts into cryosleep, the hardpart is waking them up again.

We are a long long way from being able to do that.

[Colby]

Yeah, that whole waking up part is tricky . However, what are some propulsion ideas out there that could theoretically take someone to another star system? No, I'm not talking about warp drive.  If you post a propulsion design, try to list some of its major problems, too (keeping things realistic).

[HailColumbia]

wasent there a proposed orion type ship that could reach bernard's star in like 20-some years?

[FransonUK]

How do you actually put someone into cryo sleep?

[HailColumbia]

FransonUK - 25/11/2005  1:02 PM

How do you actually put someone into cryo sleep?

Using technology that dosent exist.  when you freeze someone the ice particles are really sharp and the cells get perforated, resulting in death.  you can freeze someone, they just wont ever wake up.

[Orbiter Obvious]

So is there a solution to long distance explorations? Simply find a faster way to travel?

[CuddlyRocket]

HailColumbia - 25/11/2005  4:58 PM

wasent there a proposed orion type ship that could reach bernard's star in like 20-some years?

Yup, Project Daedalus.

[lmike]

Unfortunately, there has been very slow progress in this area... organisms can be frozen for a (short) period of time to be revived later (and I've witnessed it with a dog in an experiment after 4 hours) BUT, to do it longer the vital organs (heart) have to be removed and stored separately.  And a blood (substitute) has to be pumped in... Some of the efforts in this area for the Earth problems... http://www.biotimeinc.com/