NASA’s 2024 NIAC Program selected deep-space hibernation technology for development

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NASA’s 2024 NIAC Program selected deep-space hibernation technology for development. NASA is also investing in other technologies for the future of space, including: 

  • Solar-powered aircraft 
  • Bioreactors 
  • Lightsails 
  • Astrobiology experiments 
  • Nuclear propulsion technology Induced hibernation may be the safest way for astronauts to travel on long space voyages.  According to scientists, hibernation for long human spaceflights is not science fiction. A hibernating astronaut would save the agency money on water, food, and oxygen. They would also likely wake up in good shape, without many of the negative side effects of long-term bed rest or living in microgravity.

NASA 2024 NIAC Program Selects Deep-Space Hibernation Technology for Development. In the next fifteen years, NASA, China, and SpaceX will make the next great leap in space exploration by sending the first crewed missions to Mars. This presents many challenges, not the least of which is distance

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), hibernation could help humans travel to Mars. Hibernation could reduce the size of spacecraft by a third, save on mission costs, and keep the crew healthy. Hibernating astronauts would consume minimal oxygen and wouldn’t eat or drink much. 

Some say that humans might be able to hibernate during space travel, but it’s not yet possible. However, some animals and birds have their own forms of suspended animation, which could hold lessons for putting astronauts into hibernation

Hibernating on a year-long trip to Mars would not just prevent boredom in a tiny space capsule; it would also save mission cost, as the hibernating crew members wouldn’t need to eat or drink and would even require far less oxygen than those awake

Such experiments would pave the way for a science-fiction-like approach to long-duration space missions that would see crew members placed into protective slumber for weeks or months on their way to distant destinations

For all these reasons, hibernation, also known as torpor, has long been a staple of sci-fi space movies. From “Alien” to “2001: A Space Odyssey,” fictional space travelers have crossed vast distances cocooned unconscious inside high-tech pods while AI machines and android robots keep their spacecraft on a steady course

Despite being a sci-fi trope, putting humans into long-term induced torpor may not be a far-fetched idea after all. Jennifer Ngo-Anh, a research and payload coordinator of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA and a co-author of a recent paper outlining the space agency’s approach to hibernation research, told Space.com that depending on funding availability, the first human torpor trials could take place as early as the mid-2030s

NASA’s 2024 Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program selected deep-space hibernation technology for development. The NIAC program funds the development of long-term, advanced concepts

The 2024 NIAC program selected 13 projects for Phase I awards, each worth up to $175,000. The awards are given to teams that propose unconventional and advanced space technologies. 

NASA is investigating hibernation technologies to allow crews to sleep through most of their voyage. The NIAC program also includes a study to test induced hibernation (also known as topor) on animals in a module on the International Space Station

NASA 2024 NIAC Program Selects Deep-Space Hibernation Technology for Development. In the next fifteen years, NASA, China, and SpaceX will make the next great leap in space exploration by sending the first crewed missions to Mars. This presents many challenges, not the least of which is distance

There’s no evidence that humans can hibernate. Hibernation is a sustained period of reduced body temperature, metabolism, and breathing rate. It’s a coma-like state that’s difficult to wake up from. 

Humans can’t hibernate because our ancestors evolved in a tropical environment where food was plentiful year-round. They had no use for hibernation and never developed the biological mechanisms for it. 

Humans are active year-round. Our evolutionary ancestors arose in equatorial Africa, where it’s relatively warm and hibernation wouldn’t be beneficial.  Humans have only migrated into temperate and sub-arctic latitudes in the last hundred thousand years or so. That’s not long enough to evolve all the metabolic adaptations we would need to be able to hibernate. 

However, torpor can be induced by doctors in extreme circumstances. Torpor is the physiological state of metabolic depression, in which your body temperature, breathing, and energy expenditure drop

Hibernation is not the same as human sleep

Hibernation is a long-term state of inactivity and metabolic depression that allows animals to survive during periods of extreme cold or reduced food availability. During hibernation, an animal’s body temperature drops, heart rate slows down, and breathing becomes shallow. Some animals just slow down and move less frequently during hibernation, but others go into a deep sleep and don’t wake up till spring. 

Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and sensory activity is inhibited to a certain extent. During sleep, there is a decrease in muscle activity, and interactions with the surrounding environment. 

Hibernation is a long-term sleep, while sleep occurs for short periods of time on a regular basis. Although both of these processes are performed to save energy, hibernation is almost becoming half-dead.

Hibernation begins with a non-REM stage, similar to sleep. However, studies on hibernating ground squirrels have found that sleep during hibernation is only non-REM sleep

Hibernation is a deeper sleep than the eight hours humans are supposed to get each night. It’s a deeper kind of rest, and animals sometimes have to “wake up” from their hibernation to get some sleep

Hibernation is an extended form of torpor, a state where metabolism is depressed to less than five percent of normal. During hibernation, an animal’s body temperature drops, heart rate slows down, and breathing becomes shallow. The animal enters a state where they are barely conscious and moves very little. 

Hibernation can last for several months, and animals rely on stored fat reserves to survive. However, hibernation carries risks as the dormant animal is vulnerable to predators and the unpredictable climate

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