Astronauts Will Be Put In Hibernation For Deep Space Travel

The hibernation regime of humans, which aims to assist humans in space, is being studied by ESA - The European Space Agency. This has been a practical research topic as it brings enormous benefits to human space travel. The topic has been mentioned in many popular science fiction movies such as Alien, Passengers and so on, where astronauts are in the states of suspended animation when traveling into deep space. 

In an article published on Phys.org, ESA mentioned the establishment of a dedicated team that studies the hibernation of astronauts in manned space travels. In which, the sub-topic of the advantage of hibernation in space missions to surrounding planets like Mars is underway. The ESA team conducted research based on a real mission where six astronauts were sent to Mars and returned in five-years-time.

The hibernation regime will be thoroughly studied by the ESA, from the current state of human hibernation to the way hibernation affects the design of space exploration tasks in a systematic level, which involves adjusting the designs inside the spacecraft, protection against radiation, logistics, and energy consumption. 

The results showed that, during the 180 days of the journey to Mars, hibernation occurred in small chambers and caused the spacecraft's mass to decrease by a third, which was because of the mass decrease of the crew area as well as consumables. The pods' soft shells would then darken, causing the internal temperature to reduce.

When the astronauts spent a lot of time on their hibernation, they completely avoided radiation exposure. For long periods of time when astronauts are in hibernation, autonomous operations will have to be maintained throughout the mission, including optimizing artificial intelligence, aiming to maintain the system performance until the astronauts wake up.