Deep sleep for Mars mission...

[AmrlKJaneway]

Will the sci-if staple of stasis chambers for long space missions soon be a reality?

http://au.ign.com/articles/2014/10/06/na...on-to-mars

[stevebowers]

Hmm.

"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," said SpaceWorks Enterprises aerospace engineer Mark Schaffer. But currently, patients are only induced for a period of up to one week. Further studies will need to extend this sleep period significantly.

I wonder if that extension is necessary. If torpor can be induced for a week or so, then the crew could sleep in shifts, waking every week for a few days to take care of the other sleepers. The subjective travel time could be halved, or reduced to a third, if this torpor can be induced repeatedly without ill effects.

[Drashner1]

I saw an article on this on CNN.

Apparently China has done some work on putting people into torpor for up to two weeks at a time. The article goes on to describe a mission using a two week hibernation cycle.

Personally I'd like to get trip time to Mars down to at least three months (which some developments in RL might do) and then combine it with something like this to reduce life support and other needs.

Todd