"Before we can use it on people, everything needs to be adjusted. However,
I believe that a feasible timetable is 10 years."
Within ten years, a scholar with the European Space Agency (ESA) believes
that it will be possible to conduct the first hibernation experiments on
humans.
Such studies would prepare the way for a futuristic strategy for
long-duration space trips in which the crew members would be put into a safe
slumber for weeks or months while traveling to far-off locations.
In addition to keeping the crew members from getting tired on a year-long
journey to Mars, hibernating would reduce mission costs because they
wouldn't need to consume or drink and would even use less air than conscious
crew members. Hibernation has other, more peculiar advantages as well.
Animal studies indicate that astronauts in hibernation may lose much less
body mass than astronauts who are conscious in space. These hibernators
would therefore be prepared to start difficult travel almost as soon as they
awoke upon arrival.
Hibernation, also known as torpor, has long been a mainstay of science
fiction space pictures due to all of these factors. From "Alien" to "2001: A
Space Odyssey," fictitious space passengers have traveled great distances
while being cocooned asleep inside high-tech pods, with android robots and
AI computers guiding their ship on a straight path.
Even though it's a sci-fi cliché, sending people into prolonged induced
torpor might not be such a crazy notion after all. The first human torpor
trials could start as early as the mid-2030s, according to Jennifer Ngo-Anh,
an ESA research and payload supervisor for human and robotic exploration and
a co-author of a recent paper detailing the space agency's
strategy for hibernation research.
"Of course, everything needs to be polished before being used on people.
However, I believe that a feasible time frame is 10 years "said
Ngo-Anh.
This adjusting is already in progress. First experiments have demonstrated
that it is feasible to put normally non-hibernating animals, like rats, into torpor and then successfully bring them back to life a few days later.
Hibernation is induced by a complex process that includes decreased exposure
to light, a time of heavy feeding, and a rigid fast.
According to Jürgen Bereiter-Hahn, professor emeritus of neuroscience and
cell biology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and a member of the
ESA's hibernation research group, "the rats receive a drug, a
neurotransmitter substance, and are brought into a dark space with reduced
temperature." "The issue is that you need to apply the signaling molecule
frequently to keep the condition, even though it functions very well. The
neurotransmitter must be kept at very high amounts, which could have
negative long-term consequences."
Why do we want individuals to go into hibernation?
Is induced torpor ever going to be secure enough to be given to astronauts
in teeny spacecraft with scant medical care and resources? Ngo-Anh has a
distinct viewpoint on the issue. In truth, she claimed, torpor might be the
only option for extended space trips.
For astronauts, losing bone and muscular density is a major problem.
Astronauts can lose up to 20% of their muscular mass in a month, despite
having access to sophisticated fitness equipment and following rigorous
exercise regimens on the International Space Station(opens in new tab).
Their bones progressively become weakened as well. The fragile creatures
being carried by medical staff in wheelchairs and stretchers are frequently
seen in footage of teams returning to Earth. However, after an arrival on
Mars, there won't be any ready support teams.
Bereiter-Hahn stated that "this is a serious issue for pilots in
microgravity." Astronauts must put in a lot of training because, otherwise,
returning to gravity would be extremely difficult for them.
According to research, long-term bed rest has impacts on the human body
that are similar to those of microgravity. It's odd that bed rest while
sleeping doesn't appear to have any such affects. In contrast to a person
emerging from a protracted sickness or coma, an animal emerging from
hibernation displays remarkably high levels of health.
According to Ngo-Anh, when creatures emerge from hibernation, they rapidly
recall their environments. After spending months simply lying and resting in
a cave, they instantly recall where they concealed their food before
hibernating, and they don't actually lose much muscular mass.
Researchers believe that the physiology of the torpor state holds the
secret to its protective benefits. Although the process of hibernation
mimics slumber on the surface, it operates entirely differently within the
body. A brain in hibernation scarcely emits any electromagnetic activity, in
contrast to a brain that is asleep. In torpor, an animal's body temperature
lowers to a level that would otherwise be dangerously hypothermic, and its
heart rate decreases to just a few beats per minute. Even the body's cells,
which normally process or produce nutrition, divide, and die, cease to
function as usual. By all biochemical standards, entering a condition of
torpor is akin to pausing time.
Alexander Choukèr, a professor of medicine and anesthesiology specialist at
the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, who is also a part of
the ESA team, told Space.com that studies have shown that preventing animals
from entering torpor shortens their longevity. "The animals can survive for
five years, for instance, when they have these torpor periods in between. It
might only be four years if the torpor is absent."
The promise of the torpor condition for spaceflight operations is largely
due to this pause-button property. The organization would not only spend
less on water, food, and air thanks to the astronaut hibernating in a
spacecraft headed for Mars. He or she would likely awaken relatively
healthy, free from many of the adverse effects of extended bed rest or life
in microgravity. One of the greatest health worries during long-duration
space trips is the possibility of radiation harm to the slowed-down cells of
a body that is hibernating, but studies have shown that this is not the
case.
Benefit for medication
Hibernation is an intriguing prospect for both travel and medicine because
of its protective qualities. Patients on prolonged bed rest and those in
medically induced coma rapidly deteriorate, just like astronauts in space.
Recovery takes time and is laborious.
People still deteriorate, despite the frequent use of anesthetic, claimed
Choukèr. "If you spend a lot of time in an intensive care unit, the
degradation process that takes over after you depart will leave you looking
like a skeleton. The ability to press the stop icon would be
revolutionary."
A "bridge," as described by Bereiter-Hahn, would be created by minimally
slowing down all living processes, including degradative ones. During this
time, doctors could consider options without feeling the pressure of time
pressure.
According to Bereiter-Hahn, "you can use that time to, for example, create
special antibodies for a tumor and effectively cure that tumor." Also in
organ donation, the patient and the entire organ would be placed into a
state of torpor so that they could be exchanged with much less risk to the
patient.
In fact, Ngo-Anh continued, cardiac and cerebral doctors have long used
cooling to enhance the results of challenging operations.
Choukèr believes that the first person to enter this paused state of being
will probably be a critical care patient, even though the majority of the
present hibernation study is supported by zoology and space organizations.
Torpor will likely help the first person live, and after that, things will
probably proceed much more quickly.
The first person must be exposed to these circumstances, as has always been
the case in medicine, according to Choukèr. "When the risks and rewards are
evenly balanced and leaning more toward the subject's advantages, case
number one is where you implement [the new method]. After that, you can
proceed from there."
Choukèr is unconcerned if medicine hasn't completely figured out the
intricate biochemical workings of the torpor state by then, including all of
its neurotransmitter communication and environmental variables. Just as they
have for decades, patients (and pilots) may continue to gain from general
anesthesia.
Choukèr said, "We use [anesthesia] every day, but we still don't fully
comprehend how it operates. "Over the past 20 years, we've learned a lot,
but undoubtedly, when they first began administering anesthesia, there was
no real understanding of how this was operating in the brain."
However, the experts concur that sleep would need to function without
complex life support systems and continuously watched intravenous lines in
order to be useful in orbit. As a result, it might take much longer to get
from patient one to a voyage to Mars.
