From the article..Last year, NASA provided funding to aeronautics research and consulting firm SpaceWorks to look into the viability of placing astronauts into stasis for the 180-day trip to Mars. As reported by Discovery, the group has now released some of those findings, developing possible technology to make the (admittedly science fiction sounding) concept a reality.
Pioneers to the Red Planet would be placed in torpor, or a kind of deep sleep associated with hypothermia. Coolant is delivered through the nose, lowering the astronauts body temperature by one degree Fahrenheit an hour. After about six hours, the body goes into a sleep state, only awoken when the coolant flow stops and body temperature returns to normal levels. Or, you know, when some horrifying creature cuts off the power.
"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.
If you think this all sounds a bit too familiar, you're correct. Stasis sleeps are a recurring feature in science fiction, with SpaceWorks' own presentation showing a picture of Alien's Ellen Ripley asleep in her pod. SpaceWorks has also proposed one crew member could remain awake in shifts, while the other astronauts sleep. Or, hey, maybe an android could watch over things? That always turns out pretty well.
NASA isn't the only organization eyeing our closest planetary neighbor. The Mars One project is currently making plans to send a group of selected volunteers on a one-way trip to Mars. If you're one of the lucky participants accepted, perhaps you too can have coolant blown into your sinuses.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/06/nasa-researching-deep-sleep-tech-for-mission-to-mars
