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Re: starship-design: Suspended Animation



An acquaintance of mine underwent an accident last year and the doctors chose to put him under an "induced
coma" to improve his chances of recovery. I was told that this also lowered his metabolic rate somewhat. This
seems like a start.
Also, I remember reading (about 10 years ago) about promising research was being done on mammal - not
amphibian - hibernation. My internet searches have not revealed much about the progress attained since then.
If research has not been suspended, I _suppose_ that another 50 years of it could bring about enough
knowledge to induce multi-year long periods of "suspended animation" or "hypo-metabolic state". If a 9:1
ratio of "sleep time" to "waking time" can be obtained by then, the ship could function with "only" 20% of
its complement "awake" at any time. I have the impression that, say, half of those would be undergoing
exercise and recovery (or prep for their next sleep fase). Would 10% or 8% of the complement be enough to
function as crew?

Jonathan J Jay wrote:

> Hello? Is anyone even listening to me. At least 10 e-mails ago I sent the
> following:
>
> >>In fact my opinion would be to send probes followed by two or three
> small 50-75
> >>crew ships to set up a colony and then send two Explorers with 3/4 of
> the >>compliment in suspended animation.
>
> >    Now the we gotten back on the subject, I've had a theory, but I
> >haven't figured the details. I heard from a friend of mine of a
> >surgical procedure that freezes part  of the body so that the blood
> >runs as a thick fluid, very slowly, so they don't lose much blood.
> >With this procedure in mind, I was wondering if it would be possible
> >to freeze the bodies at the given temperature and use nitrous oxide,
> >ether, etc (some sort of anesthetic) to put them to sleep, using IVs
> >and such to provided the needed nutrients to the body.
> >   I'm not trained in any sort of medication or freezing processes, so
> >I just thought I'd ask.
>
>    Was anyone paying attention or did I just humiliate myself in front of
> the many newsletter members. If it must be more in depth, I also heard
> from another that slower blood may mean slower brain function and
> possibly slower groth rate. The anesthetic (by the way, it doesn't have
> to be an anesthetic) is only used to get them to sleep.
>
> Jonathan
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> I will speak ill of no one,
> And all the good I know of everybody.        -Andrew Jackson
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> P.S.: If I did humiliate myself, don't rub it in.
>
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