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Re: starship-design: Cryogenic Suspension



bugzapper wrote:
> Thanks for pointing out these options. Freezing is only needed to keep
> people from dying, whether from lapse of time, or from shorter term factors.
> Hibernation I would expect to require constant maintenance, at a level of
> intensive care comparable to that needed by a coma patient.

Does a bear need a hospital every winter.

> Respiration and
> circulation must be maintained. If nutrient levels in the blood fall, the
> subject must be revived to eat. Since body cells are active, the
> microorganisms of the body certainly are. Hibernation in nature is a
> ninety-day phenomonon, at a constant physiological cost. It does not stop
> the metabolism, nor prevent aging. I don't see much advantage of this over
> the active state, at least enough to compensate being so vulnerable. Should
> we find out what hibernation is, and how to induce it in humans, and how to
> extend it for years, and how to ward off starvation, and how to maintain the
> bodily tone, and how to prevent biodegradation of the tissues consumed by
> microbes, I think it would still be too risky.

  But who says it has to be a 60 or 90 days at a time.A two week sleep
followed be one week on may be good starting point for inter-planetary
trips.I see hibernation as a start for low temperature sleep around +4C.
> 
> Rejuvenation is a very interesting concept. An organism's cells are limited
> to about fifty generations of cell division. Theory among biologists points
> toward the progressive shortening of the telomeres of chromosomes, the
> non-coding repetitive DNA sequences at their exposed ends, as the cause of
> this limitation. Recent work
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/01/980119073637.htm
> indicates some possibilities in this regard. Life extension by genetic
> treatment now glimmers as a remote posibility on the far horizon. I don't
> feel, however, that you and I should place this among our immediate
> concerns.
> 
> What I'm saying, is my proposal is immediate and concrete. If you can spare
> me a dozen hogs, a tank of liquid helium, and 2748 platinum needles, I can
> show you if it works or not. Experiment can provide a decisive answer to any
> related questions of theory. To consider an alternative to this method, we
> need it to be a comparable plan, at the same level of specificity.

why all that? use hamsters and steel needles. Liquid nitrogen is cheap.
Ben. 
> Johnny Thunderbird

-- 
"We do not inherit our time on this planet from our parents...
 We borrow it from our children."
"Luna family of Octal Computers" http://www.jetnet.ab.ca/users/bfranchuk