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Space Biotech

ESA To Study Human Hibernation 379

Posted by timothy from the that-report-will-be-a-snooze dept.
colonist writes "The European Space Agency (ESA) plans to study human hibernation for long-duration space voyages (a la 'Alien', '2001'). Although 'practical hibernation mechanisms are at least a decade away', ESA researchers will make initial inquiries into DADLE (D-Ala,D-Leu-enkephalin), an opium-like drug that triggers hibernation in ground squirrels and human cells. Other subjects of interest include dobutamine, a drug that maintains muscle, and the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate."
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ESA To Study Human Hibernation More

ESA To Study Human Hibernation

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  • Alternative Idea (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:21AM (#9878646)
    Study making smarter bears capable of space travel! They already hibernate.

    • Re:Alternative Idea (Score:5, Funny)

      by TopShelf ( 92521 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:35AM (#9878811) Homepage Journal
      They could always use this bear [aol.com] as a test subject. He's already smarter than the average bear...

  • Women on long-term space flights? (Score:5, Funny)

    by garcia ( 6573 ) * on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:21AM (#9878648)
    Perhaps all long-journey astronauts should be women. There is a well known but seldom used gene present in women that causes immediate hibernation. It has been called the sex-gene. Once the word sex is mentioned the women immediately roll over and are asleep within seconds. This will continue until sex has not been mentioned for at least eight hours. If an automated speaker was constructed to force the sex-gene into operation every 6 or so hours the women should (in theory) remain unconscious.

    Yes my gf reads Slashdot. No, I am not getting any tonight.

  • We must look to Teenagers... (Score:5, Funny)

    by BongoBen ( 776302 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:22AM (#9878658)
    for inspiration. They can sleep for days at a time.

  • If it weren't for my daughter... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by grasshoppa ( 657393 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:24AM (#9878675) Homepage
    SIGN. ME. UP.

    Hell ya, I'd go hibernate, and very likely get paid for it. Can you say, "Test subject"?

  • Boring (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:24AM (#9878679)
    This is just the start of a decade long project. Wake me when they capable of making me sleep for a decade.

  • Good job ESA (Score:4, Interesting)

    by strictnein ( 318940 ) * <{strictfoo-slashdot} {at} {yahoo.com}> on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:24AM (#9878683) Homepage Journal
    This type of research is the future of human space exploration, at least for the forseeable future. Sorry, but light speed, or anything near light speed, just isn't going to happen anytime soon.
    The only downside to this is that the space traveler may seem like the trip only lasted a short time period, when it in fact took 10 years. By the time he gets back home his family will have aged 20 years. It actually may be the closest we get to time travel as well (want to see the future? just hybernate for 100 years).

    • Re:Good job ESA (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mirko ( 198274 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:29AM (#9878744) Journal
      Not everybody is attached to their family and relatives, some might even appreciate a century-time shift in order to refresh their relations.

    • Re:Good job ESA (Score:5, Interesting)

      by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:30AM (#9878754)
      By the time he gets back home his family will have aged 20 years. It actually may be the closest we get to time travel as well (want to see the future? just hybernate for 100 years).

      I don't think hibernation prevents aging...

      • Re:Good job ESA (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @12:14PM (#9879855) Homepage
        It may, actually. Assuming such hibernation significantly reduces the basal metabolic rate, it can be surmised that lifespan would likely be extended. For example, the lifespan of lab rats have been greatly extended by placing them on an ultra-low-calorie diet, and it is theorized that this increase in lifespan is due to the decreased basal metabolic rate resulting from such a diet.

      • Re:Good job ESA (Score:3, Interesting)

        by kalidasa ( 577403 ) *
        Sort of. See e.g. this link [earthsky.com]. I think the idea is that it slows aging, but not enough to extend someone's life enough for say interstellar travel. For that we'll need a combination of hibernation and anti-aging mechanisms and anti-disease mechanisms, or some kind of hard stasis (for instance, imagine if you had some kind of nanobot that could separate each individual cell, place each in indefinite stasis, and then reconstruct the whole after a very extended period of time).
    • You often hear geeks lamenting the difficulty in achieving speeds that approach or exceed the speed of light. What people don't realize is that if you wanted to accellerate a spacecraft that didn't weigh very much, say a ton, to anywhere near the speed of light, it would take more energy than the sum of the earth generates in a day or week. Even if the spacecraft and occupants were composed of 100% fissile uranium, you'd still have trouble getting close to the speed of light. e=mc^2.

      BTM
      • no it doesn't! It just takes 3 rings spinning at odd axes!

      • Re:Good job ESA (Score:3, Interesting)

        by AKAImBatman ( 238306 )
        Even if the spacecraft and occupants were composed of 100% fissile uranium, you'd still have trouble getting close to the speed of light. e=mc^2.

        Actually e=mc^2 says we've got more than enough energy to spare. The problem is that fission only converts a small portion of the mater into energy. OTOH, antimatter could possibly give us enough energy to reach light speeds. That is, light speeds relative to Earth. From your own position on a space craft, you'd easily exceed light speed relative to the Earth. O

    • Re:Good job ESA (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AKAImBatman ( 238306 )
      Sorry, but light speed, or anything near light speed, just isn't going to happen anytime soon.

      Odd as it may seem, "something near it" isn't that big of a problem. What we need is lots and lots of antimatter, and working engines that use it. Now here's the difficulty: where do we get the antimatter from? We believe we can make as much as we need, if we just had enough power. Unfortunately, with a efficiency conversion of 0.01% (i.e. for every megajoule you put in, you get 100 joules worth of anitmatter.),

      • Re:Good job ESA (Score:3, Interesting)

        by AKAImBatman ( 238306 )
        BTW, I think the calculator I used gave an incorrect distance traveled. I think it was running into an overflow situation and blew up. This calculator [colorado.edu] is a bit more accurate. A 1G trip of 4 light years, taking into account the deceleration at the half-way mark, gives the following results:

        Trip length: 4.0 light years.
        Acceleration: 1.0 g.
        Time on earth: 5.614136130857504 years.
        Time on ship: 3.460041443177856 years.

        BTW, you all might be interesting in knowing how long a million light-year space-flight might

  • An alternative solution. (Score:5, Funny)

    by mikael ( 484 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:25AM (#9878697)
    ESA researchers will make initial inquiries into DADLE (D-Ala,D-Leu-enkephalin), an opium-like drug that triggers hibernation in ground squirrels and human cells. Other subjects of interest include dobutamine, a drug that maintains muscle, and the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate."

    An alternative solution is to design a virtual environment simulator that will make ground squirrels and Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemurs believe they are jumping across tree branches, when in fact they are piloting an interstellar spaceships.

  • Does cancer hibernate too? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Euphonious Coward ( 189818 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:26AM (#9878701)
    I wonder if tumors stop growing during hibernation. If they do, then everybody with (expected-) fatal cancer can just hibernate until there's a cure.

    Likewise aging...

    • Does cancer hibernate too? - Easier Surgury? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:35AM (#9878809) Homepage
      I wondered the same thing - and going ahead with this, would it be easier to operate on somebody in hibernation?

      Would hibernation be part of a safer anesthetic protocol for surgury? Put the patient into hibernation with local pain killers rather than forcing them into unconsciousness?

      This could be a very useful spin-off of this technology and maybe be more important to humanity than facilitating very long duration space-flight.

      myke

      • Re:Does cancer hibernate too? - Easier Surgury? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Put the patient into hibernation with local pain killers rather than forcing them into unconsciousness?
        And what, precisely, do you see the as philosophical difference between being drugged into hibernation and being drugged into unconsciousness?

        • Re:Does cancer hibernate too? - Easier Surgury? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by mykepredko ( 40154 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @11:02AM (#9879057) Homepage
          And what, precisely, do you see the as philosophical difference between being drugged into hibernation and being drugged into unconsciousness?

          None - the current drugs used to "put somebody under" for surgury and lowering blood pressure/heart rate/respiration are dangerous and require constant monitoring of the patient. If the same function could be provide by a "hibernation drug", I presume that this would be easier on the patient and safer through the course of the surgury.

          myke
          • Another problem with general anesthesias is that the entire body shuts down, including the immune system. So your body doesn't have a chance to start healing itself until you wake up. If the body could be staving off infection and mending cuts during the surgery the patient would have a much shorter recovery time with a higher success rate. I'm not sure if hibernation would help with this problem, but it would be interesting to see.

    • Re:Does cancer hibernate too? (Score:5, Informative)

      by jdmetz ( 802257 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:45AM (#9878895) Homepage
      That would be nice, but unfortunately hibernating is not the same as suspended animation. Hibernating animals still lose muscle mass and use energy. The metabolic rate decreases but does not stop in hibernation.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • The number of people that have ever been born is 106,456,367,669. Imagine only 1% dying of old age that came back. That would be about 1.000.000.000 people. If there is only place for 1% of that, who will decide who comes back and who not.

        I don't think science can bring back the ones that have turned into skeletons. Maybe you could try a seance?
    • Hmm, now IANAB nor do I have any real training in the life sciences, however I am under the impression that cancer is essentially unregulated cell growth. Thus I doubt that hibernation would stop it altogether, as for slowing it, I haven't the faintest idea.

  • Great idea! (Score:4, Funny)

    by NoMoreNicksLeft ( 516230 ) <john.oylerNO@SPAMcomcast.net> on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:26AM (#9878703) Journal
    As long as it's cheap enough I can afford it on my unemployment check, I believe it would be a good idea to simply hibernate for 20-25 years, and bypass the entire recession!

    Where can I buy some of this stuff?

  • Oh yeah, that's comforting... (Score:5, Funny)

    by pergamon ( 4359 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:27AM (#9878711) Homepage
    "Don't worry sir, the device you're about to trust your life to is the result of years of research with the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur."
    • "Here we are strapped to millions of tons of explosives built by the lowest bidder."

      Rock Hound, Armageddon.

      I probably got the quote wrong, but the point is that you already have to be a little loony to get shot into space. X-Prize not withstanding.
  • Ah yes...those family jaunts to the outer rim would be great! Wife: "Great! I knew if I fell asleep we'd wind up in the middle of nowhere!"

  • I hope there going for basic science... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Retric ( 704075 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:27AM (#9878717)
    Interesting but I think they're going to need to work out how to prevent bone loss if you're going to hibernate for a significant portion of the time in space. Anyway I hope there going for a basic science approach to the subject because if dobutamine maintains muscle mass during hibernation then it might also help with coma/bed-ridden patients.

  • Atrophy (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Short Circuit ( 52384 ) <mikemol@gmail.com> on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:28AM (#9878728) Homepage Journal
    Having someone sleep indefinately is only a matter of controlled sedatives. I imagine their biggest problem is going to be organ atrophy.

    If they solve that, then they'll have an extremely valuable spinoff technology that will help everyone from the temporarily wheelchair-bound to the hospitalized.
    • neh, the difference between drug induced sleep and hibernation, is consumption of resources. hibernation means a lowered metabolism, less food consumption, less air to breath... less excretion to handle...

  • Aside from the space travel initiative, this technology could come in handy with people who are sick/dying and would like their dead body frozen. It would be more attractive I think to put someone in suspended animation if they are terminally ill in hopes of a future cure. Because if you are frozen solid by liquid nitrogen after you die; those future scientists will have to figure out how to cure DEATH before they even think about getting to what ails you!

    • those future scientists will have to figure out how to cure DEATH before they even think about getting to what ails you!

      Before that, they have to find a cure for freezer burn.
      • New, from Zip-Loc:

        Tired of that "not so fresh" frostbite feeling you get when travelling to Mars on business? Sick of paying thousands of dollars to reattach digits?

        Cheer up! The new "Zip-Loc Human Storage system prevents 99.999% of cellular damage from the harsh cold of cryogenic stasis! The Yellow and Blue makes Green seal ensures you'll survive!"

        Now available in family size!

  • OK, but will the ESA study how to build (Score:5, Funny)

    by panurge ( 573432 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:29AM (#9878734)
    Heuristic algorithmically programmed computers that don't decide to take over the mission? Science fiction precedent shows that being a hibernating crew member on a long voyage means you don't make it to the end of the movie. I guess we will need some of that old Russian technology with drum timers.

    Also, if the eventual mechanism is based on bear hibernation, how are the astronauts going to wake up and poo in the woods periodically?

  • Instead of hibernating, let them program open source code for the entire trip. All they will need is a sufficient supply of pizza and beer, and there's no need to worry about troublesome human interactions.

  • I want it! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Sediyama ( 527384 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:31AM (#9878759)
    I want to hibernate and wake up in 5 years. So I can afford a Quake 3 compatible video card!

  • Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Score:5, Funny)

    by Esion Modnar ( 632431 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:31AM (#9878767)
    Having a name like that is a survival mechanism. You see, when anybody's hunting them, by the time they say, "Hey, there's a Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur!" it's gotten away clean.

  • Obscure Reference (Score:4, Funny)

    by jdavidb ( 449077 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:32AM (#9878780) Homepage Journal

    The lid above rises and a light comes on. You are in a sponge-lined coffin. The only exit is out.

    The panel has 10 buttons: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey and white.

  • Longhorn (Score:3, Funny)

    by angrist ( 787928 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:36AM (#9878817)
    Sounds like the perfect way to eliminate (subjectively) that pesky wait for Longhorn.....
  • Let me get this right, the ESA is creating an opium like drug to put people into hibernation on long space voyages.

    And this drug work's successfully on ground squirrels.

    Why not just send the squirrels into space, and skip humanity altogether?

  • I offer myself... (Score:5, Funny)

    by abkaiser ( 744418 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:43AM (#9878872) Homepage
    ...To test the "opium-like" drug. I'm that dedicated to scientific advance.

    Of course, the last time I heard something like that, it was from a bartender who suggested a drink and told me "it was as close to legal opium as you could get".

    So, one interesting night later, I have this advice: Stay away from Chartreuse [chartreuse.fr].

  • If ground-squirrel hibernation is similar to bear hibernation, only fat people could be sent. They would then wake up many dozens of pounds lighter.

    'Try the new NASA diet. Just sleep the pounds (and your life) away'.

  • Just.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by the_mad_poster ( 640772 ) <shattoc@adelphia.com> on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:46AM (#9878905) Homepage Journal

    ...send them to my cubicle. The second I enter it, all mental and physical functions shut down for hours.

  • Poor, poor lemurs (Score:4, Funny)

    by nagora ( 177841 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @10:56AM (#9879002)
    the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate.

    A trait it is about to regret <sound of skull-saw starting up>

    TWW

  • Taking the Meds (Score:3, Funny)

    by verloren ( 523497 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @11:03AM (#9879071)
    Other subjects of interest include dobutamine, a drug that maintains muscle, and the Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur, the only primate known to hibernate."

    OK, so I can see how I could take DADLE and dobutamine, but how the hell am I going to inject a dose of Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur?

    Perhaps I could ask Richard Gere.

    • how the hell am I going to inject a dose of Madagascan fat-tailed dwarf lemur?

      This being slashdot, there can be only one answer: Nanotech! That's right, through the upcoming advent of the universal molecular assembler we will create injectable nano-lemurs.

      As silly as the idea is, I prefer that to using a giant needle.

  • someone wake me up after the election. I'm already tired of all 2 of the candidates.

    (ps - I once got a fortune cookie message which read: "bears are not the only creatures to benefit from hibernation". it is now my destiny to hibernate in space. NASA? hire me, please...)

  • How is this different? We already know the ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by nusratt ( 751548 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @11:19AM (#9879230) Journal
    .. effects of hibernation.
    It's the same as spending all your time on slashdot.
    And the biggest effect is that it gets you out of the Finnish army.

  • Seasonal Affective Disorder (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @11:19AM (#9879231) Journal
    Some humans gain weight and lower activity when the days get shorter. Is it possible that we have a vestigial hibernation response already?
    • That's just a vestigial seasonal famine response. Summer is the best time to migrate and food is easy to find, so we get limber and thin and our muscles build up and we eat a lot of small meals. Winter is a bad time to migrate or to find food, so we build up weight and sit around all the time.

  • Reasons the Article doesn't go into.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Artifakt ( 700173 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @11:31AM (#9879364)
    1. Radiation shielding on long term voyages seems to be a real bear of a problem for manned spaceflight to the planets. It might be feasable to put a bunch of shielding around a small compartment with a hybernaut where it wouldn't be feasable to shield all the working and sleeping areas for an awake astronaut.

    2. By extension, a 2001-like approach becomes workable - Put part of the crew into hybernation, rotate them in and out as needed. In 2001, this was supposed to be because the planetside geologists and such had little to do until Discovery was close to Jupiter, and then the security/paranoia factor kicked in. In the real case, a ship might rotate crew to even out radiation exposure, or put a crewman who was loosing bone mass faster than others into hybernation to protect his health.

  • Solution (Score:4, Funny)

    by superdan2k ( 135614 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @11:42AM (#9879511) Homepage Journal
    You know, the ESA doesn't have to spend a dime. All they have to do is drop someone into my job -- it keeps me slowed down, makes me want to sleep, and destroys my motivation.
  • "an opium-like drug that triggers hibernation in ground squirrels and human cells?

    By the time this is working, all the children (potential astronauts) will be immunized against opiates, and unable to hibernate.

  • Opium? Greeeat... (Score:3, Funny)

    by KanSer ( 558891 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @12:02PM (#9879706)
    Hmm... Opium-like substance that puts rats out for long periods of time. Yes, let's definitely try the hibernation thing, but do we want our astronauts hopped up on 'ludes? I guess we could send Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong instead.

  • worthing saga (Score:4, Interesting)

    by joeldg ( 518249 ) on Wednesday August 04, 2004 @01:19PM (#9880568) Homepage
    If you have ever read the worthing saga [amazon.com] the ideas put forth in that book are amazing for what people might do if given the ability to suspend themselves while time goes by.
    Setting huge plans in motion while sleeping away, they end up with an entire section of the populace that tries to "live" as long as they possibly can. It is really an interesting take on how things like this could kind of get out of hand.


    Book Description

    It was a miracle of science that permitted human beings to live, if not forever, then for a long, long time. Some people, anyway. The rich, the powerful--they lived their lives at the rate of one year every ten. Somec created two societies: that of people who lived out their normal span and died, and those who slept away the decades, skipping over the intervening years and events. It allowed great plans to be put in motion. It allowed interstellar Empires to be built.

    It came near to destroying humanity.

    After a long, long time of decadence and stagnation, a few seed ships were sent out to save our species. They carried human embryos and supplies, and teaching robots, and one man. The Worthing Saga is the story of one of these men, Jason WOrthing, and the world he found for the seed he carried.

    Orson Scott Card is "a master of the art of storytelling" (Booklist), and The Worthing Saga is a story that only he could have written.


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