Sleeping Our Way to Mars

The Future of Human Hibernation in Space Travel

Imagine boarding a spacecraft on Earth and waking up nine months later in orbit around Mars, feeling as refreshed as if you had just had the best night's sleep of your life. This is not the stuff of science fiction movies anymore — it’s the cutting-edge reality that scientists are building right now, and it could revolutionise the way that humans explore the cosmos.

The current reality of Mars travel is brutal. Nine months trapped in a metal tube hurtling through the deadly vacuum of space, with astronauts facing crushing isolation, mind-numbing boredom, and the constant terror of cosmic radiation slowly damaging their DNA. Their bones weaken, muscles atrophy, and their psychological state deteriorates in ways that could jeopardize entire missions.

But what if we could simply... skip all of that?

The secret lies in something doctors have been perfecting for decades: therapeutic hypothermia. During the most complex heart surgeries, medical teams cool patients' bodies down to 18°C — a temperature so low that their hearts can stop beating entirely. At these frigid temperatures, the human body enters a state where cells need barely any oxygen or nutrients to survive.

The science behind it is mind-blowing: when your body temperature drops, your metabolism crashes by up to 90%. Your brain, normally a power-hungry organ consuming 20% of your body's energy, becomes incredibly efficient. Your heart slows to a whisper. Your entire biological system shifts into an ultra-low-power mode that would make your smartphone jealous.

NASA and SpaceWorks Enterprises have taken this medical breakthrough and asked an audacious question: "What if we could keep astronauts in this state for months?" Their answer could transform everything we know about space exploration.

Picture this: astronauts in specially designed "sleep pods", like something from a sci-fi thriller, but powered by real, proven science. These pods would carefully control body temperature, monitor vital signs, and maintain the delicate biological functions.

But here is where it gets truly fascinating; the European Space Agency recently discovered that hibernation might also protect astronauts from one of space travel's deadliest threats — cosmic radiation. 

Scientists believe that hibernating bodies activate powerful cellular repair mechanisms that could fix this radiation damage faster than it accumulates. It’s like having a built-in shield made from your own biology.

The proof of concept is already working. Researchers have successfully hibernated pigs — animals that don’t naturally hibernate — cooling them down for hours and warming them back up with no apparent harm. These are not animals that evolved to sleep through winter; they are mammals just like us, proving that hibernation can be artificially triggered in species that never developed the ability naturally.

The next crucial step? Primates. If scientists were to safely hibernate our closest evolutionary relatives for extended periods, it could be a matter of a decade before human trials could begin.

The roadmap is breathtakingly ambitious: short human hibernation trials lasting weeks could happen within ten to fifteen years. If successful, the 2050s could see the first hibernation-enabled Mars missions launching from Earth.

Imagine the possibilities; missions to Jupiter's moons, or even asteroid mining expeditions — all made possible because we learned to sleep our way across the solar system.

The longest part of your journey to Mars might soon be the taxi ride to the launch pad.

Illustration by Clemmie Swiffen