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If astronauts are in a state of suspended animation, or hibernation like a bear, won't they still age (although much more slowly) and thus unless a spaceship can approach the speed of light and make time slow down then even in such a state where all metabolic processes are greatly slowed aren't the distances in space still so great that a crew still could not live long enough to complete a journey to a star?

Submitted: 124 days and 5 hours ago.

Category: General

Value: $9

Status: CLOSED

Posted by JTess 124 days and 5 hours ago.

Answer

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This has been a proposed theory for an astronaut or crew to reach the end of an instellar journey. The suspended animation is supposed to slow all the bodily functions to the point where it would take special equipment to pick up any readings showing life. Granted the aging process would continue, but at such a slow rate that very long distances in space could be traveled.

Unfortunately, there is no hard evidence as to what the long term affects would be on humans, because the longest suspended animation of a human has only been a few hours at a time.

124 days and 4 hours ago.

Reply

thank you, I will be accepting your answer, but I just wondered: wouldn't a spaceship still have to travel at an incredible speed (much much faster than the current shuttle)?

Accepted Answer

I guess that would depend upon how far into space that the mission was intended for. There is no evidence as to how long a human could actually live in suspended animation. For example, if 1 year of suspended animation was equal to 20 years of our life. A 10 year mission, our time, would equal 200 years for the astronaut! I'm sure they could travel very deep into space with the current shuttle if they were able to survive 200 years in suspended animation. Sounds a bit like Star Trek, but anything is possible.

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Expert:	JTess
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Answered:	7/21/2009

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