Does Cryogenic Freezing Actually Work? — Cryonic Sleeping
Are you a fan of movies? You are? Well, have you seen science fiction movies from Christopher Nolan’s award-winning blockbuster, or Interstellar, or maybe Ridley Scott’s Aliens (from the year 1979) and possibly James Cameron’s Avatar (from the year 2009)? Do you notice any similarities between both? If you answered, “it was pretty awesome” then we have the same remarks, but there was also one other common thing for both movies and that is Cryogenic Sleep.
These science-fiction movies and even stories have long been a go-to for predictions of what the future has in store for us. We’re continuously creating innovative ideas to advance technology, from military drones to self-driving cars, the technology industry has really brought a number of those ideas into existence.
We’ve always perceived the future to be what we’ve seen in the movies, and it is no surprise that NASA is keen on actually transforming this fictional technology into a real-life application. With the ongoing improvements and advancements in technology, they’re definitely going to benefit from it if they manage to pull it off.
Do you think it’s possible?
SLEEP DEPRIVATION
Most of us are getting less than the needed amount of sleep, some even go on days without sleeping or sleeping at irregular hours of the day; slogging around our workplace like zombies that are auto-piloted by coffee.
According to the American Sleep Association, sleep deprivation has been noted to possibly be a major issue. 35% of adults stated that they were getting less than the suggested minimum of 7 hours of sleep while 38% said that they are accidentally falling asleep throughout the day. Even despite the lack of sleep, many individuals have stated over their social media platforms regardless of the amount of sleep, they still seem to be sluggish, tired, and groggy.
The intense pace of our lives needs us to be rested, alert, and awake, in order for us to be efficient. Now we don’t want to get caught sleeping on the job by our boss right? Nor having to rush on projects due to falling asleep during the time we have to do them. This is the same within the world of space exploration, imagine having a long list of duties, it could be really dangerous to fall asleep on the task.
CRYOGENIC SLEEP
Human bodies are not meant for space. If you’ve seen in movies, we require too much maintenance to travel our way through the stars. We need a steady supply of things that do not exist from space — namely water, food, and most especially oxygen. If you imagine, would we be able to survive in an icy vacuum without being sustained with our needs? we’d probably go crazy without distractions and a space to move. If you’ve seen the movie “The Martian” Matt Damon had to utilize his resources, and use whatever he knew about to survive.
Aeronautic engineers believe that they have found the key to solving the puzzle … and that is to put your space travelers in a long-term cryogenic and human hibernation.
Now, what do you think Cryogenic sleep is?
In other terms, it is also called cryosleep or suspended animation.
Cryogenic sleep actually refers to deep sleep by keeping the body at super-low temperatures. By preserving the body at these low temperatures, the body’s metabolism is diminished to its lowest conceivable level. Now you’re probably imagining a person being frozen, or enclosed in an ice block.
The concept for this is that the low temperatures will keep the body’s vital functions intact while the rest of the body goes into a hibernation-like state, like what you see in most mammals, that are preserved.
Interestingly, NASA and SpaceWorks Enterprises are currently developing a stasis chamber, in contrast to the individual pods like those we see in the movies, which could induce an extended state of torpor brought by lowering the body’s temperature to mild hypothermia which would allow astronauts to snooze for at least two weeks on end during longer missions.
Apparently, astronauts do not realize that they are being frozen to sleep. But according to an article by SYFY, there is no need to fear being frozen to sleep because it actually counteracts potential injury to bodily tissues that could result from hypoxia and could also prevent the harmful side effects of microgravity exposure. Sounds rather risky, don’t you think? However, if they manage to make this work, it would really be a game-changer for all of us.
FOOD AND NUTRIENTS
Based on what we know, do astronauts who go through this starve inside their chambers? What about their food and nutrients To guarantee that they get the correct nutrients and ousts toxins, their body will be connected to an intravenous drip and catheter. And in that way, they will still receive the food and nutrients that their body needs.
MUSCLE PROBLEMS
On the other hand, placing astronauts to sleep can cause muscle problems. Like coma patients, the longer they are in a vegetative state, the longer they have to rehabilitate their bodies until they wake up. Just as in cryogenic sleep, if the body isn’t moving, it won’t get better. If the human body is unable to execute workouts for an extended period of time, the muscles and bones are likely to fail. That will be a nightmare to wake up from. And if your body isn’t in decent shape, it would make it difficult for you to perform the most simple, daily tasks.
So, how can they deal with such a problem? To ensure that the muscles in our bodies remain healthy, electrical pulses will be used to elicit muscle stimulation. These pulses will trick the muscles into believing that the body is okay with the atrophy or muscle decay, enabling the astronauts to return to function soon after waking up after being unconscious for too long.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Another question would be who would travel?
If the right artificial intelligence is built into the spacecraft, it could handle the spacecraft’s basic day-to-day operations. Another potential alternative is for the crew to serve in shifts of four people, with two people involved for the first few weeks of a long space journey. Then they will awaken the others. They will then awaken the other two and trade places with them.
AI is certainly dangerous, and while it can handle most problems that could happen inside the spaceship, it may simply go rogue and attempt to slaughter everyone.
OTHER COMPANIES USING CRYOGENICS
Aside from NASA and SpaceX, several other organizations use cryogenics to save a life. Alcor, the world pioneer of cryonics, is a prime example of this. They assume that if life’s vital foundations can be maintained, it can be stopped and restarted, and that “when today’s treatment fails, cryonics takes over.”
The cost of cryopreservation is $200,000 for the whole body and $80,000 for the brain. And if it involves emptying your wallet, often people pay in advance to ensure that their life can be prolonged or halted. According to The Sun, a Thai couple decided to have their late daughter’s brain cryogenically frozen after her tragic death from brain cancer in 2015, just before her third birthday, in the expectation that one day, they will be able to get their daughter’s life back, saying, “I am convinced that we are going towards deathlessness.” “That will be Einz’s moment,” her father says. There is already a lot of testing to be done before this can be completely built. Although a rabbit’s brain has been successfully resurrected since being frozen, researchers are yet to develop a means of maintaining memory and proper brain function.
We will see a lot of cryopreservation in the coming years, and we may also sleep our way to the stars. Wouldn’t it be so cool to experience something like this? But I personally think it’s also quite scary to wake up after a few months or years without being that much aware and have to catch up with society.
