To keep us humans alive in these space travels that last for years, we will need a lot of food and resources. Which will increase the payload of that spaceship, due to which we will be able to keep less fuel in that spaceship, which will significantly reduce the reach of our spaceship. Besides, such a long journey also has a very bad psychological effect on humans. The easiest way to overcome this problem is through hibernation.
You must have seen in many science fiction movies how humans are kept in deep sleep for many years, where they remain alive for hundreds of years without any food or other things. This technique is called hibernation. But is hibernation possible in the future and how, through this technology, we can keep humans alive for thousands of years? We will know all this in today's article.
Hibernation can prove to be quite revolutionary in future very long space travel. With the help of this technology, we can keep humans in a kind of deep sleep for many years with very little food or other resources. is.
With the help of this technology, we can significantly reduce the food and other resources consumed by humans, due to which we can keep more and more fuel in our spaceship, which will significantly increase the reach of our spaceship. Also, with the help of hibernation, astronauts will be able to protect themselves from problems like ultraviolet radiation, psychological imbalance, muscle loss, and bone loss that occur during space travel.
There are many such creatures present on our planet that hibernate for many months and seasons. To keep themselves alive, these creatures resort to hibernation, where they go into such deep sleep that their bodies use the minimum amount of food and resources to stay alive.
Bears are the most famous creatures that hibernate, but apart from these, many types of snakes, frogs, bats, and turtles, as well as many other creatures, hibernate.
Organisms present on earth mainly use two types of hibernation methods through which they keep themselves alive even in extremely dangerous and harsh cold and hot weather. These methods of hibernation are called true hibernation and tortor.
During true hibernation, organisms already accumulate a lot of fat, after which, in a particular season, they go into a kind of deep sleep for some time. Where their heart rate, body temperature, breathing, and metabolic rate reduce significantly.
For example, during hibernation, the heart rate of squirrels drops from 350 bpm to only 4 bpm. Many other creatures lose half their fat during hibernation.
During Torpor, living beings go into a kind of very deep sleep where their body temperature, heart rate, and metabolic rate reduce considerably. But unlike true hibernation, their deep sleep lasts from a few days to several months.
For example, black bears go into this type of hibernation for about 3 to 5 months, where they also recycle their nitrogen cycle so that muscle entropy can be avoided. Organisms in torpor can wake up from deep sleep at any time, but after waking up, it takes a few hours to several days to return to their normal state.
In both of these methods, Torpor can prove to be very useful for us humans because, with this hibernation technique, we humans can wake up in a very short time, even in an emergency situation. Unlike these animals that hibernate, our human body is not made for any kind of hibernation. In such a situation, we humans cannot hibernate without using any technology or resource.
Scientists have been working on ways to hibernate humans for many years, but so far, therapeutic hypothermia is the only medical treatment that is somewhat similar to hibernation, which is used in many medical procedures and trauma treatments. Under another method of hibernation, an attempt was made to reduce the cellular demand for oxygen and energy by making the rats smell hydrogen sulfide.
But the biggest problem with humans and other mammals is that we are warm-blooded. Its advantage is that it greatly increases our mobility, but its disadvantage is that we have a high metabolic rate, which means that we need a high amount of calories to keep our body functional despite being at rest.
Because of this, we need more food, i.e., energy and oxygen. That means if we want to achieve hibernation, we will have to reduce our metabolic rate significantly, too, without causing any harm to our body.
However, under some special circumstances, we can keep humans in a kind of deep sleep for 14 days in a controlled hypothermic state. But there are many risks to this technique, like blood clots, bleeding, infection, and liver damage.
Also, despite going into hibernation, we will need regular nutrients and fluids to keep our body working and functional because, unlike other animals, our human body is not made for hibernation.
Space agencies like Nasa and ESA are engaged in inventing the method of Torpor Hibernation, under which they render humans unconscious, cool them, and keep them in a capsule in a hypothermic state.
Under Total Parenteral Technology, nutrients and fluids are delivered directly into their bloodstream, which provides them with the necessary energy and also reduces human waste. This technique is used to provide nutrition to elderly people or those who are unable to eat food with their mouths.
But there is a big problem with this hypothermic method. Even with this technique, the metabolic rate of our body reduces by about 70 percent, and our body needs less oxygen and energy. But unlike our body, our brain never sleeps; it is always active. Because of this, in the Passenger movie, the astronauts who returned from hibernation are shown as very tired.
Research has revealed that during deep sleep, our brain releases dangerous toxin chemicals, which can cause Alzheimer's disease over time. Also, because of this, it may take several hours to several days for a person who has gone into deep sleep to regain his strength and awareness. Which can prove to be dangerous in certain emergency situations where they have to complete their work within a few hours only.
Summary and FAQ
But it is hoped that one day, in the future, hibernation will prove to be an important theory in the medical and space worlds. In the future, hibernation will turn the world in a new direction, where humans will be able to go as far in space as they want. Food and water, which used to be an extra burden, will be removed. More and more people in the world will be able to survive with less and less oxygen. Hibernation will change the basic needs of humans. Here are some questions that could arise in your mind: