{"id":72236,"date":"2020-12-14T14:41:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T19:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=72236"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:17","slug":"hibernating-lemurs-space-travel","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/hibernating-lemurs-space-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Hibernating lemurs may be the key to cryogenic sleep for human space travel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Hibernating lemurs may be the key to cryogenic sleep for human space travel\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Science fiction is shifting into reality. With humanity\u2019s plans to return to the moon this decade<\/a> and further ambitions to travel to Mars in the next, we need to figure out how to keep astronauts healthy for these years-long missions. One solution long championed by science fiction is suspended animation, or putting humans in a hibernation-like sleep for the duration of travel time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can turn to nature for guidance and a potential solution to this challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
\n Primates have been used in space research for decades. Space pioneer Miss Baker, a squirrel monkey, rode a Jupiter IRBM into space in 1959 and returned safely.<\/span>
\n (NASA\/Marshall Space Flight Center)<\/a><\/span>
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It\u2019s cold and dark out there<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Space is unforgiving. In this freezing void of darkness there is no oxygen, no gravity and no protection against the constant shower of cosmic radiation. Humans have evolved under a constant gravitational pull<\/a> \u2014 so when you put people into space, strange and dangerous things happen to their bodies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, scientists and engineers working with astronauts on the International Space Station have innovated and continue to address these problems. For example, we know that spaceflight leads to loss of muscle and bone density<\/a>, since our bones and muscles do not need to work against the pull of gravity to move us around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we still do not know how to address other space-related medical issues, including immune system alterations<\/a>, problems with vision<\/a> and bombardment with hazardous cosmic radiation<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These physiological challenges are combined with the technological difficulties of sending multiple humans on these long missions where they face logistical complications of packing and allocating enough provisions and supplies, as well as social issues of coping with extreme isolation in deep space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting the body on pause<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Suspended animation and biostasis<\/a> may elicit science fiction images of humans in cryosleep pods. If we could put humans in a state of suspended animation by greatly slowing or even fully halting metabolic activity, we could alleviate issues surrounding space travel: time, health concerns, spacecraft size and supply allocation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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