How Animal Hibernation May Help Us Explore Space

By Tom Wright

“Space, the final frontier.” These words from the classic television show Star Trek immediately take science fiction fans on a ride through the cosmos. Sadly, a warp drive that can carry us across galaxies faster than the speed of light is beyond our current technology. But this doesn’t dim our drive to visit and explore other planets; it’s just not going to be a fast journey.

Weighed Down

The closest stars with potentially habitable planets are approximately 20 light-years away. So, at near light speed, it would take over 20 years to reach one. Even a trip to Mars would take nine months—one way.

The basic need for food and water, in addition to other physical necessities associated with human space travel, would require a spaceship so large that it could never leave Earth. How can we overcome the basic needs of sustaining human life on these trips? The answer may be hibernation.

Animal Inspiration

A common element of space travel in science fiction is a hibernation chamber or pod. Typically, it’s a cylinder large enough to hold a person and deliver nutrients to them as they lie dormant for the months or years it takes to cross the cosmos.

But is this feasible? Two lines of research into the animal kingdom are being explored to find out.

“I think this is realistic,” said Katherine Grabek, biologist and co-founder of the company Fauna Bio, in the article "Humans might be able to hibernate during space travel" from Science News Explores. “I think it would be done…by making ourselves as similar as we can to a hibernator.”

One of those hibernators is bears. Part of a bear’s hibernation process includes turning on and off specific genes that control fuel consumption and muscle strength. Humans have many of these same genes, and it may be possible to turn them on and off in humans to emulate the hibernation of bears.

Another option is to go beyond hibernation by freezing astronauts. But it’s not so simple. If you fill a plastic bottle with water and freeze it, the bottle will burst because ice takes up more space than water. Cells in our bodies are mostly filled with water, so freezing could rupture them. Also, ice crystals can be jagged and posssibly rip open cell walls.

A solution, however, may come from wood frogs in the Arctic. When they hibernate, they freeze 65 percent of their bodies, and combat the formation of ice crystals inside of their cells using glucose and urea. This enables them to thaw in warmer months without damaging their bodies. It may be possible to use chemicals to prevent the formation of potentially damaging ice in our bodies when they experience sub-zero temperatures, too.

Still Searching

While we have not figured out how to safely freeze humans or use hibernation to support space exploration, further research could provide insights that lead to breakthroughs in cryobiology and eventually help pave our path to traversing the stars.