Soon, astronauts may hibernate through their intergalactic voyages

Deep space voyages to faraway planets might no longer remain a figment of imagination what with researchers claiming having come close to a breakthrough that will enable them to put astronauts into a state of suspended animation.

London, May 28 : Deep space voyages to faraway planets might no longer remain a figment of imagination what with researchers claiming having come close to a breakthrough that will enable them to put astronauts into a state of suspended animation.

Research teams in Boston, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, all US are racing to be first to successfully carry trials on human volunteers so that they go into 'induced hibernation' and sleep safely, possibly for months.

Researchers claim they have developed an injectable mix of salt and ice to cool the blood quickly.

The plasma will rapidly send body temperature from 98.6f (37c) down to 50f (10c).

According to Hasan Alam a surgeon at Massachusetts general hospital and a consultant to the US army, the mixture puts the human body into hibernation by slowing the metabolism, delaying the onset of shock and limiting wound damage.

So far it has worked on pigs, and sent them into a state of suspended animation for several hours.

But researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh, believe this could be stretched to days, then weeks, and months.

Those in hibernation will need to be fed intravenously on a drip-feed system. Hair and nails would still grow and hibernating people would still age, just like those who have fallen into a coma do, the Daily Mail quoted the researchers as saying.

Dealing with the human waste will be one problem though, as metabolism will not drop down to zero levels. Among hibernating animals, only bears seem not to have this problem.

ANI