Most of the problems mentioned at the end of the previous post would disappear if the generational journey were combined with another scientific advance that does not seem, at first glance, impossible: the conservation of human beings in a state of latent life for very long periods of time. This state, which resembles what many living beings do when environmental conditions are unfavorable, is called hibernation when it is a response to cold, and aestivation when it is used as a defense against heat and dry seasons.
Under the current conditions of science, human hibernation is not feasible. It is true that it is possible to reduce the vital rhythm through the application of low temperatures, a technique that is being used in surgery to carry out complex or delicate operations, but the total suspension of vital activities is always transitory and limited to a short period of time, usually measured in hours.
If human beings could be kept in a state
of indefinite and reversible hibernation, interstellar journeys could be made
under the same conditions applicable to generational travel, but future
colonists could travel in a state of latent life. Thus, the same
individuals who began the journey would reach the end; it would not be
necessary to control the population or preserve long-term knowledge; there
would be no problems of psychological adaptation to unknown environments.
Finally, the energy expenditure would be much smaller, since humans would
consume very little in hibernation.
Although its initial goal is not a trip to
the stars, but to Jupiter, the film 2001 A Space
Odyssey uses this method.
If the spacecraft operation and life
support equipment were fully automated, it would not be necessary to
maintain a human crew during the journey. Otherwise, it would be
necessary to perform guard shifts. Many more people (perhaps 100,000) could be
carried on such a voyage, since in hibernation they would need little space and
supplies, and more energy would be available. If the shifts were made up of
four people, the duration of each shift could be two years for a trip of fifty
thousand years, which would advance the biological age of the colonists very
little.
Another form of suspended animation that
has been used in imaginative literature and serious scientific journals
involves freezing embryos, rather than adult human beings. In fact, this
technique is far more advanced for embryos. When the target of the journey was
reached, the embryos could be thawed and developed in automatic incubation
machines (which do not yet exist), and then reared, either by a small number of
adults transported in the same way, or by automatic machines (which also do not
exist). I myself have used this solution in one of my science fiction novels: The History of the Earth-9 Colony.
It is evident that both the
generational journey and the hibernation journey have no return: once
started, no participant can return to Earth. Either of the two methods can be
used if the objective of the trip is the dissemination of human beings to stars
not far from the solar system, but the problem of increasing our knowledge
regarding other planetary systems would not be solved, as those who go there
will hardly be able to send us information in a long time. For this, it would
be necessary to resort to other methods that make the return of the astronauts possible.
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