Hibernation

Whilst we're all here, here is/was James Hamblin's January article on hibernation. Yes, just like 2001. So, relevant to the Venus project!

As I read this, lowering the metabolism works but, for humans, not all that well. It isn't sleep, so the circulation system isn't flowing and the body isn't repairing itself. That means you rot, from the inside out. The intestines start first (I believe the word is "peritonitis" - you don't want that). Relevant to this cold season, if there's a virus in (say) the lungs, it's multiplying there. In rats, the bowels start rotting after only about a fortnight. UPDATE 11/25: Although in microgravity, cells - and cancers - slow down.

At the least, the population of long term hibernators will need to be sharing some space for a few weeks before undergoing the process, just to ensure segregation from outside germs.

"But bears", I hear. Hamblin does mention them. They cycle in and out from hibernation to [REM] sleep to drowsiness. Hamblin expects our voyagers to be cycling from two-week hibernations into wakefulness - as crew - and back.

To add (more) to this summary: I expect the transports still to require artificial gravity. I allow it's redundant for the hibernation cycle but the sleep cycle requires gravity, for the damage to heal.

If we're talking colonisation, once at the destination there's still the problem of food and air. Mars and Venus don't have any, and now the food and air is less than it was at the start. So the hibernation protocol remains active for those voyagers not involved in setting up the colony. That's the specialists in the voyage itself: pilot and crew.

Once planetside gets sufficient Lebensraum and a surplus of food - looking especially at the 8.6 g of the Venus cloud bubbles - we relax the protocol.

BACKDATE 3/25