Sleeping the lightyears away

[Gian]

I don't mean "suspended animation" but would it be possible to put someone in an induced coma for several months or years while travelling to other parts of the solar system?

If so would the following mechanisms be necessary?

I guess a machine would have to keep moving the person's limbs into different positions to prevent clotting and emboli.

And electrodes to keep stimulating the person's muscles to prevent wastage.

I guess the waking crew would have to keep waking the sleepers regular to make sure everything's ok

Sound any good?

[Genady]

I think you better apply for a patent now, before it's too late.

However, keep it either to "lightyears" or to the "other parts of the solar system" as they are not the same.

[Bufofrog]

43 minutes ago, Gian said:

Sound any good?

Not really.  Pumping someone full of drugs to keep them unconscious for a year sounds terrible.  If they could survive I assume they would be pretty useless for months upon waking.

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, Gian said:

I don't mean "suspended animation" but would it be possible to put someone in an induced coma for several months or years while travelling to other parts of the solar system?

If so would the following mechanisms be necessary?

I guess a machine would have to keep moving the person's limbs into different positions to prevent clotting and emboli.

And electrodes to keep stimulating the person's muscles to prevent wastage.

I guess the waking crew would have to keep waking the sleepers regular to make sure everything's ok

Sound any good?

What benefit would that have over having people living  normally? 

[Genady]

What benefits would it have compared to sending robots?

[Phi for All]

5 minutes ago, CharonY said:

What benefit would that have over having people living  normally? 

The only one I can think of is production budget for sci-fi movies involving space travel. Putting a small crew to sleep for a couple of years with advanced magic medicine so they don't age is a standard Hollywood solution. 

[CharonY]

But wouldn't that fall under suspended animation magic?

[Phi for All]

49 minutes ago, CharonY said:

But wouldn't that fall under suspended animation magic?

No more than meds that can induce a coma for a few years with few side effects. I was more focused on the reasoning behind why you'd have a live crew that needed to be put to sleep for extended periods. Movies are the only place I can think of where induced coma is better than having people live normally. They assume the craft is only for travel and can't support a normal life.

[CharonY]

1 hour ago, Phi for All said:

No more than meds that can induce a coma for a few years with few side effects. I was more focused on the reasoning behind why you'd have a live crew that needed to be put to sleep for extended periods. Movies are the only place I can think of where induced coma is better than having people live normally. They assume the craft is only for travel and can't support a normal life.

Fair enough. I think the main magic component for the plot here is really the "not aging" aspect of it. That being said, I faintly recall sci-fi short stories in which artificial comas were used to save resources (e.g. in emergencies), though of course the reasoning remains dubious.

Edit: In a way I think OP is seeking a solution to a problem that is a solution in search of a problem.

[Phi for All]

51 minutes ago, CharonY said:

In a way I think OP is seeking a solution to a problem that is a solution in search of a problem.

Fiction always skips the boring details of living, and sci-fi often skips travel with warp drives and folded space. If we were to send actual humans on a long space flight, it would be criminal to put them to sleep when they could be running experiments and measuring everything they can and basically taking every advantage of a human payload. It seems to me that drugging a live crew until they show up at their destination means that crew has nothing to do until then, which means they probably aren't scientists. And if they aren't scientists, why not take robots?

[Endy0816]

Could be useful as a means to conserve resources when such trips beome routine.

Other options are likely to be more acceptable/possible by that point too though.

 

Main concern would be impact of being comatose on coordination and more general functioning.

[Gian]

15 hours ago, CharonY said:

What benefit would that have over having people living  normally? 

 

11 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Fiction always skips the boring details of living, and sci-fi often skips travel with warp drives and folded space. If we were to send actual humans on a long space flight, it would be criminal to put them to sleep when they could be running experiments and measuring everything they can and basically taking every advantage of a human payload. It seems to me that drugging a live crew until they show up at their destination means that crew has nothing to do until then, which means they probably aren't scientists. And if they aren't scientists, why not take robots?

Well, I mean suppose families are emigrating to start a new life on an Earthlike planet in another star system. Or tourists want to visit the moons of Saturn, but don't want to be sitting in the spaceship for months until they get there?

[Phi for All]

7 hours ago, Gian said:

Well, I mean suppose families are emigrating to start a new life on an Earthlike planet in another star system. Or tourists want to visit the moons of Saturn, but don't want to be sitting in the spaceship for months until they get there?

This assumes a spaceship designed only for travel. For colonists, wouldn't the ship need to be more like a temporary home, with facilities for growing food, manufacturing, and other processes you can continue once you reach the destination? The ship itself might be designed to stay on the surface as a home and power supply until a colony can be built. 

Tourism over multiple years of space flight seems even less likely, although I can see why wealthy tourists would like the idea of sleeping through the boring parts to wake up just in time for the approach to Saturn. Still, unless you can give those years of induced sleep back, I'm not sure enough uber-rich people would approve of losing them. Time is money; if you snooze you lose.