Is Human Hibernation Possible? Going to Sleep for Long Duration Spaceflight

We know trips in space will take a long time. Can we go to sleep for the journey and then wake up when we arrive?
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Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / [e-mail]
Karla Thompson - @karlaii
Chad Weber - [e-mail]
We’ve spent a few episodes on the Guide to Space talking about just how difficult it’s going to be to travel to other stars. Sending tiny unmanned probes across the vast gulfs between stars is still mostly science fiction. But to send humans on that journey? That’s just a level of technology beyond comprehension.
For example, the nearest star is Proxima Centauri, located a mere 4.25 light years away. Just for comparison, the Voyager spacecraft, the most distant human objects ever built by humans, would need about 50,000 years to make that journey.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t anticipate living 50,000 years. No, we’re going to want to make the journey more quickly. But the problem, of course, is that going more quickly requires more energy, new forms of propulsion we’ve only starting to dream up. And if you go too quickly, mere grains of dust floating through space become incredibly dangerous.
Based on our current technology, it’s more likely that we’re going to have to take our time getting to another star.
And if you’re going to go the slower route, you’ve got a couple of options. Create a generational ship, so that successive generations of humans are born, live out their lives, and then die during the hundreds or even thousands of year long journey to another star.
Imagine you’re one of the people destined to live and die, never reaching your destination. Especially when you look out your window and watch a warp ship zip past with all those happy tourists headed to Proxima Centauri, who were start enough to wait for warp drives to be invented.
No, you want to sleep for the journey to the nearest star, so that when you get there, it’s like no time passed. And even if warp drive did get invented while you were asleep, you didn’t have to see their smug tourist faces as they zipped past.
Is human hibernation possible? Can we do it long enough to survive a long-duration spaceflight journey and wake up again on the other side?
Before I get into this, we’re just going to have to assume that we never merge with our robot overlords, upload ourselves into the singularity, and effortlessly travel through space with our cybernetic bodies.
For some reason, that whole singularity thing never worked out, or the robots went on strike and refused to do our space exploration for us any more. And so, the job of space travel fell to us, the fragile, 80-year lifespanned mammals. Exploring the worlds within the Solar System and out to other stars, spreading humanity into the cosmos.
Come on, we know it’ll totally be the robots. But that’s not what the science fiction tells us, so let’s dig into it.
We see animals, and especially mammals hibernating all the time in nature. In order to be able survive over a harsh winter, animals are capable of slowing their heart rate down to just a few beats a minute. They don’t need to eat or drink, surviving on their fat stores for months at a time until food returns.
It’s not just bears and rodents that can do it, by the way, there are actually a couple of primates, including the fat-tailed dwarf lemur from Madagascar. That’s not too far away on the old family tree, so there might be hope for human hibernation after all.
In fact, medicine is already playing around with human hibernation to improve people’s chances to survive heart attacks and strokes. The current state of this technology is really promising.
They use a technique called therapeutic hypothermia, which lowers the temperature of a person by a few degrees. They can use ice packs or coolers, and doctors have even tried pumping a cooled saline solution through the circulatory system. With the lowered temperature, a human’s metabolism decreases and they fall unconscious into a torpor.
But the trick is to not make them so unconscious that they die. It’s a fine line.
The results have been pretty amazing. People have been kept in this torpor state for up to 14 days, going through multiple cycles.
The therapeutic use of this torpor is still under research, and doctors are learning if it’s helpful for people with heart attacks, strokes or even the progression of diseases like cancer. They’re also trying to figure out if there are any downsides, but so far, there don’t seem to be any long-term problems with putting someone in this torpor state.

[@Kwodlibet]

My record sleeping is 16 hours. True, not 50.000 years, but I feel I can do better - I will train for you Fraser and for Science!

[@frasercain]

+Kwodlibet napping for science!

[@Snowy123]

Kwodlibet 16 hours? Rookie hours I've done 52 come back when you do at least 40.

[@thelittlestmig3394]

52 hours? How do you manage that? My personal record is bit over 28 hours.

[@Sagarmaatha8848]

My is 48 though.

[@TheRolemodel1337]

sleeping and staying in bed isnt the same :p i cant imagine sleeping 20+ hours without waking up in between. ive been awake for 5 days once and just slept like 12h after

[@imatthewryan4076]

Born too late to explore the planet, born too early to explore the universe. Thanks mom...

[@frasercain]

Just need to merge with the robots. You'll make it.

[@WannabeMarsanach]

You can still explore the planet. You just don't need to make your own maps anymore.

[@darthmortus5702]

You are right honey, I am so sorry for making you exist -Your mom

[@michaelbuckers]

Born just in time to explore dank memes.

[@esuil]

Born just in time to create history and make it possible for humanity to explore the universe, instead of just using what others created in the past. ;)

[@config2000]

I've been practicing for years already. 8 hours of sleep at home, and another 9 hours at work.

[@frasercain]

You're ready. Little did you realize all this training would have a purpose.

[@nqinadlamini]

I would happily volunteer. This is short-cut to immortality. I will obviously not have the 50k years of memories, but still knowing that I have outlived most living things lifespan, will make me very smug.

[@komix7556]

Nqina Dlamini yes I would love to also

[@johnwang9914]

+Nqina Dlamini You may be willing to volunteer but who would be willing to invest in a 50,000 year one way trip? Given our current economic models, a private investor would require a return on investment at least equivalent to other investments available to them. Many investors seek at least a 12% per annum ROI therefore for a $1 investment in such a project, they would want $1 * 1.12^50,000 = $7.964 *10^2,460 which would likely far exceed the wealth in the entire human economy at that point in time. Plus, what could you possibly transmit back to Earth that would be worth that much, a youtube video?

[@nqinadlamini]

You are thinking about this in a 2017/8/9.... way. A 50k year investment requires a complete change in the human behavior. We are talking almost free energy, with kind of planetary/solar system government, etc. The money issue becomes irrelevant, think Startrek universe.

[@bozo5632]

+Nqina Dlamini - sure, economics will be different, but local users of resources will still have to decide to send some of their wealth away forever, which is a loss in any economic model. OTOH, economics isn't as rational as it's cracked up to be. It's about as rational as voodoo, tbh. Nowadays we sometimes buy fireworks, probably billions of dollars worth every year. And fireworks do not make good investments. Maybe interstellar colony fleets will be cheap as bottle rockets. Maybe it will be worth a few pennies to see the fleet launch. Not joking.

[@exlibrisas]

"I'm gonna talk about a probe to Uranus to study it's gas." He couldn't resist...

[@frasercain]

I know you guys won't be able to resist, so I figured I'd set the right tone.

[@ergohack]

Fraser Cain changing the pronunciation the second time you said "Uranus" definitely made it stand out.

[@Billy-bn1rp]

exlibrisas and 69 months travel to mars

[@HAL-cp4mt]

There is nothing worse than a smug tourist face .

[@opnavesea]

the Amish?

[@brenton2561]

HAL 9000 a smug cop is never fun

[@joedufour8188]

Martin Shkreli's face.

[@jjramos46]

Aaron Rodgers

[@jakestockton4808]

Hal, please open the pod bay doors...

[@-kxvin-5239]

I volunteer as tribute

[@frasercain]

+Kevin C-137 I'm not sure this journey requires a human sacrifice

[@MattJohno2]

Heck, I'd sacrifice myself for science. Hell yeah, sign me up!

[@johnwang9914]

+Kevin C-137. The torpor chambers proposed by SpaceWorks plan to modify existing medical equipment so the process has already been used successfully albeit often with heart attack or stroke victims where the alternatives are not desirable but basically the current NASA concept doesn't need volunteers. As to actual cryogenic freezing, well I don't think you would want to be a volunteer for that, even the current crop of idiots who have themselves cryogenically frozen shortly after their death in hopes that future medical procedures could both revive them and address whatever killed them in the first place are overlooking the point that even if the technology was advanced enough to try a revival and someone was motivated enough to do so, there would only be one chance to get it right with you. A better approach would be to after your natural death, have your brain sliced micrometer by micrometer, photographing each layer and mapping out your neurons and synapses into a digital database. Digital records can be duplicated and preserved indefinitely with no loss of information and multiple attempts are possible to revive your conscience whether it's in a computer simulation or by bioprinting a new body and brain could be done from the same baseline till the process is figured out. A far more likely approach then opting for something as foolish as Cryonics. Keep in mind that regardless, you need to leave a large enough fund to pay for the storage of your neural database in the digital idea or of your cryogenically frozen body in the foolish Cryonics option and to both pay for your revival and your second life. If you really want to volunteer, learn about investing and max out your IRA and 401k or whatever tax deferral system is available in the country where you live.

[@jameshudson4410]

John Wang that was a really long post and all I came away remembering is your surname

[@ferdihound]

NO I VOLUNTEER

[@MusiCaninesTheMusicalDogs]

Congratulations for 100k, Fraser! You deserve it for taking the time to interact with your viewers, being so well humored and being open to making collaborations with other great people, giving them the chance of exposing their work to a broader audience!

[@BaronVonQuiply]

There needs to be a sci-fi trope about colonists venturing out to a new Earth II only to arrive and discover they are now effectively tourists visiting a shopping center / theme park founded by people who left decades later on faster star ships.

[@frasercain]

Hah, I'm sure this has been covered by someone.

[@davecasey4341]

The trilogy, Across The Universe, dealt with that idea.

[@Nilsy1975]

Baron von Quiply I remember a cartoon that did cover that idea, but I can't recall it's name.

[@DrewLSsix]

Fraser Cain. The Coyote novels by Allen Steele did something like that. A slow moving colony ship escapes a despotic regime on earth and spends iirc centuries traveling to a new planet where they suffer the challenges of surviving on an alien planet. Within a few years another ship shows up that traveled there much faster then theres a stargate that allows instant travel to earth and Coyote. Then aliens show up and just kinda hang out. Its a good couple books!

[@BigFrakkinOgre]

Baron von Quiply The original Guardians of the Galaxy comics(no raccoons, no tree people, no "Starlord", no green chick) dealt with this. Major Vance Astro was sent on a sleeper ship to Alpha Centauri, which took a few centuries, and was shocked to see banners in english proclaiming "Welcome Major Vance Astro".

[@leoborros]

Your content is so good im actually surprised you only have 100.000 subscribers. You guys deserve WAY MORE. Keep up the good work and thanks for the great videos.

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot. It just shows how you need to stick at something for a long time and put a lot of work into it before you can gain a lot of traction. :-)

[@bozo5632]

+Fraser Cain - Seems to be working - congratulations and well done!

[@foobarbecue]

It's tricky to make a video that's interesting but not sensationalist, and informative but not boring. I'm really impressed at how well you've hit that balance here.

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@smguy7]

Thanks for this fascinating video, Fraser. I've shared it with my mates on Facebook.

[@erictaylor5462]

1:50 Another problem you'd have. Building a complex machine that could run, nearly perfectly for hundreds or thousands of years. We would be faced with limited spare parts, and perhaps no way to repair some systems if they broke down.

[@frasercain]

Absolutely, especially if everyone's asleep. It would make for a cool sci-fi story, though.

[@dermanparriot]

Fraser Cain it's called passenger have u watched it

[@hp2084]

Well and I wouldnt want people to judge me like Chris Pratt for my human emotions, for waking up a mate for myself. ;)

[@bozo5632]

Self-assembling, self-repairing machines, a sufficient store of raw materials from which to make replacements, and an efficient recycling system. Sorted

[@theboy1625]

If hibernation chambers do get invented in our time I will definitely use them

[@frasercain]

Okay, I'll let you know when NASA is looking for volunteers.

[@zvpunry1971]

They will forget you, they always do. Just to name a few: - Philip J. Fry - Joe Bauers - Daniel McCormick

[@SoloAdvocate]

Right, totally eliminates the problem of being born to early to travel space. Except it creates a new one of a vintage mind in a futuristic setting, hopefully easily remedy by some form of rehabilitation.

[@josephatnip2398]

ThatBoy Alhundo why so you can go to sleep and wake up in a world thats even worse off than it is now it's not getting better it's getting worse

[@Ed-sg4iy]

+ThatBoy Alhundo, That is because your life is not worth living.

[@drse9673]

Hey Fraser always been interested in Space and just how incredibly amazing it is to learn. Just thought i'd comment and tell you how much I appreciate what you do and for providing me knowledge on the wonders of our universe. Please keep up the great work you do as this is my go to channel for space related videos. Much love from the U.K.

[@pipertripp]

Really diggin the playlists you're adding to these episodes!

[@LarsRyeJeppesen]

I love to sleep - sign me up :)

[@frasercain]

I'll pass your name along.

[@sultanaiesmin8144]

Lol

[@csabaszucs1688]

In the beginning we could practice on kids on a long family holiday drive, put them to sleep, not to hear "are we there yet?" :) If it works, big business as well.

[@frasercain]

I'm sure injecting cooled saline solution into your children's bloodstream is worth the risk for a little peace and quiet on a long journey.

[@csabaszucs1688]

So you would risk it on others but children ?

[@takster050974]

nice video and congratulations with the 100k members.

[@timskywalker1494]

Congrats for 100k Subs! You deserve it, good work! Keep up making such quality content :)

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot!

[@VRShow]

Congrats Fraser, well deserved and a goal I hope to one day achieve as well with my geeky channel. Cheers and congrats! Definitely a channel i never miss an episode from.

[@VRShow]

Best quote of episode "And the trick is to just not make them so unconscious that they die...it's a fine line..."

[@VRShow]

Ok Obviously I missed "The probe to Uranus to study its gas" :D

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot for watching. Let me know when we should start releasing these videos in virtual reality.

[@hamoony999]

u should release them in vr now an try for some free media attention. .. i dont even know if its possible yet if it is then treat it like a marketing project

[@VRShow]

In all seriousness Fraser a 360 degree video of you in the woods might be entertaining for the myriad of 'Green Screen" conspirators you seem to have on the channel :)

[@TheGunmanChannel]

Congrats on the 💯 K

[@frasercain]

🤘

[@bikerchrisukk]

Great video, especially as you've adopted your Q&A delivery method whereby you sound more natural, so to speak. Very pleasant to watch and listen, well done you.

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, I'm glad that's working. I'm trying to make the delivery of the scripted episodes sound like the more natural delivery of the QAs. It's tough to do, to get the two styles to come together. :-) Maybe in another 500 episodes or so, I'll have cracked it.

[@santiagotoselli3548]

Hi, Fraser. Im from Argentina and i listen to the podcast every week in my office. Congratulation and thanks for the great work!

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot!

[@johnwang9914]

Therapeutic Hypothermia, aka targeted temperature therapy, unfortunately does not stop aging as far as we know. The NASA contract to SpaceWorks which seeks to adapt the "Rhinocool" system used for trauma victims would reduce life support requirements but would not stop aging. This may work for Mars but not Alpha Centauri. I would not call the SpaceWorks concept cryochambers since the targeted core body temperature is kept above 30 Celsius whereas cryogenics is below -160 Celsius. You might want to note that the core body temperature for targeted temperature therapy is typically monitored by an anal probe, I think SpaceWorks is proposing an infrared monitor in the ear canal but that might not be sufficient for monitoring actual body core temperatures. Also they are proposing iv nutrition and if you've ever been on iv before, you know it needs to be constantly monitored, flushed and occasionally moved to another location. There are two problems with cryogenics, we don't know how to revive someone from it and the DNA repair system of our bodies would also be frozen hence the genetic damage from cosmic radiation in space would accumulate till your cells are no longer viable. The second problem might be addressed by having multiple bouts and awaken the passengers periodically to allow the natural DNA repair systems to function. I would bank on digitally recording my neural networks and either bioprinting a new body at the destination or simulating my brain in computers to control suitable Android avatar as needed. Problem with the digital recording method would be that current techniques involve slicing your brain micron by micron, photographing each layer to map out the neurons and synapses but this might be something to have done shortly after your natural death on Earth.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, I totally agree that sending humans to other worlds is probably not the way this is going to happen, which is why I made that caveat at the beginning. We'll be merging with the robots and exploring the Universe with our robot bodies.

[@CapinCooke]

Paraphrasing from "Bo Zo", above: "...From your perspective, what good is an immortal copy of you, even if that copy goes into a robot body?" Maybe this IS the way we eventually go at first, but it would not be MY first choice. I would want ME, corporal ME, to arrive at the other end of the journey. A dead me here, and a copy of me there does not satisfy "me". And congrats on the 100k milestone :-)

[@bozo5632]

+CapinCooke - I can't help but agree, lol. I don't think we will want real human minds in our interstellar robots. Human minds are not well adapted to operating a robot body on a robot mission for dozens or thousands of years. Surely we will want a robot mind, tailored to its robot job. Possibly as smart or smarter than a human, but surely very different - built to purpose. Imagine if Siri was a real person trapped in your iPhone. That would be horrible for you, and maybe for Siri, and it wouldn't be the best OS for a phone. Same thing for the AI in control of an interstellar exploration vessel.

[@johnwang9914]

@@bozo5632 Remember the Doctor Who episode where as a security measure, they were erasing the memories of the security guard such that to the security guard, each day was his first day at work. Using the computer simulations of human brains differ from using actual humans in that only the portions of the brain needed would need to be simulated and the neural network could always be reset to initial conditions. An actual human brain being used to perform the functions of Siri in your phone may not be capable of being concerned about such a limited life and if it were, it could always be reset to a more compliant state. Yes, you may not be satisfied with only a digital copy of you traveling to the stars but by the time the copy gets there, you would likely not be alive except for that copy and that copy can be contrived to be satisfied or at least reset to the state where it accepted the mission to begin with.

[@CubanWriter]

If I could, I might choose to sleep for 50 years just to 'Time travel' to the future.

[@frasercain]

That would be pretty tempting.

[@MasterMayhem78]

Your body would still age.

[@CubanWriter]

@@MasterMayhem78 Maybe. If age is the result of metabolic processes and environmental factors, then eliminating the environmental factors (no UV light, for instance) and slowing metabolic processes might indeed prolong life.

[@brendansully12]

Great! And I love that you used the best pronunciation of Uranus at the end

[@hirathshighlightsotw8798]

dude 30 seconds into your video and i love them keep it going

[@stavroschios]

Congrats Fraser!! You deserve a lot more for your outstanding work! Keep on hacking!

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, here's to a million. :-)

[@AKlover]

Unless you can slow aging I think you will not have many takers, we need cryo-stasis or nano-machines that literally repair the body to slow aging or both.

[@frasercain]

+AKlover if you actually freeze the body without damage, it should be good enough

[@TogusaRusso]

Even if you freeze body with damage, but prevent future changes in positions of molecules it could be good enough for future nanotechnology.

[@kadourimdou43]

Fraser Cain Once defrosted you must use within 48hrs, so we could be in trouble.

[@AKlover]

The goal of this type of nanotech is regeneration, if you have that you could repair minor damage done by the "Flash Freeze". If regeneration is good enough than you could look 50yo on your 200th birthday. That nanotech is likely farther off than cryo-stasis by decades though. Current CPU/GPU dye size goes down to 14nm thats 1.8million nm per inch. Your nano-drones would need to be even smaller than that and then they'd need to be able to do repairs as well as communicate.......you get the idea.

[@JohnPlissken]

We don't even need all that, just recruit some vampires. They look like 25 on their 1000th bday.

[@pax4698]

Yayyy! Congratulations Fraser :) You put out excellent content!

[@Chromegrillz]

You deserve all of those subscribers and more coming.

[@evollove19]

I already asked in a past video, but I will ask again. Any thoughts on instead of human hibernation having robots thaw out and raise human embryos once they reach their destination? I feel this method is the lowest tech option. You just need a robot that can change diapers and raise kids, and send many of these baby sitting ships out and only thaw out and raise the babies when the computers detect a habitable environment. Ship will arrive at a target planet, make a scan and then decide if its worth settling there, it will build the colony and then thaw out the embryos. when the babies are ready and adults their new homes would be finished for them. Then they get to work on building more ships with embryos to repeat the process.

[@theuncalledfor]

+will mach The chance of ever finding a "habitable" planet, _ever_ is basically zero. Any planet with significant amounts of oxygen in its atmosphere will already have life on it. Alien life, that probably hasn't produced a human-breathable atmosphere, and that is likely to incorporate chemicals into its biology that are toxic to us, or that _don't_ incorporate chemicals that we require to survive. And even if somewhere out there, a planet exists that we could inhabit without sealed habitats, there's still pretty much no way we can reach it with such low-tech ships. It would be way too far away. No, you don't _find_ habitable environments. We evolved on Earth, and for Earth, specifically. We can't _find_ somewhere else to live. We have to _make_ our habitable environments, or change ourselves to fit other existing environments. Low tech options are not options at all. What we need, is a large ship with thousands upon thousands of unaging immortal humans, living on the ship during its journey. There's no point trying to leave Sol system unless we have the tech to survive in a completely unsettled, "uninhabitable" star system.

[@AliHSyed]

Congrats on 100K! Hoping to get there some day myself :)

[@frasercain]

+Ali Syed thanks, keep at it!

[@vincentclark5739]

Fraser Cain With the technology of artificial wombs progressing and continually improving; and gene manipulation : Is it better to grow humans when they are 100 years from their destination and teach them with AI? Living aboard a craft for thousands of years may be disastrous emotionally. I love your show!

[@EGGACION]

Ali Syed how do u expect to get that if you upload once a year.

[@ulirongrimm5268]

Great info. Looking into the realities of human hibernation for a story. This is great as I like applying some facets of reality to the suspension of disbelief. Thanks!

[@ran_d_d]

I just watched passengers on a long flight I had. Makes me a little more hesitant. Haha. Maybe after some successful missions. Btw congrats on the 100k.. I know this is late, but just found your channel. Awesome milestone!

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, welcome aboard. I just finally watched it too, had some good stuff and a lot of cringey science. I wish I'd watched it before I did this video, would have given me some more ideas.

[@CptMikeTango1]

"...sending a probe to Uranus to study its gas"😂

[@colinjemison8278]

I thought I was the only one who found this funny 😄

[@milanvacz]

I wouldn't mind sleeping through the journey but I totally wouldn't want other people to be awake. "I was bored and I didn't like your face so I took your kidney out". Uhh.

[@frasercain]

And served it up with some tasty space Chianti, because I got space madness having to watch you people.

[@bozo5632]

+Fraser Cain - Some astronauts object to being psychoanalyzed. Eat the rude.

[@randomanimallover3196]

Fraser Cain Space madness! That takes me back...

[@daniellee8162]

fnaf and friends wengi Ren eating a bar of soap.

[@butterbeaning5915]

May happen in say 400 years we all shall be long gone into dust

[@jasmineluxemburg6200]

Very well thought out presentation with lots of ‘food for thought’. My hope is that contemplation of the enormous challenges and questioning the purpose, will stimulate greater concern for the wonderful planet we have evolved on ! Less can be ‘more’ !

[@marcanthonyramos3801]

Thank you for the amazing and informative video.

[@frasercain]

+Marc Anthony Ramos thanks for watching!

[@sreid5055]

If the technology for hibernation was perfected, of course I would let myself be put to sleep for long journey to another galaxy or planet.

[@frasercain]

I'd really love to know what happens in the future. It would be tempting. :-)

[@Bland-79]

9:12 Watch out for gaseous anomalies. I eat a lot of Mexican food. Sorry I couldn't resist.

[@frasercain]

+David Bland save up your jokes, next episode will be all about Uranus

[@DeFraans]

that will be one comment section to avoid

[@halilzelenka5813]

digging the recommended videos after the one you made. it's a good idea and well adapted to how people consume content nowadays

[@frasercain]

+Halil Zelenka yeah, I wish I'd started doing it earlier. It's also a good way to showcase other channels.

[@eyeofhorus1301]

+Fraser Cain Love the pictures in this video man. Unexpectedly beautiful. And I'm usually really picky about that kind of stuff so thats impressive

[@frasercain]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :-)

[@rickyjp9086]

Even with the shift wake cycle and gravity, muscle atrophy and a loss of bone mineral density would be huge issues. It would be similar to someone being bed bound for weeks at a time. Some way to simulate weight bearing exercise is needed to prevent muscle wastage and onset of early osteoarthritis. Also freezing media to preserve tissue in Liquid N2 is a fair way off from working on the scale of organs. Organs are a different beast to cell cultures. So as it is, I wouldn't sign up. source: I'm a biomedical researcher

[@davidbeppler3032]

Gravity is the one thing we humans have to have... that is why Mars is a worse place to colonize than Venus.

[@ManintheArmor]

Warp drive, cryo sleep, or moving at relativistic speeds, either way traveling through space will require that we rethink our relationship with time if we want to see the stars within our increasingly relative lifetimes. You'll have to bear with the idea of your children aging faster than you, if not the possibility of language evolving to the point of being unrecognizable upon returning to Earth. If you go on a journey, it'd be best to be a one way trip, as the rest of humanity is unlikely to want to hibernate, if only out of fear of being unable to compete with their faster neighbors. Then again, some trees have been staying in the same place for hundreds or thousands of years and are still standing. Perhaps we can give our fellow hibernating men similar treatment, instead of forcing them to remain awake. We need to rethink how we treat the sleeping populace.

[@frasercain]

You're exactly right. Our human brains really can't comprehend the scale of the journeys we'll need to make, and the sacrifices people will make to complete the journey.

[@samgerers]

Thing is: You could be sent to a hundreds of years long journey only to find out that some people who just needed like a year there are already waiting for you there because the technology evolved a lot in the time in which you were travelling.

[@mustangwarrior6841]

I have always loved space, and now that I've found a channel that provides factual information and a nice relaxing/humorous mood, I love space even more

[@frasercain]

+MustangWarrior 68 thanks, glad you're enjoying them.

[@jaz_akbar]

Congratulations Frazer, love your channel.

[@frasercain]

+Jaz Akbar thanks!

[@MOTH101]

I always wonder about the replacements of fluids in the body, like water, certain vitamins and minerals and the disposal of urine and excrements and its toxicity to the body... The body and brain might run slower or so slow to the point of unconsciousness, but it still has to deal with the body's function and the body's by products. Or do people just sleep without the need of any of these things till they wake up and they are fine with no adverse effects. I also wonder about space radiation and its effect on the sleep cycle.

[@frasercain]

These are all serious questions, which is why we need to do tests.

[@xxXthekevXxx]

If you’re in a hibernation or cryo state then your body would cease bodily functions until you were woken up. Right?

[@davecasey4341]

If it ceases bodily functions, you die. It slows things down, but it does not stop them.

[@jayf6360]

You've got to start putting scary, mysterious, hard to see figures in the forest background during your videos. I'm thinking weird faces peaking in and out. People'll go crazy.

[@frasercain]

Hah, we shoot in the forest because it takes less work. :-)

[@bozo5632]

You didn't see the Sasquatch?

[@NicosMind]

From a subscriber youre welcome. Was dead hard for me to press that button and i suspect its really easy for you to make videos. Therefore i feel like we the subscribers deserve most of the credit for that plaque :P

[@frasercain]

I really appreciate you putting yourself through that hardship. :-)

[@georgenelson9278]

Congrats Fraser! You are the best!

[@frasercain]

+George Nelson thanks a lot!

[@christopherpeery8968]

I would never go to Mars. Earth is way better but you guys can go if you want. I applaud you

[@DoodAdventures]

Christopher Peery same

[@davecasey4341]

If I was younger and didn't have the health problems I've had most of my life, I'd sign up in a heartbeat.

[@LordBitememan]

Congrats on the well earned play button Fraser!

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot!

[@desertratnt-7849]

Hey mate. Love the channel and sub now for few months. Just want to credit you on the different locations you film the vids. I love the natural backgrounds. Peace

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot. We live on Vancouver Island, so we're surrounded by forests, rivers and mountains. Might as well use it.

[@dantess2693]

Congrats on the sub milestone!!

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot!

[@dutch8856]

good for you!!! but you deserve a ruby play button not a silver play button!

[@AKlover]

KZbin has a viewer IQ and attention span limit. Garbage like Buzzfeed has 10 million viewers and guys like Isaac Arthur have less than 100K. You really have to dumb it down to grow and you also have to play to female viewers. The biggest KZbinr I subscribe to is LinusTechTips for instance that is as big as you can get without basically taking your content into "Special Needs" territory intellectually.

[@rileyboomer8627]

yeah with this sort of content no one will pas the 5mil sub ish limit idk what you meant about the female thing.... anyways he will get to 1mil i can see that happening

[@AKlover]

What is the percentage of females in STEM fields outside of Medicine? That would correlate with viewership for this type of content, I'd be surprised if 5% of Fraser's viewership is female, I'd be stunned to silence and quietly encouraged if it was 10%.

[@frasercain]

+NοNɅMⲶJɅMⲶS thanks, one button at a time. 😀

[@frasercain]

+AKlover it's about 5% 😕

[@josecolon2717]

I would sleep until the year 40000... I want to be sure that eternal war never happens ever And if it does happen I’ll sleep until the war ends and everything gets fixed

[@georgewashingmachine6240]

you have just earned a sub!

[@frasercain]

Welcome aboard!

[@evollove19]

congrats on 100K!

[@frasercain]

Thanks!

[@ChristiaanCorthals]

haha, at 9:09 I noticed a slight different pronunciation in "I'm going to talk about sending a probe to Uranus to study its gas"

[@frasercain]

It's possible I changed it. You might hear me go back and forth for the actual episode too.

[@FriedEgg101]

Weed will be the answer to long space journeys lol

[@frasercain]

They'll get a case of the space munchies, though. Not sure if we can send enough food.

[@skr4207]

This is obviously a joke, but a study has suggested that astronauts develop lower blood pressure over long periods of weightlessness, cannabis lowers your blood pressure by a bit as well, so their hearts would be even more strained, i don't think this would be good for their well being.

[@ExorunS]

420 whatchu smokin?

[@ADEehrh]

I cam see it now; half way there they forget what they were doing.

[@lucy-bs9cx]

Shadow Stalker I WAS GONNA SAY THAT WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

[@caseykelso1]

Last joke was a good one!!!!!! great videos keep them coming

[@frasercain]

Thanks!

[@sixsixteensevens297]

Really amazing..thank you.

[@noallegiances8676]

thanks for a very cool video..but one problem is human nature, we cannot even work together to save this planet and all the problems we face as a species. almost all other mammals are on its way to exintction because of us not to mention pointless wars for someones out of hand ego and endless greed for money and possesions when average age of a human is 80..so i highly doubt that we'll manage to leave this planet to live on another. my worry is we'll run out of resources to obtain such advanced technologies even before they're discovered..

[@frasercain]

We're absolutely in a race against human nature, so the outcome is still uncertain. This is one of the reasons why Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars.

[@bozo5632]

War isn't the problem. War is bad, but it's not one of our major problems You want to blame something for mass extinction? Blame agriculture (and especially cattle ranches). Ag has been FAR worse for the Earth's ecology than burning coal and oil, or war or anything else - maybe worse than all the rest out together. Luckily, it will be fairly easy to do all our heavy agriculture in orbit, enabling us to return 80% or more of the land to nature - or else to build more parking lots. Everybody talks about energy, but ag is the elephant in the room

[@Nick871203]

why on earth would you let nature take control of anything? nature is a force of chaos, its unpredictable, its dangerous, its the very reason why everything about us is imperfect... we however were fortunate on the luck of the roll of the dice... now we have evolved to manipulate nature and bring order and stability... now whilst we still have alot to learn to really reap the benefits of manipulating the forces of nature it is still a necessity regardless to keep trying else we will eventually go extinct 1 way or another... so the further we advance our technology the less we need to concern our selves with nature.... and eventually reverse all the damages our current industrialisation has caused. which is also why its extreamly important we must not allow our technological progression to become stagnant

[@davidkerk5676]

people fight over variance in skin pigmentation i cant imagine what differences a few generations of space born will have evolved .

[@frasercain]

It depends on what kind of gravity they use. You'd hope for increased radiation protection. Maybe a resistance to motion sickness?

[@damiengrey2297]

This reminds me of the Ice Woman Jean Hilliard. Who's car broke down in blizzard and collapsed outside a neighbours house and became frozen solid so doctors thought she was dead. But then later awoke and was able to make a full recovery.

[@S1doubleU]

Congrats Fraser.

[@davidkerk5676]

hopefully uploaded into a borg body. i can't fix flesh but i can weld so a metal body works for me.

[@frasercain]

Yup, I can't wait for my robot body.

[@mitchellpeterson7943]

You'll notice reflections of trees on his youtube plaque. Fraser is standing between two green screens, he's really committed to the lie. :)

[@frasercain]

That was particularly complicated for the CG team, but I'm really pleased at how it worked out.

[@liftlabperformance]

Settle down Francis. Stop picking corn from shit.

[@Loganmanko]

Thanks Fraser!

[@Loganmanko]

Also congratulations

[@frasercain]

Thanks back, and thanks for subscribing!

[@sydain6307]

Congrats!

[@kyriakoz]

I don't need cryogenics i already sleep for years at a time

[@frasercain]

You sound like you'll be the perfect astronaut for one of these mission.

[@cd_first1135]

I want to see the future, I want to explore the Universe :(

[@frasercain]

Me too.

[@christopherkovach8636]

Love ur stuff

[@CptMikeTango1]

To be honest, i am not suscribed but i keep checking this channel for videos like this

[@frasercain]

+CptMikeTango well, now's your chance to help us hit 1 million

[@vaos3712]

That would be really intense if you think about it. Knowing that your about to sleep for thousands of years and when you wake up all of your family and anyone you left behind would have been dead for centuries. And on top of that, your lighters from earth, in the orbit of another world, that might be livable or down right hellish. ............ hmm..... I would ask, what's in it for me? A new life? A new beginning?

[@frasercain]

This idea of a new beginning is probably why those kinds of survival sandbox games do so well (like Oxygen Not Included, which is totally on my wishlist, but I'm too busy playing RimWorld. Yeah, I watched your channel).

[@vaos3712]

Fraser Cain - It's an honor sir. You and Isaac Arthur are some of my favorite youtube channels. Mainly because of your knowledge and intellect that you freely share with us. It's been a while but I do play Rim world and love it. As of right now, I'm playing KSP mostly. I find it very interesting to build a real life x-33 or SSRT. I don't see a type of Skylon space plane happening anytime soon. The date for it keeps getting pushed back. However, I can see with our current technology a single stage reusable rocket. This tech would open the door to space like never before. The thought of what possibly would happen after that is very intriguing.

[@bozo5632]

By the time we can send frozen colonists to Tau Ceti, probably your friends and family will be medically immortal. After spending a few thousand thanksgivings with my family, I'd be first in line. You'd still have a hard time talking to them with 315,360,000,000 millisecond internet latency. That might not be a drawback lol.

[@nicolepaul6317]

you+isaac arthur

[@frasercain]

Did you see our last few collaborations?

[@nicolepaul6317]

Fraser Cain yes i have

[@anonb4632]

Mr Godier.

[@yusefendure]

Great video.

[@frasercain]

Thanks!

[@amish4988]

Congrat!! on 100 000 Sub

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot. Assuming you subscribed... we did it together.

[@robinkhaira1]

i can tell you what gas is that and save you the efford, its methane.

[@frasercain]

Uranus produces methane? That makes sense...

[@emorobloxianyt]

a space ship that takes 50,000 years to reach its destination having thousands of generations live and die on the ship? maybe that’s what earth is... what if earth is a giant space ship and what if heaven is our destination or maybe it was the dinosaurs destination but the dinosaurs have evolved so much thus making us humans but us humans forgot about our destination... what if earth is a giant spaceship that super intelligent dinosaurs made.... im high btw sorry.

[@frasercain]

Earth definitely qualifies as a generation ship, it's just going around in circles.

[@electrosthefella]

Congrats mate.

[@xLesbihonest69x]

I really like the blooper ending to the video.

[@frasercain]

Hah, yeah we don't do as many of them any more. :-(

[@Senecamarcus]

Love the background

[@ammarkhan6883]

wow 2 videos in and i think i will sub

[@frasercain]

Welcome aboard, now there are just about 750 catch up on.

[@hamoony999]

congratulations mate

[@woody1593]

Humans are amazing when they put their minds to ambitious goals instead of trying to find a way to kill each other

[@frasercain]

Yeah, can you imagine what we'd accomplish if we didn't have to spend so much on the military?

[@zapfanzapfan]

Congrats on the silver button and happy midsummer! Did you see Passengers before making this episode?

[@frasercain]

Nope, I haven't actually watched that yet.

[@zapfanzapfan]

Watch it with the wife, tell her it's Titanic in space (if she liked Titanic, I didn't), it's not a perfect analogy but it works surprisingly far. Poor boy going to a new world meets rich girl and the ship hits an iceberg...

[@danielwheels9529]

Congrats on 100k👍🇦🇺

[@frasercain]

Thanks!

[@NicholasA231]

Hibernation at zero G might not work out physiologically, but I'll tell you what else won't work; spinning habitats with beds/sleepy areas like in the "artist's rendition". When people are immobile for very long (like in hospital, etc) you have to keep moving them around to prevent bedsores. Laying in one spot, the constant pressure, slight as it may be, starts to cause the tissue under pressure to break down into, ultimately, infected goo. Gonna have to move people around, or increase circulation or something I'd think.

[@frasercain]

I think that's why you've got one astronaut who remains awake, to keep turning them over.

[@FirstLast-fr4hb]

As someone who has spent weeks in winter starving and sleeping to conserve calories, I'm going to say yes. I dont think that quite compares to the length of time you're talking about though.

[@frasercain]

No, it would really only work for a few months at most.

[@joshrenall6681]

I have always loved the thought of Cryosleep. I always love watching series on how the human race changed. Such as The 100, films like Passenger, Pitch Black and I suppose Avatar plus many more. I always love the theory of Cryosleep.

[@frasercain]

I'll let you know when they're taking volunteers.

[@seraphina985]

I can see another benefit of this too the fact you need less cargo saves mass as does the fact you don't need to build such a large crew habitation area. That would give you a larger slice of the mass budget that you can devote to radiation shielding combine that with the fact that the surface area of the habitation module is now smaller and you have significantly more shielding mass per unit area available now allowing you to reduce the radiation doses received by the crew significantly in turn.

[@frasercain]

Right, the advantages pile up when you consider this approach.

[@henrysaka6402]

amazing.

[@proudamericanrobman2829]

Good vid like always. But i do think we are a little closer to hibernation then you give it. Ya i think we are way off from being in hibernating for hundreds of years. But One is if your not to familiar with how some places ship large volumes of live fish in slower bardge ships is with a acupuncture type method where it basically paralyzes them so they can stack them like basically blocks in a shipping container with moving water. 2 is the original pacemaker design- where you could manually adjust how fast the heart would beat. 3 electric stimulation of muscle like those abb things. Those 3 with a jumble of a few other things could probably get use to the edge of are solar system im guessing.

[@frasercain]

Yeah, that's why I covered two types. The hibernation one looks like it would work now.

[@KFieLdGaming]

My inner child is hoping that we someday find some technology that was previously thought unobtainable, and it allows us to travel long distances in space relatively quickly. If you've ever played the Mass Effect trilogy, then you know the lore in that game about how humans discovered mass effect(the relays) technology, and they went from a species struggling to send humans to mars, to being able to jump between planets effortlessly. They advanced centuries ahead in technology due to that one discovery. Effectively over night. Now obviously science fiction is science fiction, but I do hope that one day we make our own scientific breakthrough that changes the way we think about space flight. I would absolutely volunteer to go into cryo sleep. Getting a chance to wake up and see something and maybe even step foot on an environment no human being has ever seen? Easy choice.

[@frasercain]

We really need to find the Stargates. I'm sure they're around here somewhere.

[@nmnm8124]

Love from dubai, i just wanna say, people like you need bilion views ❤️

[@frasercain]

Thanks a lot, maybe some day. :-)

[@stephenmessick6619]

These comments have been absolutely fascinating!

[@Mattman003]

Joints also need to move to prevent contractures. It doesn't matter if your muscles stay toned. The body needs to move. If you have simulated gravity then you also have to prevent pressure ulcers so the body will have to be quite animated while you are sleeping.

[@frasercain]

There are going to be a pile of complications. That might be the purpose of the astronaut who's awake. To deal with all the potential ulcers and other problems.

[@Mattman003]

Yea they could all take turns I suppose with "wake shifts" making each a full time caregiver for the rest of the crew while they're awake which also puts them at the mercy of human error. I can only imagine how terrible it would be if that person had an unforeseen medical complication and was forced to leave the crew unattended. Maybe the system could automatically wake up crew members if they had been left unattended for a prolonged period of time. Interesting stuff to think about. Thanks for the video!