“Ready to turn into a popsicle, Commander?” from Mission to New Earth.
Have you ever wondered how humans could travel across vast
reaches of space? Last year, I wrote a blog post on cryosleep (or cryogenic
sleep) for C.J. Burright’s blog. This week, I saw the movie Passengers about travelers into deep
space and discovered another option for travelers: hibernation. So I've rewritten that blog for today.
But I’ve gotten
ahead of myself.
To travel into deep space, first we’d have to build
spaceships that could go that far. Those ships would need fuel. The more fuel,
the farther the ship can go. If the ship was empty, it could go even farther. A
computer can perform all the necessary functions. In fact, that’s what the
Kepler, Cassini, and Hubbell spacecraft do.
But what if we want to send people out past our star (the
sun) and past many stars until they get to a planet in the Goldilocks zone? In my
post on Veronica
Scott’s blog, I wrote about planets that aren’t too hot, not too cold,
where the environment is just right for humans.
The heavier the cargo, the more fuel is used. Humans need
essentials like air, food, and water. To preserve their bones, gravity is
needed, too. To maintain gravity and haul enough food, water, and appropriate
air for several years would take a lot of fuel. They also need room to move
around, places to eat, sleep, work, relax during downtime. That means the ship
would have to be big, and the bigger the ship, the more fuel it would use. The
problem remains. How do we get humans into deep space?
Scientists have been working on that for years. Science
fiction movies and books already have it worked out. Just put the astronauts
into hibernation or cryosleep. There is a difference between the two
procedures. In hibernation, the person’s body wouldn’t be frozen. Instead, the
body temperature would be lowered to about 9°F.
In movies like Avatar,
Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, astronauts are put into suspended animation
(sometimes called stasis or torpor) so they can endure long space travels. Not
every story or movie has warp or hyperdrive to get from Point A to Point B,
thereby reducing travel time. I doubt if scientists can figure out how to warp
space or develop a faster-than-lightspeed engine in our lifetime. Not mine,
anyway.
When astronauts are put into cryosleep, as mine are in Mission to New Earth, food and water
aren’t needed since a sleeper has no need for them plus they don’t breathe. The
result is less fuel consumption, which then means the spaceship can go farther
than if the astronauts were awake.
There’s another benefit of cryosleep. Relief from boredom.
Can you imagine looking at empty space for years? In my novella, Mission to New Earth, the trip from
Titan (Saturn’s moon and launch platform) to Serenity (a planet in the
Goldilocks zone) takes three years. With nothing to do and nothing to observe,
the astronauts would need to keep busy. Workouts take energy—not just from the
astronaut but from the ship. Gravity, air, food, and water. All demands on fuel
consumption.
As a sci-fi writer, I’m not concerned with the mechanics of
cryosleep or hibernation. I compare it to an automobile. I don’t know (don’t
need to know) how my car works. I just need to know that when I put the key in
the ignition, that car will take me where I want to go.
From what I’d read, seen in movies, and researched, I
gathered enough info to make the scene of my astronauts going into cryosleep
believable. At least, I hope so. Or that the reader can suspend disbelief. I
was more concerned with the emotions experienced by the astronauts.
Sara Grenard, the commander of the mission and the story’s
narrator, has a vivid imagination. While preparing for launch, before being put
into cryosleep, Sara experiences many emotions. Fear, mainly. What if there’s a
problem with the freezing chamber? What if the computer (an AI like Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey) decides to eliminate
the humans? What if there’s a malfunction and the computer has to decide whose
vitals can be turned off and who will live? What if the cryosleep chamber is
vandalized?
But Sara’s already decided being the first pioneer on a new
planet is worth the risk of cryosleep. For my astronauts, there is no other
way. The elation over going first outweighs the fear. So she and the other five
astronauts willingly enter their cryotubes and are put into hibernation for the
long trip. She is certain she and the others will wake up—just like Jake in Avatar.
One thing Sara didn’t consider was what would happen if
she/they woke up too soon, as in Passengers.
While my characters’ journey is only three years total, the travelers in
Passengers, Jim and Aurora, it’s devastating to wake up with 90 years to go.
In real life is cryosleep or hibernation possible? As I
wrote above, scientists are not only working on cryosleep for space travel,
they see practical applications in the medical realm. We’ve already heard or
read in the news about people who’ve plunged into icy cold bodies of water,
their bodily functions and temperature have slowed down, and they’ve survived
with almost no ill effects. Medically-induced hibernation is being used in
critical patient care, for instance in cases of traumatic brain and spine
injuries.
Whether for medical treatment or space travel, lowering the
body temperature can be beneficial. Scientists will find a way to send
travelers into deep space.
Mission to New Earth: a novella
Blurb:
Would you go on a one-way trip to explore a new planet?
Would you do it to save humankind?
Earth’s overpopulation and dwindling resources force the
United Earth Space Agency to expedite exploration of new planets for a possible
new home. When new crises ensue—a giant tsunami and the threat of nuclear
winter—the timeline changes. Eight years of training crammed into four. Sara
Grenard and her team prepare for launch, but are they ready for the one-way
trip? Will the Goldilocks planet prove just right for Earth’s inhabitants?
Before time runs out.
Excerpt:
We had such hopes for our mission.
Scared and hopeful. What a combination. Three years in cryosleep. The scary
part.
I forced myself not to think about
all that could go wrong. So many people were depending on us. If all went
well—that is, if we survived cryosleep—one of the teams would find a planet
that could be the answer to Earth’s problems. Or maybe all three would. We
could only hope.
I was excited and nervous. In some
respects, I wished it was launch day. Just to get it over with. Put me in
cryosleep, where I can’t think and won’t dream. At least, that’s what the
scientists told us. I dreamed all the time. Happy dreams about Marsh, sometimes
about my parents and the wonderful life they had together.
Sometimes my dreams were
frightening. Choking to death on the viscous substance that replaced the air in
our lungs—my most frequent nightmare. Or our shuttle craft plummeting to the
surface and crashing. I often woke up shaking, terrified, until Marsh put his
strong arm around my waist and pulled me tight against him.
About the Author:
Diane Burton combines her love
of mystery, adventure, science fiction and romance into writing romantic
fiction. Besides the science fiction romance
Switched and Outer Rim series,
she is the author of One Red Shoe, a
romantic suspense, and the Alex O’Hara PI mystery series. She is also a
contributor to two anthologies: Portals,
Volume 2 and How I Met My Husband.
Diane and her husband live in West Michigan. They have two children and three
grandchildren.
For more info and excerpts from her books, visit Diane’s
website: http://www.dianeburton.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmburton72
Facebook: http://facebook.com/dianeburtonauthor
Goodreads: Diane Burton
Author https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2902110.Diane_Burton
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dmburton72/
Amazon author page: http://amzn.com/e/B00683MH5E
