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News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

The hibernation science in 'Passengers' is not far from reality

• By Jason Lederman

Before humans travel to another planet—and that day may be coming soon—a question will need to be answered: How will astronauts spend their time on a months- or years-long interplanetary voyage?

In the movie Passengers, which hits theaters today, more than 5,000 people board the starship Avalon on a 120-year journey to a new world called Homestead II. Prior to launch they each enter a "hibernation pod," which, through drugs and environmental controls, puts them into a suspended animation. Essentially, they're meant to sleep through all but four months of the century-long trek.

Currently, humanity is nowhere near ready for the interstellar journey that Jim Preston (Chris Pratt) and Aurora Lane (Jennifer Lawrence) undertake, but this sci-fi hibernation technology is actually grounded in today's reality. NASA is helping to fund the research of SpaceWorks Enterprises, a company that aims to put astronauts into artificial hibernation through a process similar to that depicted in Passengers.

1 Comments in Response to

Comment by Brian David Andersen
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If one cannot refute or negate the conclusions made in these video then one cannot claim humans are have the capability to explore Moon or Mars globes. One has two choices after watching these videos – paradigm shift or cognitive dissonance. All individuals promoting ancient and future astronauts must deal with this issue by neutralizing the realities in these videos and so much more evidence.that has been ignored.