STH R S HIP S 175
Hospital in Boston placed pigs and mice in a state of suspended animation using hydrogen sulfide.
In the future such procedures may be lifesaving for people involved in severe accidents or who suffer heart attacks during which
every second counts. Suspended animation might allow doctors to
"freeze time" until patients can be treated. But it could be decades or
more before such techniques can be applied to human astronauts, who
may need to be in suspended animation for centuries.
NANOSHIPS
There are several other ways in which we might be able to reach the
stars via more advanced, unproven technologies that border on science fiction. One promising proposal is to use unmanned probes based
on nanotechnology. Throughout this discussion I have assumed that
starships need to be monstrous devices consuming vast amounts of
energy, capable of taking a large crew of human beings to the stars,
similar to the starship Enterprise on Star Trek.
But a more likely avenue might be initially to send miniature unmanned probes to the distant stars at near the speed of light. As we
mentioned earlier, in the future, with nanotechnology, it should be
possible to create tiny spacecraft that exploit the power of atomic and
molecular-sized machines. For example, ions, because they are so
light, can easily be accelerated to near the speed of light with ordinary
voltages found in the laboratory. Instead of requiring huge booster
rockets, they might be sent into space at near the speed of light using
powerful electromagnetic fields. This means that if a nanobot were
ionized and placed within an electric field, it could effortlessly be
boosted to near light speed. The nanobot would then coast its way to
the stars, since there is no friction in space. In this way, many of the
problems plaguing large starships are immediately solved. Unmanned
intelligent nanobot spaceships might be able to reach nearby star systems at a mere fraction of the cost of building and launching a huge
starship carrying a human crew.
Hospital in Boston placed pigs and mice in a state of suspended animation using hydrogen sulfide.
In the future such procedures may be lifesaving for people involved in severe accidents or who suffer heart attacks during which
every second counts. Suspended animation might allow doctors to
"freeze time" until patients can be treated. But it could be decades or
more before such techniques can be applied to human astronauts, who
may need to be in suspended animation for centuries.
NANOSHIPS
There are several other ways in which we might be able to reach the
stars via more advanced, unproven technologies that border on science fiction. One promising proposal is to use unmanned probes based
on nanotechnology. Throughout this discussion I have assumed that
starships need to be monstrous devices consuming vast amounts of
energy, capable of taking a large crew of human beings to the stars,
similar to the starship Enterprise on Star Trek.
But a more likely avenue might be initially to send miniature unmanned probes to the distant stars at near the speed of light. As we
mentioned earlier, in the future, with nanotechnology, it should be
possible to create tiny spacecraft that exploit the power of atomic and
molecular-sized machines. For example, ions, because they are so
light, can easily be accelerated to near the speed of light with ordinary
voltages found in the laboratory. Instead of requiring huge booster
rockets, they might be sent into space at near the speed of light using
powerful electromagnetic fields. This means that if a nanobot were
ionized and placed within an electric field, it could effortlessly be
boosted to near light speed. The nanobot would then coast its way to
the stars, since there is no friction in space. In this way, many of the
problems plaguing large starships are immediately solved. Unmanned
intelligent nanobot spaceships might be able to reach nearby star systems at a mere fraction of the cost of building and launching a huge
starship carrying a human crew.