Deep Space Hibernation

Long manned missions out in space present many challenges. Not including the sheer amount of food, water and air to keep a crew alive for months or even years at a time. Also there's the fact that they would be bored all the time locked up in a little metal tube for the duration of time they're in space. They could play board games, exercise, play video games, but all of that equipment and pieces would take up vital space on a spaceship. There is not much free room on a spaceship that they can just fill with useless items. They would start suffering from claustrophobia, anxiety, insomnia, and depression. So NASA has came up with a solution to this problem, inducing the astronauts in a state of hypothermia resulting in torpor- a kind of hibernation.

What is it?

Rather than being awake for months or years while they are on their space mission, astronauts could
enter a state of deep sleep at the beginning of their mission and then wake up near the end. This way, they could arrive rejuvenated and ready to work, rather than exhausted and maybe even insane. "Instead of astronauts stepping into a tube and having their temperature lowered, torpor would be induced via the RhinoChill – a device that uses invasive tubes to shoot cooling liquid up the nose and into the base of the brain."

                                              What Would this Solve?

This would make mean that we could cut down on the need for room and supplies. But the greatest positive would money! With a crew in hibernation, ships could be built smaller or have more room to accommodate safety features. At the same time, smaller, lighter ships would mean that material, construction, and fuel costs would be lower.

Read more on NASA's Space Hibernation here

Questions?

So what are your opinions on this new technology development? Would this work? What do you think the side effects would be? If an astronaut is asleep for like 20 years would he remember what he was taught?