A recently released report shows how SpaceWorks’ proposed “torpor habitat” could cut the size and power of the spacecraft needed for a manned mission to Mars by 55 percent; onboard consumables could be cut by 70 percent. And rather than slowly going stir-crazy in a cramped capsule, the astronauts — and possibly Mars colonists — could dream away the months.

“I haven’t seen any other single technology that can have this much of an impact, short of some exotic propulsion system like an antimatter drive,” Bradford says. “This is in a league of its own.”

Rip van Winkle to Mars

Despite its sci-fi aura, SpaceWorks’ plan has real-world precedent. Hospitals around the world routinely use a technique called therapeutic hypothermia, in which ice packs, nasal coolants, and related tools drastically reduce a patient’s body temperature. The goal is to slow metabolic processes and curb the tissue damage that occurs in the aftermath of cardiac arrest or traumatic brain injury. The patient enters the same kind of torpor that SpaceWorks envisions for astronauts.

But there are some catches.

Dr. Douglas Talk, a California physician and SpaceWorks consultant, notes that therapeutic hypothermia patients shiver as their bodies try to warm up. Keeping astronauts in extended torpor, he says, will require drugs to prevent shivering (which could bring them out of stasis) as well as continuous medical monitoring.

There are also unresolved questions about how long astronauts can remain knocked out without risking physical or mental harm. In hospitals, therapeutic hypothermia is used for no more than 72 hours. Researchers are only beginning to explore what happens after that.

“Small studies show that healthy humans can stay in stasis for up to two weeks with no significant adverse effects,” Talk says. “There’s no reason to believe the limit can’t be extended.”