X-Message-Number: 19245 Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 03:49:28 -0700 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Did you miss one Brett? References: <> > > > Message #19240 > From: "Brett Bellmore" <> > Subject: Nasa and suspended animation > Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 09:07:38 -0400 > > I can't see Nasa getting involved in suspended animation research. <snippage> > > > Aside from the obvious medical application, Brett, you may have missed an important use for suspended animation by astronauts and a very tangible incentive for NASA to develop it. Or perhaps you intended the above to be a minimal mention of it. Let me expand the "obvious medical application" just a little. I mean that the one you may have minimalized and IMHO the best use for suspended animation for astronauts is the fact that there are no hospitals on space vehicles. Take for instance the someday (hopefully) intended "Manned Mission to Mars". If an astronaut were to be injured it's not likely they will have the facilities to handle a large number of injury or disease issues that could arise. Putting the injured astronaut in suspension would save his/her life. Furthermore, the question of the existence or not of Martian microbes is still unanswered. It is not likely to be answered for many years, perhaps even years beyond human settlement of Mars. On the upcoming Manned Mission to Mars should some extraterrestrial microbial contamination occur, to prevent Earth contamination and likely epidemic and save the lives of the astronauts, the best thing to do would be to suspend them all until it could be dealt with properly. This is especially so if it were imminently life threatening to the astronauts themselves. In fact we citizens of Earth should demand that such a system, even a fully automated one, be in place before anything or anyone is brought here or back from Mars period. Hopefully someone at NASA sees the efficacy of this. James -- MY WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/~davidpascal/swayze/ A COLLECTION of photos of me and some of my artwork: http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292752723&code=2039335&mode=invite A RADIO INTERVIEW on Dr. J's ChangeSurfer Radio program with me and the father of cryonics Prof. Robert Ettinger, author of "The Prospect of Immortality": http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=3728 A RELIGION I actually recommend: http://uk.geocities.com/venturist2001/index.html A FAVORITE quote: Last lines of the first Star Trek the Next Generation movie. Capt. Picard: "What we leave behind is not as important as how we've lived, after all Number One, we're only mortal." Will Ryker: "Speak for yourself captain, I intend to live forever!" Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19245