The rats' body temperatures also dropped, though to a lesser level, up to 3.57 F (2 C). If they were able to crack the science of suspended animation, it could make space travel safer and cheaper, especially for long-haul flights like the 16-month-long round trip to Mars. A single astronaut eats about 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of food and water a week, but their consumption could drop by 75% in suspended animation, per the BBC. One avenue to induce suspended animation is to cool the body down dramatically. Nevertheless, most of the research into long-ranging suspended animation is still only being done on animals, and we're likely still a long way away from testing it on humans.

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Persons: —, Hong Chen, Chen, Yang, Yuan, Nat Metab, John Bradford, Spaceworks, Kaisa, Vyazovskiy Organizations: Service, Privacy, NASA, European Space Agency, ESA, Washington University, BBC, Astronauts, SpaceWorks Enterprises, CNET, University of Oxford Locations: et, Mars, torpor