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The space research agency, NASA, has recently given a green signal to various projects including the inflatable space habitats and deep space sleep chambers for the future Mars missions. The deep space sleep chambers will induce cryosleep and thus help the astronauts sleep for longer-duration on their missions. The main reason behind this is to save on the resources needed by the scientists during the space journey.

"To help mitigate the effects of aging on long-duration space travel, a group of engineers is working to develop a deep sleep chamber," reported Design & Trend. "This could lay the foundation for future cryosleep chambers and other forms of suspended animation. The proposed chamber is designed to medically support astronauts who are in a deep sleep."

Further, few reports suggest that over the next two years, research scientists will examine the side-effects of the long-duration sedation on the organs of the human body. It is also reported that the researchers will also try to find out how to neutralize the bone loss and muscle deterioration that occurs during the deep sleep.

In addition to the deep space sleep chambers, NASA's scientists are also working on the inflatable space habitats, which would be built in space by the robots. "These Growth-Adapted Tensegrity Structures (GATs) would be built in space by robots and would be able to grow and evolve as needed," reported Gizmodo. "The project will explore the possibility of setting up the first outpost just beyond the Moon, and if successful it would eventually be seen throughout the Solar System."

Besides, there are reports that NASA is also working on the concept called as Magnetoshell, which would help the astronauts to land on the Mars without crashing or burning up. This magnetic space shell is expected to toss a magnetic field around the Mars-destined spacecraft.

"As the spacecraft will fall through the planet's atmosphere, the resulting interaction would almost act as a second set of brakes, slowing down the craft enough that the actual landing protocol would need less fuel," reported E&T Magazine.

Meanwhile, Motherboard reported that the deep space habitat concept is currently being researched by the NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program and will soon move into development phase. According to the associate administrator of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, Steve Jurczyk, the phase II of the projects has been designed to enable the scientists to research more in the unrealistic areas.

"The NIAC program is one of the ways NASA engages the U.S. scientific and engineering communities, including agency civil servants, by challenging them to come up with some of the most visionary aerospace concepts," said Steve, as reported by Space. "This year's Phase II fellows have clearly met this challenge."