Editing Sleeper ship (section)

==Description==
The most common role of sleeper ships in fiction is for [[interstellar travel|interstellar]] or [[intergalactic travel]], usually at sub-[[light speed]]. Travel times for such journeys could reach into the hundreds or thousands of years, making some form of [[life extension]], such as suspended animation, necessary for the original crew to live to see their destination. Suspended animation is also required on ships that cannot be used as [[generation ship]]s.

Freezing the astronauts would probably involve whole-body vitrification and would, most likely, be frozen at 145 [[kelvin]]s to reduce the risk of fracturing.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/Ralph-Merkle-Interview.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830123325/http://www.americanantigravity.com/documents/Ralph-Merkle-Interview.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2006-08-30|title=Ralph-Merkle-Interview|page=4}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=November 2021}}

Suspended animation can also be useful to reduce the consumption of [[life support system]] resources by crew members who are not needed during the trip, or by an author as a [[plot device]], and for this reason, sleeper ships sometimes also appear in contexts involving travel within the [[Solar System]] or any other system of planets orbiting one star.