The president of Atlanta-based SpaceWorks Engineering came to Georgia Tech on Feb. 20 to deliver a talk, "Torpor-inducing Transfer Habitat for Human Stasis to Mars" before a packed crowd. He spent almost as much time talking with students about their career paths as he did giving his talk, which challenged listeners to imagine (and develop) the engineering that it will take to bring a human payload to Mars.

The challenge, he said, is to place the crew in an inactive, low-metabolic torpor state for mission transfer phases by leveraging evolving medical advances in therapeutic hypothermia and total parenteral nutrition.