sleeper ships
Dormant crew spacecraft
Sleeper ships are spacecraft designed for long-duration voyages in which passengers travel in suspended animation or cryogenic sleep.
The concept appears throughout science fiction as a solution to journeys lasting decades or centuries—longer than a human lifespan: The colonists boarded the sleeper ship, not knowing what world awaited them.
The term distinguishes these vessels from generation ships, where passengers live and die during transit.
- spacecraftVehicle for outer space
- space travelVoyaging beyond Earth's atmosphere
- light yearsUnits of astronomical distance
- starshipFictional interstellar vessel
- interstellarBetween celestial bodies
long-distance · one-way trip · hibernation · exoplanets · cryosleep · cryopreservation · propulsion systems · life support systems · time dilation · astronauts · futuristic · exploration · suspended animation · wake-up call · skeleton crew · alien encounters · existential risks · voyage
sleeper shipsgeneration ships
Multigenerational interstellar spacecraft
sleeper, ship, sleep, sleeps, sleeping, slept, sleepy, sleepily, sleepiness