Motionless in liquid nitrogen, the bodies of time travelers are stored in a great gamble on the future.
Arizona's “Lifeboat to the Future” involves cryopreserving humans and pets in the hopes that future technology will bring them back to life.
Among the “patients” being stored in cryogenics, the rocket-like cylinders are said to be household names who wanted to participate in frontier science after their legal deaths.
James M Arrowwood, of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, gave Metro.co.uk an exciting look into the world of cryosuspension and those who sign up for it.
More than 200 patients, including Britons, are keeping their bodies or heads in storage thanks to a non-profit research company in the hope of an “amazing” future awakening.
“Some of the most notable people the world has ever known are stocked with Alcor,” Mr. Arrowood said.
“We have household names in science and technology who have signed up because they want to be part of this mission and experiment.
“They include people who changed the world.
“Our recovery teams coordinate with their security teams, and the process often occurs anonymously.
“For secret members, everyone is given a number and no one knows their name, and only a few members of the Deployment and Recovery Team (DART) and a few Alcor executives know who they are.”
“But it's not just the rich.” Nearly 80% of our members are what we would call middle class and have signed up through life insurance.
“A lot of people realize that this is a remote possibility.
“But it's like a lottery ticket, and if you don't succeed you'll never know, so there's nothing to lose but you can contribute significantly to valuable scientific research by donating your body in this way.”
Founded in 1972 by Fred Chamberlain III and his wife, Linda, Alcor currently has 225 pending patients and 1,424 surviving members registered to live at -192°C (-377°F).
Fred's father, Colonel Fred Chamberlain Jr., became the first patient after his clinical death in 1976. The son was then suspended after his “pause” in 2012, while Linda still works at Alcor.
Advocates of Cryonics technology are looking forward to making radical strides in medical science such as nanotechnology to resuscitate patients as well as the ability to reverse the aging process and treat terminal conditions.
Ideally, the process begins as soon as the patient is declared dead, with the body cooled and transported to Arizona for “vitrification,” where cryoprotectants are pumped into the bloodstream to act as antifreeze.
The patient is then suspended in long-term storage designed to protect the body from deterioration for hundreds or thousands of years.
Mr. Arrowood, co-CEO and president of Alcor, explained the process involved in the DART team, which can be sent anywhere in the world within a few hours if someone is sick, dying, or has passed away legally.
“Time is of the essence as we try to reach the patient while there is still living tissue,” he said. “We perform a type of CPR to keep blood flowing through the body and we inject a special chemical, a type of liquid gold, to prevent damage to the cells due to freezing while they are still alive.
“Then we bring the head or the whole body, depending on what the patient has scored, and go back to Alcor.
“We then gradually cool the patient to a glass-like state in a carefully monitored chamber over three to five days before placing them in a vessel containing liquid nitrogen at -196°C.
“We also perform a CT scan to check the condition of the patient’s brain, which also contributes to the research side of our work.
“Our first patient was Colonel Fred R. Chamberlain JR, father of Alcor co-founder Fred Chamberlain III, in 1976.
“But we have brains spanning three centuries, including one from the 19th century, which is very valuable for scientific purposes.”
Critics of freezing view the process as fantasy pseudoscience, with Dr. Miriam Stoppard, a journalist and doctor, saying the process “robs the dead of their dignity.”
However, Alcor members have gone on record to demonstrate their long-term commitment to the process, which costs at least $80,000 (£63,000) for nerve cryopreservation and $200,000 (£16,000) for whole-body cryopreservation.
Louise Gould, who joined the club in 1999, said: “I want to live in the future but I also don't want to die, so I'm doing my best to keep that away.”
“I am interested in health and nutrition and I want to let medical science catch up with me and live longer but in case that doesn't happen or I have an accident, I can be sure of that at least when I am preserved in Alcor then there is a chance that medical science can bring me back.
I'm very interested in the future, and I wish I was born 30 years later.
“It's an opportunity to experience more of life, and I'd also like to know what people in the future would like to know about me, my experiences and what it was like to be a child in the 60s and 70s.”
The Travelers have been encouraged by some current scientific developments, also including stem cell therapy and Elon Musk's claim to have implanted a wireless chip in a human brain.
“There is no scientific reason why a brain cannot be transplanted in the same way that a kidney transplant can be done today,” Arrowood said.
“Medically, the challenge now is that they don't know how to connect the spinal cord and related blood vessels.
In another theoretical example of so-called “resurrection technology”, the brain could be connected to a computer, or a robot.
“We can see this in theory in Elon Musk's Neuralink which implanted a chip in the brain for the first time.
“The other theory, which I personally prefer, is that the body can be cloned without a functioning brain and the brain can then be transplanted.”
Most patients are stored in Scottsdale, Phoenix, but an undisclosed number of patients are cared for remotely.
At least one is hung away from the facility in a “dewar,” a container that must be cared for in a very specific way.
While cryogenics may be a gamble, hitting the jackpot is one revolutionary possibility.
“If it doesn't work out, you never know,” Mr. Arrowood said.
“If it works, for me personally I know who is in the dewar, which is like a Coca Cola recipe. Only a few people know who they are.
I may be around people who have uniquely changed the world through technology and science.
“I want to talk to these people once our lifeboat, or our cruise ship as it carries more passengers, arrives in the future.
“For me, this would be absolutely and exceptionally amazing.
“That's what fascinates me, excites me, interests me.
“People say your family will disappear and you'll be lonely, but there will be an exclusive group of people who 'rebound' if that happens, and as a result, there will be lots of new people to meet.”
More: Inside an 'ambulance of the future' where people freeze in hope of life after death
MORE: 85-year-old retiree aims to outlive grandchildren in cold storage
MORE: Britons hope for life after death by cryogenically freezing their bodies
Do you have a story you would like to share? communication josh.layton@metro.co.uk
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