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 Hibernation may be all well and
good for "short" passages to, say, Jupiter, but for really, really,
really, really, really, really long journeys to the nearest stars
without the benefit of fantasy technologies like warp drives you need
more than just a spaceship, you need a "space ark".
Also known as a "generation
ship", the space ark is a craft so large that hundreds, if not
thousands, of people and even livestock can be carried so that even
though a trip to the nearest star might take 600 years, the
descendents of the original crew would still be able to complete the
mission-- assuming, of course that they haven't fallen into a
stereotypical mutiny, burned all the books, conveniently, albeit
improbably, forgotten all about the mission and come to imagine that
their ship comprises the entire universe.
Happens all the time.
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Or you could try to avoid that
problem by brainwashing the crew until they are as docile as sheep, as
in this J. G. Ballard tale. Mind you, it does also bring up the
aggravating problem of how you do a test flight for a mission intended
to last longer than the subjective length of a '70s Prog Rock album.
Regardless of these technical
and moral hurdles, the single most important thing to remember is that
if the animal option is invoked,
then the engineers MUST include a great big room for poo.
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