Cryogenic sleep chamber

From The Stargate Omnipedia

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Vertical units of Talthun design capable of sustaining a human body as well as the consciousness of an individual. A cryo-sleeper's consciousness is stored in the same memory module that maintains the sleeper. There is no conceivable way of separating the two. If a body dies the fail safes are overridden and the consciousness is purged from the system. The consciousness cannot survive the restoration process without significant loss of memory and intellect.

A person undertaking such a long journey without proper storage of the consciousness would arrive at the destination a fraction of themselves, the essence of the person lost forever -- which is what makes the sleep chamber such an asset to the Talthuns. Each capsule contains an active matrix memory module sufficient to sustain one single mind. Its systems are connected with those that regulate and sustain the corresponding sleeper's body. A monitor at the top of the unit indicates the overall power level of the chamber.

The Talthuns constructed at least three sleeper ships, each equipped with about one thousand cryogenic sleep chambers, in order to transport as many of their population as possible from their dying world of Talthus to their new home world, Ardena. One of these, the Stromos, crash-landed on P2A-347 en route to its destination. When the sleep chamber power systems began to fail, Officer Pharrin transferred the consciousnesses of some of the passengers into his own mind and the mind of Daniel Jackson, in order to save their existences.

KEY EPISODE

Lifeboat - SG-1 arrives on P2A-347 to discover hundreds of humans in stasis on board the Talthun vessel Stromos.