How long is the crew "frozen" during the trip in Aliens

How long is the crew "frozen" during the trip in Aliens - Empty Road Against Mountain Background

At the start of Aliens we learn that Ripley has been frozen for 57 years after the events of the first film. When Ripley is asked to accompany the Colonial Marines after contact with colonists on LV-426 is lost, the crew is frozen for the journey. I assume the purpose of freezing the crew is because it's a long journey (years?), so that would make perfect sense. Before they leave we also learn that there have been colonists on LV-426 for 20 years. If contact was lost, how long would it take colonial marine to reach the colonists?



Best Answer

The script for Aliens prefixes the scene with the marine crew waking from hypersleep with:

EXT. DEEP SPACE - THREE WEEKS LATER

So the short answer to the question is three weeks.

So you might ask, why the huge difference (almost 1000x different duration). The difference between the 3 weeks and the 57 years might be explained through multiple reasons:

  • The escape craft that Ripley takes at the end of Alien may not have anything like the speed of the military ship, especially after 57 years of further development. The Nostromo itself was only a few more months away from Earth when it stopped at LV-426. So even a 'slow tanker' craft was capable of making that journey in less than a year.

  • However Ripley is surprised how long she's been asleep, so it can't all be relative speed of the vehicles. The main factor is that the escape craft almost drifts undetected through known space before it is picked up and Ripley taken to Earth.

BURKE

You'd drifted right through the core systems. It's blind luck that deep-salvage team caught you when they...are you all right?




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How long was the crew asleep in Alien?

So the short answer to the question is three weeks.

How long was Ripley asleep in Alien?

Ripley was indeed in hypersleep for 57 years. When she first meets Company representative Carter Burke (Paul Reiser), she is in the hospital and he informs her that she's been out there for 57 years, at which point she starts to react to an alien birthing from her. Then she awakens and we find out this was a nightmare.

How long was Ripley drifting in space?

In Aliens, at the beginning of the movie we see Ripley being discovered by a patrolling space craft. She is later revealed that she has been travelling for 57 years (correct me if I am wrong).

How far away is LV-426?

Acheron, formerly known as LV-426, is one of three known moons orbiting Calpamos in the Zeta Reticuli system, 39 light years away from Earth. The moon was given its common name by the early human colonists who settled there.



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