Let's think about something pleasant. For example, about the noodles they fed us when they were preparing us for the flight. An Earth-like planet in the habitable zone. A super-Earth. Three times larger than ours. 300 years of continuous and focused research. A dozen automated missions, including several landings. A string of discoveries. Liquid water. An oxygen atmosphere. Green single-celled algae. Triumphant reports. We found it! Terra incognita! And no any dreary Enceladus or frozen Europa. The promised land. Our second home!
And while we were mesmerized by high-resolution satellite images taken five years ago and continuously flying towards us through space, big-headed, conceited smart alecks were already figuring out how to send us to explore the new world. Stations that had been flying to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn for years were not suitable here. The distance was too great. The "generation ship," where people live, reproduce, and die without ever reaching their destination, is too big, too complex, too expensive, and, most importantly, too heavy. It cannot be accelerated properly. What to do?
That is when biologists come to the aid of engineers and physicists with a new technology called cryogenic sleep. It's not exactly cryogenic and not exactly a sleep, but thanks to the not smart jurnal-whores, everyone calls it namely like that. After a series of tests on Earth, it becomes clear that it is possible to painlessly slow down all processes in the human body for a year, five years, ten years... So, does that mean also150 years?
Eureka! Now we can throw everything unnecessary out of the ship and finally accelerate it properly with fashionable nuclear engines. Inside, there are only cryocapsule systems and a minimal protective shell. Everything else: all life support systems, all supplies — to hell with them! Everything necessary for life on the planet can be transported in unpretentious cargo ships without unnecessary sealing and protective plating. People will follow the same course, but in a different truck — in a wheel for transporting human canned goods.
The main thing is that the automation doesn't fail. But has it ever failed in the last 50 years? Not once! Yes... I wouldn't sign up for that now.