It may well be that some form of cryonics will be needed for eventual voyages beyond the Solar System. I believe that we may not be able to travel close to the speed of light for many decades if not centuries, so working on ways to put a crew into suspended animation for centuries and even thousands of years is necessary. I also believe cryonics is a valid idea, Humanity daring to flirt with immortality. It is a worthy quest.
Unfortunately there is opposition to the idea, which I think is largely religious in nature. There are logistical problems as well to achieving a start to hibernation in 'good condition', basically one should be prepared to get frozen before one actually dies. This might be regarded technically as suicide, and thus possibly not practical in countries with religiously influenced laws, including the US. Nevertheless, the road to the stars may well be traveled by frozen crews and work should be funded on a large scale on cryonics, which may be pivotal in the evential practicality of such voyages.

Don Davis