Sleeper ship

A sleeper ship was a type of vessel used by the earliest space travelers to expand the pre-Republic borders, before the invention of the hyperdrive. Such ships relied upon extended hibernation to preserve the duration of their crewmembers' natural lives and save them from years or even decades of tedious activities while waiting for the journey to reach its far-flung destination. The discovery of carbonite on the planet Koros Major ended the era of generation ships and ushered a new age of sleeper ship exploration. Historians linked the carbonite mining operations on Koros Major to sleeper ships that were used to spread humanity throughout the Core Worlds.