Skip to main content

Volunteers sent to bed for 60 consecutive days in offbeat space experiment

ESA

Getting paid $19,000 to spend 60 consecutive days in bed may sound like the stuff of dreams for some folks, but this is precisely what 24 people will be doing in an experiment designed by NASA and its European counterpart, ESA.

Launched earlier this week at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Germany, the study aims to learn more about the negative effects on the human body of prolonged periods of weightlessness — important if astronauts are ever to embark on long missions into deep space.

Now, before you start wishing you were a part of this unusual study, it’s worth noting that the volunteers — 12 men and 12 women — will be kept in beds the whole time, with all experiments, meals, and leisure pursuits taking place lying flat with the bed angled downward toward the head end by six degrees.

“As blood flows to their heads and muscle is lost from underuse, researchers will investigate changes and test techniques from diet to physical exercise,” ESA said on its website. “Artificial gravity is one of the techniques under the spotlight this time around and will see some of the participants sent spinning.”

Ah, yes. Did we mention the spinning? Once a day, some of the study’s participants will be placed in a short-arm centrifuge and spun around to make their blood flow back toward their feet. This will allow researchers to learn more about the potential of artificial gravity in combating the effects of prolonged weightlessness, which can lead to bone and muscle atrophy.

“Currently, astronauts on board the International Space Station exercise for up to 2.5 hours per day and maintain a balanced diet to help mitigate microgravity’s effects, but scientists believe adding a dose of artificial gravity could be key during longer-term missions,” the ESA said.

Other experiments conducted during the study will focus on areas such as cardiovascular function, balance, muscle strength, metabolism, and cognitive performance.

Hansjörg Dittus, DLR executive board member for Space Research and Technology, said crewed spaceflight will continue to play a vital role in the exploration of our universe, but emphasized the importance of making it as safe as possible for the astronauts.

While staying in a bed for two months straight may sound like the simplest of activities, the experiment is actually considered to be so demanding on the human body that all 24 individuals will be kept at the facility for a further 29 days to ensure a safe and healthy recovery.

It’s fair to say they’ll probably need a good lie down after all that.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
This remarkable shape-shifting robot could one day head to Mars
The Mori3 robot developed by a team of researchers in Switzerland.

NASA is focusing increasingly on interplanetary missions to faraway places like Mars, and such highly ambitious voyages will require robotic equipment to assist astronauts with a range of tasks.

Mori3: A polygon-based modular robot

Read more
How to watch NASA’s private mission arrive at space station
SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft.

NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule is currently flying NASA’s second all-private mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

Read more
How NASA’s astronaut class of 1978 changed the face of space exploration
Sally Ride NASA

When you look back on the long history of crewed spaceflight, one group stands out for its radical challenge to the conventional wisdom of who could become an astronaut. NASA's astronaut class of 1978 saw not only its first women and people of color working as astronauts such as Sally Ride and Guy Bluford, but also the first Asian American astronaut, El Onizuka, the first Jewish American astronaut, Judy Resnik, and the first LGBT astronaut, once again Sally Ride.

A new book, The New Guys: The Historic Class of Astronauts That Broke Barriers and Changed the Face of Space Travel, chronicles the story of this class and its impact on both NASA and the wider world’s perceptions of who could be an astronaut. We spoke to the author, Meredith Bagby, about this remarkable group of people and how they changed the face of human spaceflight.
Breaking the mold
Throughout the 50s and 60s, NASA almost exclusively chose fighter pilots for its early human spaceflight program, Project Mercury. That meant that not only were astronaut groups like the famous Mercury Seven entirely composed of white men, but they also came from very similar military backgrounds.

Read more