NASA Offers $18,500 To People Willing To Stay In Bed For 60 Days
We all know that space travel is not only expensive, but also dangerous. If humans are to send people to Mars, scientists must know and understand the effects that living in space poses to human body. It is known that the so-called “puffy-head, bird-legs” syndrome exists, which manifests itself when, due to zero gravity conditions, blood flow is no longer pulled to the legs and as a result, the astronaut’s head is filled with fluid. Therefore, NASA and ESA teamed up to conduct a bed rest study to see how the body adapts to weightlessness. The space agencies announced that they are looking for two dozen volunteers to spend 60 days laying down to help scientists understand how space travel will affect astronauts. The participants will be paid 16,500 euros (more than $18,500) and will have to travel to Cologne, Germany.
More info: NASA
24 selected participants will travel to the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) to stay in bed for two months
Image credits: ESA
However there are some requirements for the volunteers, that must be met – they must be between the age of 24 and 55, healthy and speak German. The research will begin in September and will take up a total of 89 days, as before their time in bed, the participants will be given five days of familiarization. Upon completion of the 60 days bed-bound study, they will undergo 14 days of rehabilitation, the same as the real astronauts do.
Out of 89 days of the experiment, 60 of them will have to be spent in bed
Image credits: ESA
During the bed rest period, they will be required to to everything while lying down – from eating to going to the bathroom. Participants will have the ability to watch television, will be provided with reading material and other activities, while the organizers of the study are strongly encouraging people to take up online courses and learn new skills. During their rest, the volunteers will lay down with their legs slightly higher than heads in order to reduce blood flow to the extremities. This will impose muscle deterioration, akin to that experienced by real astronauts in space.
Volunteers will be split into two groups
Image credits: ESA
One half will visit a centrifuge in a laboratory from time to time. The centrifuge acts as an artificial gravity chamber, as its spinning rig simulates gravity, pushing blood toward the participants’ lower extremities. This will help scientists see whether the simulator was in any way helpful of minimizing the effects of lying down in one position for a prolonged period of time.
During the research, the newly introduced DLR Short-Arm Centrifuge will be used
Image credits: NASA Analog Missions
The new Short-Arm Centrifuge simulate and study the effects of artificial gravity on the human body. However, not only astronauts and space travelers will benefit from the research, but people experiencing terrestrial health issues, as well. By using the human centrifugal tool, the study will bring more insights on osteoporosis, muscular atrophy, and cardiovascular diseases.
Throughout the study, the participants will be under scrutiny of scientists
Image credits: NASA Analog Missions
The bed rest experiment is aimed to stimulate the effects of microgravity on human’s body. When a prolonged period of time is spent in space, the muscles deteriorate, bones become less dense and blood flows differently throughout the body. To combat these side effects, regular exercise is used, but scientists hope that artificial gravity can prove to be even more beneficial.
A team of medical, psychotherapeutic, scientific professionals and a nutritionist will be on site
Image credits: NASA Analog Missions
The nutritionist will plan the meals of the participants. Food will be prepared with no additives and artificial sweeteners, while at the same time balanced enough to ensure sufficient nutritional value. However, to satisfy the sweet tooth, desserts will also be provided, but only occasionally.
Some people loved the idea, while the others were not as enthusiastic
198Kviews
Share on Facebook
18,500 isn’t enough money to wreck your body like that. They said they would get 14 days of rehibilitaion, but it’s hard to believe that would be enough.
Load More Replies...
I spent a month in bed recovering from a broken leg, occasionally struggling into a wheelchair, but mostly lying in bed. It was awful and I lost a LOT of muscle mass. They'd have to pay extremely well to even consider putting myself through that hell again - I'm talking millions.
To those that think that it is easy to stay in bed for that long, let me point out the pain that will come with that, the muscle loss, the headaches from the out of tune blood pressure, the ulcers and necrosis of the skin (bedsores). Just google "bedsores" (warning - disturbing images). Most people who believe it's easy would quit after realising how hard it is to simply urinate while laying in bed. And the money is too little for a 60-day torture.
My last major hospital visit left met staying in the hospital approx. 5 weeks. Lost 20 kilo´s of muscle mass, took me a couple of years to get back on my target weight. To all you lazy ignoramuses ;-) Just go ahead & sign up, you have no idea the damage this will bring to your already unfit bodies.
I did a flu camp in London a few years back, i was in a sealed room for 11 days, i got paid about £3200, you are in there with a dvd player, dvd library, ps4, games, you can take your own stuff of course but no leaving the room and they bring you 4 meals a day and come and stick large implements up your nose to collect snot a few times a day, it was sooooo tedious and dull and i wouldn't recommended it to anyone.
Hmmm..eleven days of working in silence sounds actually awesome right now. Would probably feel a bit lonely after a while - were you allowed to skype or have any other kind of contact with friends and family? But then, no sunlight for 11 days? Wow..
Load More Replies... I was unable to leave my bed for months after a spinal cord injury. Trust me: the money they're offering isn't worth it. When you're bedridden everything stops working ... digestion, circulation, filtration and evacuation, even hormones get messed up ... everything. The human body needs to move.
Oh gosh yes! Bedsores and blood clots aside, it really does do strange things to you! And as your muscles are wasting away it really hurts......this isn't something to be taken lightly!
Load More Replies...
My legs are skinny enough without doing that to myself :/ Besides the health risks involved, 18.500 isn't a lot of money to do what they are asking you to do. Not to mention the 'bored out of your head' factor.
I can't stay in bed 8 hours without getting a headache and feeling horrible.
Why would someone down vote you? I can't sleep for more than 6.5 hours and my back kills me if I'm in bed for more than 7 hours. (and I have gone through several expensive mattresses). The ones leaving moronic replies are trolling children. Ignore them.
Load More Replies...
what do you mean NASA would hire me to stay in bed for 60 straight days? i already do.
I spent 4 weeks comatose and a further two unable to do anything but blink, and yeah 14 days isn't gna build that muscle tone back! I still don't have my strength back, doubting I'll ever be quite the same again!
No thanks! I was on bed rest for 5 months while pregnant with my now 26 year old daughter. It was difficult, but I wouldn’t trade her for anything. Bed rest sucks...the life out of you. Your muscles waste. I could barely braid my own hair. Basically, for every day in bed, you need at least a day of recovery. I’m still recovering.
$308 per day. That's $12.85 per hour. Not much for risking your health, but a lot for people in a tight spot.
NASA, but in Germany? and you have to speak German? Hmmmm......sounds suspicious to me. Also, anyone else feel like that's not enough money? That's only $207 a day and they have you *all* day, not just 8 hrs. and you're not in a comfy bed, you're on a padded, inverted table...sometimes being spun in a centrifuge! You can't sit up in bed, and it seems like you can't sleep on your side or stomach....I'm guessing there would be a lot of insomnia from low levels of activity. They also don't say if you could do exercises while laying down, so I'm thinking....no. If you're definitely gonna wreck someone's body like that, on PURPOSE, you need to compensate them appropriately....that's not enough money for that kind of hell.
I would be fine with all of it, but I can't sleep on my back. Wie Schade! (What a pity, in German).
Me Neither.. I Am A Left Side Sleeper Myself. Can't Breathe If Im Flat On My Back
Load More Replies...
I would sign up for this tomorrow - so long as I can at least read - my idea of heaven. Getting paid to stay in bed for a couple of months - what's not to like?
That was my first thought... "Can I read?" I know I have at least two months worth of unread books on my Kindle. I would do almost anything for someone to tell me. "Here is your favorite fluffy pillow and your Kindle, now go to bed for two months."
Load More Replies...
I had to stay in bed for 2 months cause of a broken leg. I almost went crazy.
Just spent 10 months in bed. And this included 90-120 minutes of PT a day. It's going to take me about 2 YEARS to get back to normal.
I wonder what they do for the last ten days that are not accounted for in the article.
It sounds f*****g amazing until you consider how much weight you’d gain and how little exercise you’d get (zero). It would take months to recover.
Actually im thinking of how much muscles you will lost and that wouldn't be easy
Load More Replies...
My first thought when seeing the title image was "NASA is 3d printing humans"...
i owe the gov 17k,, it's gunna take me years to pay that off with the interest rates.18.5k pays my debt in 2 month of doing nothing,Beam me up Scotty.
There is a documentary about the first guy who did this with NASA... and... It's basicaly torture for 60 days.
Hell No!! Back On December The 26th If 2016, I Caught Pneumonia, Which Exasperated My COPD And CHF And Had To Be Intubated And Was On A Ventilator For 2 To Three Weeks And When I Came To And Ventilator Was Removed And Couldn't Use The Bed Pan They Put a Bedside Toilet By My Bed And Every time I Had To Potty, I Had To Call the Nurses To Come In And Literally Pick Me Up, Turn Me Around and Sit Me On The Potty, Then Pick Me Up, Turn Me Back Around and Put Me Back Into Bed Because After Just Those 2 Or 3 Weeks In Bed, My Legs Would No Longer Work Or Hold My Weight.. I Was Just Like An Infant.. I Litterally Had To Learn To Stand And Walk All Over Again.. But By The 26th (My Release Date)Of January 2017 I Was Walking Just Good Enough (But, By No Means 100%) To Go Home.. It Took Another Month Or So To Gain Full Strength Back In My Legs!! I HATED Being Layed Up In Bed For That Length Of Time... Why Would I Willingly Put My Body And Muscles Thru That Again?!!
Pssss. I did that on bedrest with twins. It ended up costing ME that much...NEXT!!!
Don't understand why you were downvoted. It was just a joke.
Load More Replies...
Probably the same as it is for bedridden patients in the hospital...the good, 'ole bedpan.
Load More Replies... $18,000 received for Full completion of testing. $50,000 cost for Health Insurance Bill being rehabilitated back to how you were before testing began.
Give me a top of the range gaming PC and a whack load of PC games and they'll have to physically throw me out of there.
Doesn't anybody read? Mary Roach wrote about these trials in "Packing for Mars".
I'm bedbound 50% of the time and housebound 80% of the time. Me and others like me could totally do this, if they didn't require you to be in perfect health to start with.
So... before you do this. take out a life insurance policy. I remember reading a WIRED mag article where the author volunteered to be in their centrifuge for seven days under high simulated gravity. (they were testing the effects of long term exposure to heavy grav). It was like 2 grand. The guy 'died' and was resucitated, and the ex-fighter-jock running the show was like 'hey, you know what we call guys like you? Cargo pilots."
100% i will do it i spend most of my time in bed anyway due to anticardiadiolopin syndrom give me a tv im happy
I feel like it sounds easy but after reading the comments... I guess I'll pass.
I would do, mostly because like a panda, sleep is 80% of my life乁(ᴗ ͜ʖ ᴗ)ㄏ
Mum, mum where are u, oh right i have been in bed for 60 days at nasa
I would do this if I could bring a dog...and maybe my Netflix account.
Please don't, NASA wouldn't appreciate it :/
Load More Replies... 18,500 isn’t enough money to wreck your body like that. They said they would get 14 days of rehibilitaion, but it’s hard to believe that would be enough.
Load More Replies... I spent a month in bed recovering from a broken leg, occasionally struggling into a wheelchair, but mostly lying in bed. It was awful and I lost a LOT of muscle mass. They'd have to pay extremely well to even consider putting myself through that hell again - I'm talking millions.
To those that think that it is easy to stay in bed for that long, let me point out the pain that will come with that, the muscle loss, the headaches from the out of tune blood pressure, the ulcers and necrosis of the skin (bedsores). Just google "bedsores" (warning - disturbing images). Most people who believe it's easy would quit after realising how hard it is to simply urinate while laying in bed. And the money is too little for a 60-day torture.
My last major hospital visit left met staying in the hospital approx. 5 weeks. Lost 20 kilo´s of muscle mass, took me a couple of years to get back on my target weight. To all you lazy ignoramuses ;-) Just go ahead & sign up, you have no idea the damage this will bring to your already unfit bodies.
I did a flu camp in London a few years back, i was in a sealed room for 11 days, i got paid about £3200, you are in there with a dvd player, dvd library, ps4, games, you can take your own stuff of course but no leaving the room and they bring you 4 meals a day and come and stick large implements up your nose to collect snot a few times a day, it was sooooo tedious and dull and i wouldn't recommended it to anyone.
Hmmm..eleven days of working in silence sounds actually awesome right now. Would probably feel a bit lonely after a while - were you allowed to skype or have any other kind of contact with friends and family? But then, no sunlight for 11 days? Wow..
Load More Replies... I was unable to leave my bed for months after a spinal cord injury. Trust me: the money they're offering isn't worth it. When you're bedridden everything stops working ... digestion, circulation, filtration and evacuation, even hormones get messed up ... everything. The human body needs to move.
Oh gosh yes! Bedsores and blood clots aside, it really does do strange things to you! And as your muscles are wasting away it really hurts......this isn't something to be taken lightly!
Load More Replies... My legs are skinny enough without doing that to myself :/ Besides the health risks involved, 18.500 isn't a lot of money to do what they are asking you to do. Not to mention the 'bored out of your head' factor.
I can't stay in bed 8 hours without getting a headache and feeling horrible.
Why would someone down vote you? I can't sleep for more than 6.5 hours and my back kills me if I'm in bed for more than 7 hours. (and I have gone through several expensive mattresses). The ones leaving moronic replies are trolling children. Ignore them.
Load More Replies... what do you mean NASA would hire me to stay in bed for 60 straight days? i already do.
I spent 4 weeks comatose and a further two unable to do anything but blink, and yeah 14 days isn't gna build that muscle tone back! I still don't have my strength back, doubting I'll ever be quite the same again!
No thanks! I was on bed rest for 5 months while pregnant with my now 26 year old daughter. It was difficult, but I wouldn’t trade her for anything. Bed rest sucks...the life out of you. Your muscles waste. I could barely braid my own hair. Basically, for every day in bed, you need at least a day of recovery. I’m still recovering.
$308 per day. That's $12.85 per hour. Not much for risking your health, but a lot for people in a tight spot.
NASA, but in Germany? and you have to speak German? Hmmmm......sounds suspicious to me. Also, anyone else feel like that's not enough money? That's only $207 a day and they have you *all* day, not just 8 hrs. and you're not in a comfy bed, you're on a padded, inverted table...sometimes being spun in a centrifuge! You can't sit up in bed, and it seems like you can't sleep on your side or stomach....I'm guessing there would be a lot of insomnia from low levels of activity. They also don't say if you could do exercises while laying down, so I'm thinking....no. If you're definitely gonna wreck someone's body like that, on PURPOSE, you need to compensate them appropriately....that's not enough money for that kind of hell.
I would be fine with all of it, but I can't sleep on my back. Wie Schade! (What a pity, in German).
Me Neither.. I Am A Left Side Sleeper Myself. Can't Breathe If Im Flat On My Back
Load More Replies... I would sign up for this tomorrow - so long as I can at least read - my idea of heaven. Getting paid to stay in bed for a couple of months - what's not to like?
That was my first thought... "Can I read?" I know I have at least two months worth of unread books on my Kindle. I would do almost anything for someone to tell me. "Here is your favorite fluffy pillow and your Kindle, now go to bed for two months."
Load More Replies... I had to stay in bed for 2 months cause of a broken leg. I almost went crazy.
Just spent 10 months in bed. And this included 90-120 minutes of PT a day. It's going to take me about 2 YEARS to get back to normal.
I wonder what they do for the last ten days that are not accounted for in the article.
It sounds f*****g amazing until you consider how much weight you’d gain and how little exercise you’d get (zero). It would take months to recover.
Actually im thinking of how much muscles you will lost and that wouldn't be easy
Load More Replies... My first thought when seeing the title image was "NASA is 3d printing humans"...
i owe the gov 17k,, it's gunna take me years to pay that off with the interest rates.18.5k pays my debt in 2 month of doing nothing,Beam me up Scotty.
There is a documentary about the first guy who did this with NASA... and... It's basicaly torture for 60 days.
Hell No!! Back On December The 26th If 2016, I Caught Pneumonia, Which Exasperated My COPD And CHF And Had To Be Intubated And Was On A Ventilator For 2 To Three Weeks And When I Came To And Ventilator Was Removed And Couldn't Use The Bed Pan They Put a Bedside Toilet By My Bed And Every time I Had To Potty, I Had To Call the Nurses To Come In And Literally Pick Me Up, Turn Me Around and Sit Me On The Potty, Then Pick Me Up, Turn Me Back Around and Put Me Back Into Bed Because After Just Those 2 Or 3 Weeks In Bed, My Legs Would No Longer Work Or Hold My Weight.. I Was Just Like An Infant.. I Litterally Had To Learn To Stand And Walk All Over Again.. But By The 26th (My Release Date)Of January 2017 I Was Walking Just Good Enough (But, By No Means 100%) To Go Home.. It Took Another Month Or So To Gain Full Strength Back In My Legs!! I HATED Being Layed Up In Bed For That Length Of Time... Why Would I Willingly Put My Body And Muscles Thru That Again?!!
Pssss. I did that on bedrest with twins. It ended up costing ME that much...NEXT!!!
Don't understand why you were downvoted. It was just a joke.
Load More Replies... Probably the same as it is for bedridden patients in the hospital...the good, 'ole bedpan.
Load More Replies... $18,000 received for Full completion of testing. $50,000 cost for Health Insurance Bill being rehabilitated back to how you were before testing began.
Give me a top of the range gaming PC and a whack load of PC games and they'll have to physically throw me out of there.
Doesn't anybody read? Mary Roach wrote about these trials in "Packing for Mars".
I'm bedbound 50% of the time and housebound 80% of the time. Me and others like me could totally do this, if they didn't require you to be in perfect health to start with.
So... before you do this. take out a life insurance policy. I remember reading a WIRED mag article where the author volunteered to be in their centrifuge for seven days under high simulated gravity. (they were testing the effects of long term exposure to heavy grav). It was like 2 grand. The guy 'died' and was resucitated, and the ex-fighter-jock running the show was like 'hey, you know what we call guys like you? Cargo pilots."
100% i will do it i spend most of my time in bed anyway due to anticardiadiolopin syndrom give me a tv im happy
I feel like it sounds easy but after reading the comments... I guess I'll pass.
I would do, mostly because like a panda, sleep is 80% of my life乁(ᴗ ͜ʖ ᴗ)ㄏ
Mum, mum where are u, oh right i have been in bed for 60 days at nasa
I would do this if I could bring a dog...and maybe my Netflix account.
Please don't, NASA wouldn't appreciate it :/
Load More Replies...
192
92