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Serve our space program, and spend a month in bed
By DAVID BALLINGRUD
© St. Petersburg Times, Are you tired? Could you, like the rest of us, use a little extra sleep? Does a month sound about right? Good news: NASA has a few extra beds. As part of its research into the effects of long-term space flight, the space agency is looking for about a dozen serious sleepers. It wants people who are willing to spend a month in bed. But here's the catch. That really means a month in bed -- without getting up, even once. Volunteers will eat in bed, exercise in bed, read, take calls, even shower in bed. "The shower works kind of like a car wash," explained NASA spokeswoman Ann Hutchison. "It's kind of horizontal." Privacy will be assured by strips of plastic "like the ones you see keeping the freezer cold in grocery stores," she offered. A common area will be available for movie watching and visits with other sleepers -- as long as everyone remains prone or supine. And yes, when nature calls, bedpans will be at the ready. While all this may sound like a lark, it's not. For men and women to safely spend long periods of time in space, whether it be on a space station or aboard a spacecraft headed to Mars, human health effects must be understood. In this study, researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California aim to learn the negative effects of microgravity, then develop methods or drugs to counteract them. "Bed rest simulates weightlessness and induces many of the physiological changes similar to those seen with space flight," said project manager Fritz Moore. These routinely include cardiovascular deconditioning, muscle atrophy and decreased bone strength. The position the volunteers must hold for 30 days actually is not flat. It's worse than that. Volunteers will lie in beds tilted head-down at a six-degree angle. During space flight, the lack of gravity causes the fluids in the human body to shift toward the head, Hutchison explained, and the head-down position is meant to approximate that. If all of this sounds like a good way to spend a month and earn a modest paycheck, here are a few more things to consider. Male and female volunteers must be between the ages of 25 and 55. Applicants are welcome from anywhere in the United States, Hutchison said, "but realistically, we haven't got money in our budget to buy you a plane ticket to California." Candidates must be nonsmokers in good health. They should have no history of cardiovascular or musculoskeletal disease or hernia. Female volunteers must not be pregnant. Still want to know more? There will be no alcohol and no caffeine for the length of the study, and some fasting will be required. There will be lots of tests. Participants will be put up in the Ames Human Research Facility for 45 days, and a battery of tests will measure changes in physical and mental performance before, during and after the time in bed. Many of these tests are the same ones given to astronauts before and after visits to the International Space Station. Still sounding good? Contact Heather Wilson at (650) 604-5551, or e-mail: hwilson@mail.arc.nasa.gov. The program begins in January.
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