The Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology is organizing a new clinical study to simulate the effects of weightlessness. Volunteers are needed to take bed for 60 days.
Stay lying down for 60 days to advance science: would you be ready to take part in such an experiment? If so, now is the time to show up. The Institute of Space Medicine and Physiology (or MEDES), located in Toulouse, is again looking for volunteers, Did we learn on January 16, 2023. The study is conducted at the request of ESA and CNES (respectively, the European and French space agencies).
” We are recruiting volunteers for a clinical study simulating weightlessness, using the bed rest model », sums up the MEDES. The space clinic needs male volunteers, ages 20-45, to participate in its BRACE (Bed Rest with Artificial gravity and Cycling Exercise) study from April 4 to July 4 (88 days, including 60 days to stay bedridden). This is a compensated study, up to €18,000.
Lie down with your head lower than your feet
At first glance, the task seems easy, since it is “just” to lie down for 2 months and wait. Nevertheless, this study promises to be a little less comfortable than hanging out in bed in your pajamas on a Sunday morning. Recruits must remain lying at −6° of inclination, with the head lower than the feet. This is how MEDES will simulate the effects of microgravity (in the ISS, astronauts are in microgravity).
” This position induces a migration of body fluids to the upper part of the body, as observed in space. », Details the MEDES in an FAQ on the clinical study. It is therefore necessary to stay for 2 months in this position which seems uncomfortable at first sight, with the feet of the bed raised by 17 cm (according to the institute, the body ends up getting used to it).
It should also be noted that other constraints are added. Although participants can keep in touch by telephone with their loved ones, they cannot receive visitors. It is also not possible to refuse certain tests carried out during the study. Teleworking is not completely prohibited, but it will not be given priority over studying. Nor will MEDES take into account the special diets of the volunteers, who must eat everything and have no restrictions.
So, are you still motivated to participate? Applications are open. The MEDES gives all the indications to participate on this page. Note that recruitments involve, in addition to interviews and medical selection, a centrifuge test.
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