America
NASA offers Rs.11 lakh for 70 days of bed rest
London, April 13
The US space agency is
offering around Rs.11 lakh if you are selected to participate in a
three-month study that requires you to stay in bed rest for three
months. The study is aimed at finding out ways to keep astronauts
healthier and safer when they spend a long time in space.
"Head down bed rest is a good way to mimic a person travelling in space without gravity," NASA said.
Head-down
bed rest helps researchers study people on earth in a way that causes
some of the changes the body goes through while travelling in space
without gravity.
"This study will show how much your body, tilted
down slightly with head down and feet up, for 70 days, 24-hours a day,
without getting out of bed, except for limited times for specific tests,
is like an astronaut's body during the weightlessness of space flight,
NASA said.
Watching the participants, the scientists hope to
learn how an astronaut's body will change in weightlessness during space
flight in the future.
The selected participants -- divided in
exercising and non-exercising groups -- would be free to move around
inside the bed rest facility for two to three weeks and do normal
things.
After that period, they would spend 70 days lying in bed,
with your body slightly tilted downward (head down, feet up). During
the final 14 days of the study, they would again be free to move about
within the facility.
Because of deconditioning that takes place during bed rest, they would slowly begin normal, everyday activity.
"You will participate in the reconditioning activities that are arranged for you during this time," NASA said.
NASA
is looking for healthy US citizens or residents, who will have to pass
tough fitness tests, as they have to be of similar physical condition to
an astronaut, the Independent reported.