NASA Offers $18,000 For Human Lab Rat Volunteers To Stay In Bed For 10 Weeks

If you are healthy, American, prepared to loll about in bed for 10 weeks, you can earn $18,000 from NASA.

But hold on, don't jump at it. NASA will put through a "gruelling regime of tests for more than three months", according to rt.

And that's not all. Read the small print to see what NASA is saying.

Scientists will continuously probe into the "lucky ones" for 70 days. Research will check how effective exercise is on astronauts. In fact, you will lose cardiovascular, bone and muscle function "as a result of living in zero gravity conditions."

Now that doesn't sound too pretty to you, does it?

There will be quite a crowd of volunteers, of course, who will be divided into two. Those who exercise and those who don't. If the first option sounds like more fun, then just wait some more.

Step 1 will put everyone for two and three weeks inside a "bed rest facility." You are allowed to move around freely, and go through a normal day.

Step 2: All the volunteers will be transferred to NASA's Flight Analog Research Unit in Houston, Texas.

Step 3: With everyone else, you can lie down in bed for 10 weeks, with your body "tilted slightly backwards", and your feet up while your head will be down.

Sounds good? Back and neck pain from constant lying down is often mentioned by test subjects, according to independent.

Well, your mobility has to be a bare minimum. With the rest, you will be a human lab rat, and can use a plastic bedpan. You will also have to wash with a hand-held shower, lying on your back.

So much lying around may be something you like, but be careful of aching joints as you lie in one position for such a long period.

Reading and watching movies, though, is allowed. After all, you are pretending you are an astronaut, not a monk.

Okay, what exactly is the point of it all, you might ask. Scientists---and those are the men who are subjecting you to it all---want to simulate in you the weightlessness of space flight.

Step 4: You will go through 14 days of exercise, which will include cycling, squatting and walking. The point of these "reconditioning activities," is to check whether regular exercise can help your body to get back into shape.

So check it out. Sit down and think about it. Is it worth earning $18,000 for so much rigor?