The curious experiment that the European Space Agency will perform on volunteers to offer solutions for future space missions.
It is always welcome to lie in bed for a few hours to recover and obviously sleep, but long periods of time in bed are not beneficial for the muscles and consequently also for our health.
And now about 12 volunteers are going to stay in bed for at least 60 days, and it’s not that they have a health problem, it’s that it’s about space research.
They must not only be in bed, but also carry out any activity required in it, such as eating, showering, even playing sports, and with the requirement that one shoulder must always touch the mattress.
Basically they must carry out all kinds of daily activities and it is part of a research project called BRACE, where they investigate that cycling could counteract the changes experienced by the human body in space, according to the European Space Agency.
Volunteers will stay for two months in 6° inclined beds with their feet up
This experiment will affect groups of volunteers who will be in charge of different activities such as using a bicycle every day in their beds, another group will perform movements lying down inside the centrifuge machine, and so on.
“We hope to understand the added value of artificial gravity to the exercise routine followed by astronauts on the International Space Station. The crew exercises two hours a day in orbit,” Angelique said. Van Ombergenwho heads ESA’s Human and Robotic Exploration branch, in a statement.
Basically the volunteers will stay for two months in beds inclined 6° with their feet up, a position that allows blood and fluids to flow to the head. What they want to experience is loss of muscle mass, one of the major health problems suffered by astronauts on space travel.
And it is that, due to the lack of gravity, the human body undergoes different changes during these missions spacesomething that affects the muscles, but also the bones and the heart.
With this experimentscientists could better understand how their bodies respond to different changes by staying in this position for a long period of time, paving the way for the development of future solutions for space missions.
In any case, it is an experiment that will also serve to improve certain medical conditions: “The results of space analogues may be useful for designing better treatments for the elderly and patients with musculoskeletal conditions and osteoporosis on Earth,” Van Ombergen said.
