German Aerospace Center Participants wanted for DLR study: Who can lie down for 30 days?
Cologne/Region · The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is looking for participants for a NASA study on the health of astronauts in space. Participants must spend 30 days lying with their head tilted slightly down.
Performance and resilience will be put to the test next year at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). They are looking for test subjects for the fourth and final stage of a NASA study on astronauts' bed rest and health. They will support space medicine research at DLR in Cologne.
The official name of the study is "Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS)-Countermeasures(CM) ". Specifically, the study will investigate physical changes caused by weightlessness in space and develop possible countermeasures.
The study starts in Cologne at the beginning of May 2023. The DLR is now looking for German-speaking test persons of each sex aged between 24 and 55. Participants will have to lie down in a bed with a 6-degree head-down position for a total of 30 days. In other words, you'll be lying with your head sloping downwards. In this position, the subjects experience the same physical changes as astronauts. These changes will subside again, according to DLR. This time in order to counteract the changes directly, a recumbent bicycle ergometer will be used in the study as a countermeasure.
Physical changes due to long stays in space
Spending long periods of time in space has negative effects for astronauts, because there is no gravity. According to DLR, without gravity, muscles and bones degenerate considerably, body fluids shift to the upper half of the body and the entire cardiovascular system is used less and becomes less efficient. In short, compared to degeneration on Earth, in space processes are speeded up. Simulating aspects on earth first can have advantages for certain research questions because conditions are easier to control on earth, DLR says on its website.
German astronaut Alexander Gerst. Photo: dpa/---
The study will last a total of 59 days, 30 of which the probands will spend in bed, and will take place at the Aerospace Medicine Research Facility in Cologne-Porz. Test persons who have successfully participated in the study will receive 11,000 euros in staggered payments. So far, DLR has conducted seven bed rest studies. Further requirements for participation in the study can be found here.
