Paid Opportunity To Contribute To The Future Of Space Exploration

Volunteers are wanted for medical trials in France that will help to determine and counter the effects of long term weightlessness on the body. You will literally lay down for 2 months and get paid €16,000 for your efforts.

For some, it might seem like the ideal job. You don’t even have to commute. You wake up, have some tests taken, watch some television and then go back to sleep. French scientists are looking for 24 volunteers on this project which they say will assist future astronauts on deep space missions. The only catch is that you won’t be allowed to leave your bed.

Those leading the study at the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology (Medes) near Toulouse are looking for 24 candidates, who must be physically fit, between 20 and 45, and have a specific body mass index (BMI) for the 2 months of studying.

“The idea of this study is to reproduce the weightlessness of the International Space Station (ISS). During the first two weeks our scientists will do a whole series of tests and measurements on the volunteers. This will be followed by a 60-day period during which they must remain in bed, the head slightly inclined downwards at less than six degrees.” – Dr Arnaud Beck, project lead.

Dr Beck has revealed that the job is tougher than expected as the subjects must eat, sleep, drink and, well you can imagine what else from the laying position. One shoulder must be in contact with the bed at all times. After the 2 month period, recuperation will start and further tests will be done to check the effects of not stepping on the ground for 8 weeks.

“The experiment aimed to look at the detrimental effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body and to find ways of combating them. In certain conditions the cardiovascular system is affected and is not capable of making the same effort as before the experiment. We even see a greater tendency to drops in blood pressure and vertigo. As with astronauts who have spent a long period in space, volunteers experience muscle loss in the lower body, a drop in bone density and find it difficult to stand afterwards.”

If you want to help the future of manned space exploration, you can apply here. In all honesty, I think that I could have done it for 6 months with no issues when I was a teenager.

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