A ticket for space... in a bed!

The MEDES space clinic is looking for men between 20 and 45 years old: confined to bed for 35 days in order to recreate certain physiological effects of weightlessness. These volunteers (who will be paid) are to help in the preparation of missions to Mars.

 

In bed for 21 days, but for good reason! Volunteers taking part in the experiment run by the MEDES institute of space medicine in Toulouse, France, will be helping astronauts to keep in shape. Credit: MEDES

With the advent of stations and currently with the ISS, International Space Station, long-duration flights are more and more the mission “standard”. For instance, the ISS Expedition crew members stay in orbit for about 6 months. And, up in space, the bodies of these space professionals suffer because of the weightlessness: muscle and bone loss, cardiovascular system upset, blood formulation modified, etc. Countermeasures have long been implemented (notably physical exercise), but science has still to make progress in order to improve their efficiency. In this respect, astronauts themselves are “guinea pigs” since not only is their health monitored but they also perform experiments on themselves.

In bed like in space!
But close examination of the crew members’ health is not enough. Studies also have to be carried out in accordance with protocols that are difficult to apply to working astronauts. This is one of the many roles of MEDES, a space medicine institute created more than 20 years ago in Toulouse, France. Furthermore, this institute was founded by Toulouse’s University Hospital and the CNES (French Space Agency).
Now, you might think that it is practically impossible to study the effects of weightlessness on Man on Earth (a machine that generates artificial weightlessness not having been invented!). However, over recent decades, doctors have been able to define a kind of weightless model enabling a good number of the modifications observed amongst astronauts living in weightless conditions to be reproduced. This involves being permanently confined to bed for a long period of time with the feet slightly higher than the head (tilted at -6°). As a result, it becomes possible to test a strategy on Earth aiming, for example, to maintain muscle or bone mass or to limit cardiovascular modifications. The main instruction is very strict: volunteers (the term guinea pig is no longer used!) cannot get up from their -6° beds, not even when eating or having a wash!

The health of the volunteers is monitored during the selection process as well as during and after the experiment by a team of professionals. Credit: MEDES

However, MEDES’ doctors, physiotherapists, psychologists, nurses and dieticians master the constraints of this simulation perfectly. And so, an appeal for volunteers has just been launched. If you are male, in good health, do not smoke and are aged between 20 and 45 years old, you can apply!
Three campaigns lasting 35 days (21 of which are spent in the -6° bed) 4 months apart are already programmed between October 2012 and December 2013. This experiment is to take place in Rangueil Hospital in Toulouse, France. Volunteers are to be paid.
Applicants should telephone 00 33 (0)5 62 17 49 65 or send an email to this address: recrutement-volontaires@medes.fr. Further information can be found: on this page of the MEDES website.

The volunteers selected are therefore to help prepare future long-duration space flights and, perhaps even, human space flight missions to Mars.

The studies carried out on Earth by the MEDES space clinic follow a strict medical protocol in order to validate strategies (here, the use of a centrifuge) which will enable astronauts to counter the effects of weightlessness on their bodies. Credit: MEDES

Published on 10 July 2012