New Adventures in Beds and Baths for Spaceflight

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

ESA[*] is expanding its bedrest programme that allows researchers to study how human bodies react to living in space - without leaving their bed.

[...] Bedrest studies simulate aspects of spaceflight by placing volunteers in bed for long periods of time with their head 6 below horizontal. At all times one shoulder must touch the bed - meals, showers and toilet breaks included.

ESA has conducted many bedrest studies with Medes in Toulouse, France, and at the German aerospace centre DLR's ':envihab' facility in Cologne, Germany. The space agency is now welcoming the JoA3/4ef Stefan Institute based in Planica, Slovenia, to conduct a new round of 60-day studies: one in Toulouse and one in Planica.

The Planica site is a fitting addition, since it is located at high altitude and there is less atmospheric pressure - much like a in future lunar habitat, which adds to simulation. The centre allows researchers to tweak environmental conditions, such as oxygen levels in the room. Testing volunteers in low oxygen levels, or hypoxia, is relevant for future space missions where the confined environment of spacecraft and space habitats could contain less oxygen.

Each site in France, Germany and Slovenia has a centrifuge that can spin volunteers to recreate gravity pulling towards their feet while laying down. Artificial gravity could counteract some of the changes in the human body during space exploration.

"The goal is to definitively test measures that reduce the unwanted effects of living in weightlessness," explains ESA's science coordinator for human research Angelique Van Ombergen, "we have a long history at ESA of conducting bedrest studies and this round will put all our knowledge gained towards fine-tuning and working out the best techniques."

[...]Water bed for dry immersion

In a first for ESA, another type of terrestrial study with Medes will use dry-immersion baths. Similar to bath tubs, containers will hold a total of 20 female study participants in suspension for five days each.

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