NASA Will Pay You $19,000 to Stay Bedridden for Two Months
Slackers of the world, unite. Your ultimate gig is calling--
NASA, along with two other space agencies, is once again paying you good money to go way beyond being just a couch potato. How about a bed potato? Can you handle two months off your feet? The goal is the continued study of the effects of long periods of weightlessness in space. If you're one of the twenty-four participants (12 men and 12 women) selected, you will spend 60 days in bed -- showering, eating, exercising, getting dressed -- all while laying down. The compensation for 60 days in bed? About $19,000. Persons will be tested from September to December of this year in Cologne, Germany.
During the two months, the volunteers will live in a single room, but will be divided into groups. One group will be rotated around in a centrifuge, similar to an artificial gravity chamber, which will force blood back into their extremities. A second group will not be moved. Another catch: The participants’ beds are tilted slightly downward to encourage fluids to pool in the upper body.