A group of 12 volunteers are set to spend 60-days in bed for the sake of space exploration and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) BRACE study. This involves keeping the participants in beds tilted 6° below the horizontal with their feet up for all meals, showers and even toilet breaks.
Researchers want to chart how human bodies react as blood flows to the head and muscle is lost from underuse during the BRACE (Bed Rest with Artificial gravity and Cycling Exercise) study. astronauts’ bodies experience various changes due to lack of gravity, as everything from their eyes to their heart is affected, and muscles as well as bones start to deteriorate. How will they cycle in bed? Using special bikes adapted to the bed and on a centrifuge to mimic artificial gravity. Researchers will then compare cycling in bed, cycling as the volunteers are spun on a centrifuge and a control group that stays in bed for the full two months with no exercise bike or centrifuge rides.
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We encourage volunteers to reach their maximum effort on the bike, and then compare the impact with those who are not biking at all. We hope to understand the added value of artificial gravity to the fitness routine astronauts follow on the International Space Station. The crew exercise two hours per day in orbit,” said Rebecca Billette, head of clinical research at MEDES, the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology in Toulouse, France.
