Slashdot Mirror
NASA Offers $5000 a Month For You to Lie in Bed
tracer818 writes "In order to study a person as if they were in space without gravity, NASA scientists are paying subjects $17,000 to stay in bed for 90 straight days. The study will follow the Bed Rest Project standard model and be conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Participants will live in a special research unit for the entire study and be fed a carefully controlled diet."
Can I bring a friend? In all seriousness, what if you need to rub one out?
I lie in bed all the time:
"Yes, I love you"
"Yes, it was good"
"No, I was not thinking about _her_"
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Is there a retroactive program?
The one with Martin Sheen in it and they keep sending the soldiers into nuclear fallout to test whether or not they can advance to ground zero.. oh yeah, that's right Nightbreaker. How many times exactly does NASA need to study the effect of weightlessness? It's bad, ok? Long term exposure to "micro-gravity" causes not too nice symptoms. Great, move on. NASA never seems to approach anything as a problem that needs to be overcome - or at least they haven't since the '60s. Problem: without some form of gravity, long term space flight is bad for humans. Solution: provide some form of gravity. There's two that readily come to mind; either accelerate the vehicle at 9.8m/s/s or make the vehicle big enough so that you can spin it and not get dizzy. The first uses up way too much energy and just isn't an option at the moment. The second is so damn obvious that Von Braun was talking about it in the '40s. But it has never been done.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Who knew you could get 17K just for destroying your back.
Is it just me or did anyone else imagine a test subject waking up one day to see a big black monolith standing at the foot of his bed?
I think it makes a world of difference in considering the "opportunity".
Technology -- No Place For Wimps! Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Chatroom -- http://www.wemissjerry.org
And if you really want to know more, they published all their findings for all their experiments in five hefty PDFs.
My work here is dung.
Things to do today:
Find out if NASA will let me have a laptop in that bed.
Find out if my boss will let me telecommute for the next 90 days.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
Will they also pay to rehabilitate you and your degenerated muscles afterwards?
I know I cannot lay on my back or side for that matter for too much time. More than 6 hrs on my back and my back starts hurting. More than 3 hrs on a side and my shoulder starts aching, so I have to change position at least once a night. I would expect for most, after about two straight weeks things would start getting torturous as there would be no side you wanted to lay on anymore.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
NASA wants me to lie in bed? I learned to do that in college: "Yes, I'll love you tomorrow." / "No, there are no other girls in my life but you..." / "Of course I'll respect you tomorrow..."
This is just not worth the money. It may be good for someone who pretty much sits around doing nothing but watching tv all day anyway (if there is such a person) but for anyone who actually enjoys life this will be a miserable experience.
Misery deserves far more compensation than 17K.
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Who would want to lay next to someone for three months? Tolerating one's own smell would be enough of a problem at that point.
I just read Slashdot for the articles.
Definitely not worth it!
Invenio via vel creo
I wont get out of bed for less than $20,000 so the $17,000 fits in nicely.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
Not to mention the nasty bedsores..
which is totally what she said
alright boys, here's the plan:
1. lie in bed.
2. get fed.
3. profit!
sound good? let's get to bed!
and do a cross promotion, in particular concentrate on World of Warcraft players. With Season 4 PvP gear coming down these people will have lots of reason to spend all their time in one place
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Can I bring my Playstation 3
Do they have cable/satellite
NASA hosts reality shows now?
This should not be for just anyone....how about doing this experiment with patients in hospitals that could use the money and are already pretty much in bed all day to to something or other...
make good use of your experiments, no???
Can you read slashdot while in bed ?
Meet you guys there
G
Give me an bed that can incline and a computer that can play WoW with a net connection and I'm in.
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
I was just thinking that there are a certain number of Slashdot readers who probably clicked on this story faster than any other in /. history.
In fact even though I am generally considered to be an active (and virile) man by most people who are not my wife, I am somewhat surprised by how quickly I wanted to find out about making five grand from laying in bed.
You are welcome on my lawn.
It'd really suck if you got to day 89, and then had a family emergency.
I you get DIRECTV with and will be able to use PPV as there some good movies that you will miss be doing this.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I broke my back a few years ago and needed to lie flat on my back for three weeks (nurses rolled me onto my side once a day to wash my back). In that time my legs had become about 1/3 thinner. Not that I cared too much - I wasn't paralysed.
If I had chosen not to have surgery, I would have needed to lie on my back for twelve weeks. I was told that it would take about two years to get back to normal strength if I'd gone down that route...
You couldn't pay me enough to be in bed for 90 days.
Just give me a computer, TV, radio, shipping address for Amazon purchases, and a privacy curtain and I'm in! It'll be just like it is now, except instead of a chair I have a bed. I wonder if work would let me tele-commute....
And stupid me laying in bed for free. Does diet coke and twinkies count as a special diet?
My Sig indicates the end of the comment I posted.
Though I guess the "carefully controlled diet" probably isn't twinkies, Raman, and Monster, eh?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
.... $7.87 per hour ......... no thanks.
A cheap whore could do better
I swear, this story was on /. before, or at least mentioned in a similar article, but I might be wrong.
After actually applying, and realizing it's something I might end up getting picked to do, I realized just how much this would suck. I'm almost positive I will not go through with it.
That being said, anyone know of any other good PAID research studies to participate in?
I'm not against it for the truly needy, but it is commonly abused. The government is paying some people to sit around and watch Oprah. Welfare shouldn't be used to promote a lifestyle of laziness for those who could work.
Ok, let me have a Take #2:
The government's been doing that for people for years. They're called federal employees.
Maybe this will fund a great movie or two.
There's more to it than this.
You sir, are my new hero.
Flawless Victory goes to you.
How much artificial gravity do you need? 1.0 G? 0.2 G?
Will some experimental drugs help counteract the effects of weightlessness?
Can the problems be alleviated with specific exercises during weightlessness?
How long will it take to recover after returning to gravity? If an astronaut is weightless on a trip to Mars, can he be back up in a week or a month?
If you want to treat something as a problem to overcome, you might need to know more than "It's bad", ok?
Considering you are working 24/7, that is pretty low pay rate of under $8/hr. Maybe starving students might take them up on this. I think only 20 year olds would fully recover from this as well.
I might consider doing it for Ten Times that amount $150k to $200K. Not worth risking my health otherwise.
Not to mention this would probably feel like torture after a week. My back gets sore if I lay in bed too long on Sunday mornings.
So there won't be showers? I understand they are trying to see what happens in space, but at least let them shower.
Can I bum a sig?
It sounds like a lot of money, but 90 days in bed will cause a lot of your body atrophy, heart, lungs, legs, etc. Not to mention a lack of vascular assistance in blood circulation could cause clots.
The (former) Governor of New York will pay $5000 per hour. Of course the requirements are different than NASA's.
I think in fact the test subjects will be required to work - granted, from bed, but studying a guy rest for three months is not really relevant research for NASA, who is trying to send people to work with maximum productivity under stress conditions.
It can be pretty darn difficult to be productive in a rest position where your body has a tendency to relax, unwind and switch off. Case in point:D - I am posting this from bed:)
Microsoft put the "sucks" in "success".
No, not really a deal..
Bed Rest Study
In order to study a person as if they were in space without gravity, NASA scientists use head down tilt bed rest. The 115-119 day study will follow the Bed Rest Project standard model and be conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Participants will live in a special research unit for the entire study and be fed a carefully controlled diet.
During the first 11-15 days of the study participants will be free to move around inside the bed rest facility and do normal things. They will also take part in a number of tests to find out the normal state of their bone, muscle, heart and circulatory system, brain and nervous system, and vestibular (inner ear balance) system as well as their nutritional condition and their ability to fight off infections.
After the first 11-15-day period, participants will spend 90 days lying in bed, (except for limited times for specific tests) with their body slightly tilted downward (head down, feet up). Every day, they will be awake for 16 hours and lights out (asleep) for 8 hours. During the bed rest time they will also take part in a number of tests to find out changes in the state of their bone, muscle, heart and circulatory system, and nervous system, as well as their nutritional condition and their ability to fight off infections.
During the final 14 days of the study (called the recovery period), participants will again be free to move about within the facility. Because of deconditioning that takes place during bed rest, they will slowly begin normal everyday activity. During the recovery period, they will again take part in tests of their bone, muscle, heart and circulatory systems, and nervous systems, as well as their nutritional condition and their ability to fight off infections.
"He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
There was a similar research program in the USSR - subjects lied on bed for 6 months without moving.
As far as I remember, one subject broke his femur when he tried to stand for the first time after the test. Also, all subjects experienced frequent orthostatic collapses (i.e. they fainted then they tried to stand up).
The damage was quickly corrected by using calcium gluconate injections and physical therapy.
Alas, I can't find a source for this in English.
and $4500 for having to live in Galveston, TX.
"It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I believe in the article it states there is a small amount of time that is allowed out of bed. I imagine this time would be designated for hygiene.
I wonder if they allow you to at least take a bag in there. Pop sleeping pills and sleep for 16 hours a day. Also, they would have to be very specific on the model of the bed I would be sleeping in. A motorized bed would be required to keep me entertained until the motor burns out.
I'm pretty sure I saw this in a movie (se7en aka Seven). The guy in the movie didn't look too good after 12 months...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Wouldn't it be less expensive to employ the services of bedridden hospital inpatients and perhaps offer to pay for their stay at hospital in return for studying them?
Is it safe to assume that if they aren't getting up, then they are going to have catheters and colostomy bags? 90 days is more than enough to form a habit, day 91 is going to get a bit messy...
They almost pay me that much to do work. If I had to lie in bed for a solid month, I would probably go insane.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
SpaceLab actually had a simulated gravity, plus many of the effects of microgravity can be overcome by using varying methods. Exercise is a critical element. Some of the effects cannot be overcome, and it is unknown whether creating a simulated gravity will have any impact on these effects. Additionally the ISS will have a Centrifgual module to create gravities up to twice that of Earth's. Lastly, simulating the lack of gravity may not produce the same results as actual low gravity environments. Lastly while the idea of creating a gravity may sound simple, actual implementation using the known technology may not be so easy. It's really simple to say to get to the refrigerator, "simply walk three feet north, the seven feet west-northwest". It's quite another thing programming a robot to actually walk those ten steps. But, I suppose since everyone here seems so convinced we know all the effects and treatments for low-gravity NASA should just pack up and go away. Nothing left to learn here so why bother, right. We've done such a great job of solving all the other medical/bio-physical problems like flu, the common cold, AIDS, mental illness. We know all there is to know right? Why do any more research?
Fuckit, I'll do it for free.
Once again, funny + true = flamebait.
Is that below or above minimum wage for where they are to conduct the study? 720 hours per month, more or less.
Good looking, rich, smart, funny, athletic ...
Is this news because most people haven't heard of it, or because NASA is still doing it? They have been at this for at least 20 years, as I looked into it while in college in Houston. At the time (and I'm sure now) they had studies that lasted anywhere from a weekend to a full year. 30, 60, or 90 day studies were not uncommon.
Just be aware, that you'll have to learn to walk again when you're done. I had to spend about 10 days in bed once after a surgery, and guess what, I had to learn to walk again. I just could not do it; in fact even sitting up felt really weird.
They will be getting up to do certain study related tasks, though 90 days of little movement will cause them to lose muscle mass. 10 days? That isn't enough time to have your muscles atrophy, you must have other issues as well.
That's not about the muscles. Vestibular system gets screwed up very quickly if you don't use it.
Do you have a big mortgage? You're getting "welfare" when you deduct your interest payments from your income taxes.
Do you have a kid in college? You're getting a nice fat welfare payment in the form of Pell Grants.
Are you an oil company exec or trader at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Chase? You're getting a HUGE amount of welfare from our federal government in the form of exploration "incentives" and handouts from the Fed to buy your competitors.
Are you a banker? You're getting a hell of a lot of "welfare" by being able to borrow money from the government at 2% and turn around and loan it to your credit card customers at 30%;
Generally, folks who are complaining about "lazy welfare recipients" are those who want government to leave them alone when it comes to profits but asks for socialism when it comes to their losses.
When the government gives you $400 it's called "welfare" and you are looked down on. When the government gives you $400Million it's called "capitalism" and you are considered a shrewd and successful businessman.
You are welcome on my lawn.
That reminds me of this Twilight Zone episode where two guys go on a bet that one of them cannot keep his mouth shut for a year. Sure he does, but in the end you learn he did so by cutting his vocal cords. You just have to find something that is worth less than $15,000 and that you wouldn't mind parting with if it helps you being able to stay in bed 90 days.
To do list for Windows
How often do they come in and change the nails?
Squirrel!
Any conjugal visits? Even a condemned prisoners has that right.
90 days on bed should have some "enjoyment" on it.
I agree completely. I broke my back in September and had to spend all but 1-2 hours per day in bed for the entire months of September and October, as well as a good part of November. In less than a week I looked forward to that one hour of time on my feet, even time on a toilet. In less than a month, I developed orthostatic hypotension (passing out when I got up). I would not take any amount of money to be stuck in bed. It is unhealthy.
I'll be your candy shop of infinite deliciousity if you'll be my discotheque of endless rump-shaking.
Slashdotted already. Who knew a bunch of nerds would leap at the chance to lay in bed all day? It's not like I was going to use the time to play World of Warcraft or anything.
Plus, if they ever ask to see the source, you can just say its a build file and God Himself would not be able to tell the difference.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.