NASA, in an effort to study the long term effects of low gravity on humans has been using paid human research volunteer "pillownauts" who spend months, face up, lying in a bed tilted to 9.5 degrees, with their feet placed firmly against a panel. This setup puts roughly the same gravitational stress on the pillownaut's feet as the moon would. Ronita Cromwell, a NASA senior research scientist heading up the project explains that "What we're doing is removing some of the effects of 1 G and achieving one-sixth G along the long axis of the body."

One of the pillownauts, Heather Archuletta, has blogged about her experience here. It's not a bed of joy, frankly. Sure, they spend a lot of time reading, blogging, surfing the 'net, working on crafts or hobbies—but they also spend all their time on their back, in bed. And yes, that means a bed pan. There have been several articles about the pillownauts in Wired, and Popular Science.

The pillownauts are all in one ward together, and have rather understandabley developed a bit of a support community for each other—especially after Hurricane Ike forced the study participants to flee the research site in Galveston. If you think spending months flat on your back, for $160.00 a day, sounds like a job, NASA is still looking for more research participants.