NASA Pillownauts

NASA Pillownauts

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.