Originally published 2019-04-17.
Yes, space agencies really did pay people to lie in bed for two months. In 2019 NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) ran a study called AGBRESA, short for Artificial Gravity Bed Rest Study, at DLR’s :envihab research facility in Cologne, Germany. Twenty-four healthy volunteers, 12 women and 12 men, each spent 60 days lying in specially tilted beds, inside an 89-day stay, while scientists measured what happened to their bodies. Volunteers were reportedly paid about €16,500, often quoted as roughly $18,500.
It sounds like the easiest job imaginable. In practice it was a demanding medical experiment designed to answer a serious question: how can astronauts stay healthy on long missions, such as a journey to Mars?
Why lying in bed imitates spaceflight
On Earth, gravity constantly pulls blood and other fluids towards our feet, and our bones and muscles are loaded every time we stand or walk. In orbit that pull disappears. Fluids shift towards the head, giving astronauts the puffy faces and thin legs sometimes nicknamed “puffy-head, bird-legs” syndrome. Without loading, muscles waste, bones lose density, the heart and blood vessels adapt, and balance and vision can be affected.
Sending enough people to space to study this properly is impossible, so researchers create a stand-in on the ground. In AGBRESA, the beds were tilted 6 degrees head-down, with the feet slightly higher than the head. That small angle reproduces the upward fluid shift of weightlessness, and constant rest removes the everyday load on the skeleton and muscles. Bed rest has been used this way for decades because it reproduces many of spaceflight’s effects reliably and safely.
What the volunteers went through
The 89 days were divided into three stages. First came a baseline period of tests and familiarisation, then 60 days of strict head-down bed rest, and finally a recovery period with physiotherapy as the volunteers re-learned to stand and walk normally, similar to the rehabilitation astronauts receive after landing.
During the 60 days, everything happened lying down: eating, washing, using the toilet, being examined and passing the time. Participants could read, watch films, take online courses or work on laptops, and the facility has space for 12 volunteers at once, so each campaign was a small, shared community. Meals were planned by nutritionists so every person received exactly measured, balanced food, because diet strongly affects bone and muscle results.
Recruitment had clear conditions. According to DLR, good German was required for the second campaign, which especially sought women, and applicants also reportedly had to be aged 24 to 55 and in good health. The first campaign began on 25 March 2019 and the second in September 2019.
Artificial gravity: the centrifuge at the heart of the study
The new element in AGBRESA was artificial gravity. Two-thirds of the volunteers were spun every day on DLR’s short-arm human centrifuge, lying on their backs with their heads near the centre. As the arm rotates, the force pushes blood and fluids towards the feet, briefly recreating something like the pull of gravity. The remaining third did not spin and acted as a control group.
Comparing the two groups shows whether short daily doses of artificial gravity can slow the damage of weightlessness. Astronauts already exercise for hours a day on the International Space Station, but exercise does not prevent every change. A compact centrifuge might one day be fitted to a spacecraft heading for Mars.
A volunteer lies on DLR’s short-arm human centrifuge in Cologne. The spinning arm pushes fluids towards the feet, the same direction gravity pulls them on Earth.
The centrifuge seen from another angle, with a participant in place. Monitoring equipment, cameras and safety systems are mounted on the arm so researchers can watch the body’s response during every run.
An overhead view of the centrifuge hall at :envihab. The arms are short, so the machine fits indoors, but the force varies from head to feet more than true gravity does, one of the things scientists needed to test. (Photos above: ESA)
What scientists measured
Researchers ran a long list of experiments across the body. DLR lists checks of heart and blood-vessel function, balance, muscle strength, cognitive performance, muscle tissue samples, electrical muscle activity and regular blood tests, supported by an MRI scanner next to the facility. Findings from the study were to be compared later with data from astronauts on the International Space Station.
ESA’s team leader for human and robotic exploration, Jennifer Ngo-Anh, highlighted muscle loss as one of the central problems the study set out to address. Muscle and bone loss also matter on Earth.
The control room screens show a volunteer during a centrifuge run. Staff can see the participant’s face and the machine from several angles, and stop a session immediately if needed.
A long-exposure photograph captures the centrifuge arm in motion, with a dummy in place of a volunteer. Each run lasted a set period every day of the bed-rest phase.
A fitness test on a treadmill, with electrodes recording heart activity. Tests like this before and after bed rest show how much physical condition was lost and how quickly it returned. (Photos above: NASA Analog Missions)
Why it matters for people who never go to space
The same changes that affect astronauts appear in patients confined to bed after illness or injury, and in older adults losing muscle and bone. Bed-rest studies offer a controlled way to study muscle wasting, osteoporosis and the cardiovascular effects of inactivity, and to test countermeasures such as exercise, nutrition or artificial gravity.
The research is not a guide for anyone at home. Long periods of immobility carry real risks, including blood clots and rapid muscle loss, which is why AGBRESA ran under constant medical supervision. If you or someone you care for faces a long recovery in bed, talk to a doctor about how to stay as safe as possible.
Is it really easy money?
The fee works out to a modest daily rate for nearly three months of a person’s life, during which they gave up normal movement, privacy and freedom, and accepted many tests, including blood draws and muscle samples. For most people the hardest part is likely to be mental rather than physical: the boredom, the fixed routine and the strangeness of doing everything on your back.
The AGBRESA recruitment closed long ago, so it is not an open offer. Space agencies do still run bed-rest and isolation studies from time to time, and they publish calls for volunteers on their official websites, which is the place to check rather than viral posts.
Many readers loved the idea, while others were less keen:
One reader joked that her husband already does this job at home every day.
Another offered to stay an extra two months as a bonus.
For some, two months of stillness sounded like a recipe for panic rather than rest.
One fan pointed out that the timing clashed with spring 2019’s big screen events, Avengers: Endgame and the final season of Game of Thrones.
Other reactions ranged from mock farewells to family, to a reader who checked the NASA website and was told to keep dreaming, to one who would happily do it for free.
Sources: DLR, 21 March 2019: DLR, NASA and ESA launch the joint bed-rest study AGBRESA; NASA: :envihab analog; ESA (photos); NASA Analog Missions on Flickr (photos).
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