If sleeping on the job is your thing then you might as well get paid for it.
Fortunately, the European Space Agency (ESA) is specifically looking for individuals who are willing to lie in a bath for a week as part of a new study.
The study is slated to begin later this year at the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology (MEDES) located in Toulouse, France.
This will be a dry-immersion study that needs 20 female volunteers (previous studies of this nature were all-male) to stay in a dry-immersion bath for five days as part of a study on the effects of weightlessness on the human body.
As the name implies, participants will be lying down on a waterproof sheet so they don’t have to worry about getting wet.
The ESA explained the concept, stating: “Dry-immersion studies benefit from placing less pressure on the body as volunteers are supported and suspended evenly in the tub, a condition that mimics the floating astronauts experience on the International Space Station.”
While lazing around for 5 days sounds like fun, be assured that this is part of a serious scientific effort.
ESA’s human spaceflight team leader, Jennifer Ngo-Anh, said: “We get many requests to be a volunteer for these studies, but they are no joke.
“Lying in bed sounds fun but the pleasure wears off very quickly – especially when blood is drawn and muscle biopsies are involved – we constantly salute the volunteers that sacrifice their daily lives for the benefit of human exploration!”
The ESA did not state how much the participants will be paid but you can submit your name for consideration here. If you match the required criteria, you will be contacted by MEDES.
In NASA’s Artificial Gravity Bed Rest Study, the agency paid participants £14,000($18000) to spend 89 days in bed.
NASA explained: “The results of the study help scientists develop more effective countermeasures or preventive measures so that astronauts on the space station do not have to spend most of their day doing sports.”
NASA further announced that they are now trying to form a group of astronauts for a moon mission.
The agency will start hiring next month and the training hopes to bring the recruits to mission-ready status in four years’ time.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said of the recruitment drive: “We’re celebrating our 20th year of continuous presence aboard the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit this year, and we’re on the verge of sending the first woman and next man to the Moon by 2024.
“For the handful of highly talented women and men we will hire to join our diverse astronaut corps, it’s an incredible time in human spaceflight to be an astronaut.
“We’re asking all eligible Americans if they have what it to takes to apply beginning March 2.”
Replaced!