Long-Term Bed Rest Studies
Bed rest studies are used to test methods, which can counter the adverse physiological and psychological effects on the bed rest volunteers. These methods or countermeasures should also hold similar beneficial effects for astronauts exposed to weightlessness. Bed rest studies are therefore used as an invaluable method of testing and developing countermeasures to the effects of weightlessness on astronauts through the use of for example exercise, physical therapy, medication or optimised nutrition.
The Women's International Space Simulation for Exploration (WISE) 2005 Study
The WISE study is needed to address gender-specific differences between male and female astronauts, considering the expected future increase in the number of female astronauts. Female astronauts may be at greater risk of inflight and postflight bone fracture, may be more susceptible to atrophy of certain muscle fibres, and have a much greater tendency to faint during orthostatic tolerance (ability to hold an upright posture) tests following long-duration exposure to weightlessness. more.......
The 2001/2002 Long-Term Bedrest Study
To cope with the requirements of long-stay missions of astronauts aboard the International Space Station, the European Space Agency, together with the French space agency CNES and the Japanese space agency NASDA, are validating countermeasures through a preventive-medicine ground-based simulation that makes use of a Long-Term Bed Rest Study. The study wass conducted at the MEDES Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology in Toulouse (France) and run over two periods of four months. First experiment started in August 2001, the second in March 2002. Each time, fourteen test subjects have been lieing in bed for a period of three months, to produce sufficient scientific data. The total duration of each campaign was 120 days: 90 days in strict -6° head down tilt, with a preparatory period of 15 days beforehand and a 15 day recovery phase after. more......