2023-05-29 14:14:42
At the Toulouse space clinic, twelve volunteers take part in an experiment. They remain in the prone position for two months in order to measure the consequences of weightlessness on astronauts in space.
An extraordinary experience. Twelve volunteers from over 3,000 applicants were chosen to take part in a study by the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) in Toulouse. For two months, they will be prohibited from getting up, even to eat or wash.
The head of the space clinic, Marie-Pierre Pareille, explained to CNEWS the purpose of this very original study: “it makes it possible to simulate the effects of microgravity on the ground, that is to say that it reproduces on the ground the effects on the human organism that astronauts experience when they are in space.”
The experience began five weeks ago and the effects on the body of the participants are already being felt, as confided by Chris, one of the volunteers. “Physically we have already seen that the muscles have become more flexible. We are really completely relaxed.”
Establish protocols for space missions
If the twelve volunteers must remain lying down, with an inclination of 6 degrees to allow the elevation of the lower limbs, they are not inactive.
Indeed, to fight once morest muscular atrophy, bone loss or cardiovascular problems induced by gravity, the volunteers regularly carry out exercises under the supervision of medical teams.
“We set up countermeasure protocols that we test here upstream before applying them in space. So in fact here, they are exercising with the centrifuge at the same time”, detailed the director of research at the national center for scientific research (CNRS), Audrey Bergouignan.
The centrifuge is supposed to recreate an artificial gravity, so it is a question of evaluating if the exercise of the bicycle exercised in the centrifuge is more effective. If the results are conclusive, this artificial gravity might be recreated on board future space missions.
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