Tuesday October 23 11:12 AM ET 

NASA Wants Volunteers to Go to Bed for a Month
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The perfect job for troubled times just may be at
NASA, where researchers are offering $11 an hour to volunteers who agree
to go to bed for a month.

Of course there's a catch: successful candidates must spend the time with
their heads tilted downward at a 6 degree angle to simulate conditions of
long-duration space flight. On the plus side, they get to do it in
Northern California, at NASA's Ames Research Center south of San
Francisco.

So far, NASA has gotten hundreds of responses to its help-wanted notice,
according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Heather
Wilson.

``We weren't sure what to expect, but we are so far happy with the amount
of responses,'' Wilson said in answer to e-mailed questions. Her
voice-mail at a number listed on a NASA news release was so full it
refused to take messages last week.

The only real surprise was that significantly more men than women
expressed interest, Wilson said in the e-mail received on Monday.

The 10 subjects chosen will start work in January 2002, and will stay in
bed for 30 days in the head-down position, according to project manager
Fritz Moore.

``Head-down bed rest simulates weightlessness and induces many of the
physiological changes similar to those seen with space flight,'' Moore
said in a statement. 

Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited.