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NASA Will Pay You $19,000 to Stay in Bed -- and be Spun in a Centrifuge:
Like to lounge in bed? We might have your dream job.
NASA and the European Space Agency will pay you $19,000 to lie in bed for two months. Two months! That's a lot of Netflix.
The prolonged bed rest is part of a study that launched this week into the effects of weightlessness on the human body. Phase 2 will be conducted by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from September through December in Cologne, Germany.
"We are interested in how to maintain the health and performance of man -- in space and on Earth," reads a translated DLR website for the project. "Especially in extreme conditions, such as in weightlessness in space, this is a challenge." If astronauts are to live for long periods in space, or on the moon and Mars, science needs effective measures to counteract bone and muscle atrophy.
For the next phase of the Agbresa (Artificial Gravity Bed Rest Study), the DLR seeks 12 men and 12 women who will spend their days and nights in beds angled downward by 6 degrees, propped up with their feet at an incline above their heads, with one shoulder touching the mattress at all times. This position reduces blood flow to the extremities, like astronauts in space experience.
[...] Not everyone qualifies though. Participants are required to speak German and be between 24 and 55 and healthy. In addition to the 60 days required for bed rest, participants will stay an additional 29 days for acclimation and supervised recovery involving stretching, massage and physiotherapy.
When lying down on the job is a good thing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snow on Friday March 29 2019, @02:56PM (4 children)
It's also 2 months of nofap.
Let's see here. 19,000 / 60 / 24 = $13.20 an hour with no overtime pay. That doesn't include the 29 day recovery (although that does include free massages).
Not enough money for me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @03:57PM
Says who?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 29 2019, @04:07PM (1 child)
That's not in the article. It doesn't say anything about nose-picking, crotch-scratching, farting, or belching either, but you'd probably be comfortable doing those. Are you sure you're not just assuming the nofap because you're ashamed of pleasuring yourself?
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday March 29 2019, @04:33PM
Yes, exactly. Even though I grew up in a not-so-catholic house, the shame still runs strong.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday March 29 2019, @06:51PM
Well...where else are you going to get paid for time spent sleeping? You'd have to be getting almost $60/hr to get the same pay in two months of a traditional 40 hour a week job. And laying in bed all day certainly beats working two or three jobs if you actually wanted to get paid for every possible hour of your day.
You could also consider free room and board to be part of the compensation package. Potentially medical care too, as I'm sure they'll have some kind of medical staff monitoring the experiment, since that would seem to be the entire point of the thing. Although TFS doesn't mention if they'll cover care for any resulting injuries. But I kinda doubt they wouldn't -- it's NASA, they don't have to worry about it cutting into the executive bonuses, they wouldn't want the potential PR nightmare, and they'll probably be getting insurance for it.
Even $20/hr isn't a terrible wage for a no skill low effort job. Probably doesn't beat a skilled coder job, but it sounds like a great gig for a day laborer. Hell, a lot of coders might not meet the health requirements anyway ;)
Also depends if it includes wifi and if they let you bring your laptop...a lot of people would consider that a pretty sweet gig. The only problem being that it's too long to just take some time off of most existing jobs, and too short to pay the bills for very long or to sublet your apartment or anything like that.