No joke – and yes, you can play World of Warcraft, or any other computer game for that matter. So, do you need some time off from your stressful life, while making good money and also helping science? If the answer is ‘Yes’, then pack your bags and head on to Houston because NASA wants to pay you $17,000 to stay in bed for 90 straight days.
The bed-test experiment will take place in the Human Test Subject Facility of Johnson Space Center, and it will help NASA understand the effects of microgravity on the human body. Here’s what you will be doing, according to their website:
Participants will spend 90 days lying in bed,
(except for limited times for specific tests) with their body slightly tilted downward (head down, feet up). Every day, they will be awake for 16 hours and lights out (asleep) for 8 hours.
Apparently, after receiving a swarm of questions on the matter, NASA clarified that while you are in bed in that position, you are allowed to play computer games or read. But jokes and World of Warcraft aside, this is a very important research: astronauts are suffering from dramatic effects of microgravity: muscle atrophiation, bones losing their density, blood circulation issues are not small issues; it often takes astronauts months to get used to the Earth after hanging out on the ISS.
If you’re still interested, feel free to apply and tell us how it was! At the moment, I can’t make up my mind if this is the best way of making $5.000 a month, or one of the worst punishments you could subject someone to.
