Eine der Probandinnen der zweiten Kampagne der SANS-Bettruhestudie ist im „wahren“ Leben Altenpflegerin und hat unter anderem aus diesem beruflichen Hintergrund an der Studie teilgenommen: Sie wollte die andere Seite kennenlernen, indem sie selbst bettlägerig und immobilisiert und auf die Hilfe anderer angewiesen ist. Eine ganz besondere Erfahrung für sie, die sie bereits in den ersten Tagen der Bettruhe an eine Kollegin in einem Brief schildert.
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Geht man in diesen Tagen durch die Hallen und Gänge der luft- und raumfahrtmedizinischen Forschungseinrichtung :envihab, hört man ein tiefes Brummen, das immer deutlicher wird, je näher man der Probandenstation kommt. Dort findet derzeit die NASA-Bettruhestudie SANS-CM statt, bei der die Liegephase der zweiten Gruppe Probandinnen und Probanden läuft. Die elf Personen verbringen nun ihre 30 Tage konstant in sechs Grad Kopftieflage im Bett, ohne ihre liegende Position zu verlassen. Und das Brummen hat mit dieser Studie zu tun. Es kommt von den Pumpen, die außerhalb der Probandenzimmer stehen und Unterdruck erzeugen.
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Living in space puts an enormous strain on the body. Among other things, astronauts are exposed to space radiation and experience their muscles deteriorate and body fluids shift towards the head. To protect against the radiation, international research is being conducted on protective vests, for example in the MARE mission. Effective training programmes have been developed to combat muscle atrophy, so that today astronauts hardly have any difficulties upon returning to Earth, even after spending months on the International Space Station (ISS). However, the increased pressure in the head due to the changed fluid distribution can lead to permanent problems – especially for the eyes. Time and again, space travellers report a deterioration of their eyesight, with about 70 percent experiencing eye changes, either temporarily during the stay in space or permanently.
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The first campaign of the SANS-CM bed rest study has come to an end and the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine is already preparing for the next one, which will begin in spring 2022. While the test participants spent their last days after their 30-day bed rest at :envihab, the research team has been working on processing the extensive data and continuing the study with new test participants. Before this round's participants packed their bags at the end of November to resume their real lives, we asked them about their experiences.
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I'm at the entrance to the DLR premises in Cologne. Somehow everything seems a bit surreal. The door of the :envihab is about to close behind me for eight weeks. I feel this strange sensation come over me, coupled with keen curiosity and tension. Although it has taken a long time for the study to get started, it's as though someone has only just asked me if I fancy taking part. And now the moment has arrived: as of today, I am Subject D1 in the new bed rest study at DLR.
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What happens to humans in microgravity conditions? How do space conditions affect the human body? How can we prevent adverse effects on long-term spaceflight? Scientists on Earth are also asking themselves these kinds of questions.
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Die Pause zwischen den beiden AGBRESA-Kampagnen war schnell vorbei. Das Team verbrachte sie mit der Vorbereitung der zweiten Kampagne und begrüßte Anfang September die nächsten Probandinnen und Probanden im :envihab. Auf ein Neues! Mittlerweile haben alle Probandinnen und Probanden ihre Betten bezogen, in denen sie nun 60 Tage am Stück verbringen. Hier ein Bericht von Proband V.
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Zunächst ist da kein göttergesandtes Licht, kein Bouquet voll nasser Blumen, weder Trommelwirbel noch Fanfaren. Nein, am Ende kommt die große Entkabelung. Stück für Stück entfernt man die Elektroden von meinem Körper, die Blutdruckmanschette, den Sensor um den Zeigefinger. Das letzte horizontale Experiment ist beendet. Es ist Montagmorgen. Noch liege ich. Zwanzig Augen blicken mich an und gratulieren mit dem feuchtblauen Funkel der Begeisterung, der um ihre Pupillen kreist. Am Ende also, jetzt weiß ich es, steht die große Erwartung.
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HDT 47. Forty-seventh day of bedrest. Another 13 days – and what's left of today. Yesterday I spoke with my wife on the phone. She still can't imagine what would possess a person to volunteer for 60 days in bed without even a pillow. “Do you never feel the urge to get up?” she asks. One of the support staff asked me a similar question just recently. With less than two weeks of bedrest left on the schedule it seems an apt time to answer this question. My summary is simple: it was exactly the way I imagined.
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Ich sah zum Fenster und wusste, dass etwas anders war....
Dieser Blogbeitrag stammt von unserem Probanden E, einem Teilnehmer der laufenden AGBRESA-Studie, der in seinem irdischen Leben Schriftsteller ist.
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The AGBRESA study is the first to explore using the DLR short-arm human centrifuge as a possible mitigation for the negative effects of weightlessness, which are being simulated by bed rest. This involves eight of the 12 terrestrial astronauts – the AGBRESA bedrest study participants – spinning in the centrifuge for 30 minutes every day. To allow them to experience artificial gravity they adopt a specific position – supine with heads pointed inwards – which exposes their feet to two g (twice Earth gravity) and the centre of gravity of their bodies to one g (Earth gravity). This could become a training method for future long-term missions in space. By the end of their 60 days of bed rest, the participants will have spent 1800 minutes on the centrifuge and will have rotated 54,000 times!
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Today is 29 April. I was last outdoors enjoying the fresh air and my last rays of sunshine on 29 March. This means that I have now been here for a month, including 17 days of lying down. So, as of today, the first third of the study is behind me and I will soon have completed one third of the lying down phase! Although all of us here are looking forward to the end of our bed-rest, I am already sure that we will all miss this adventure and will never forget it.
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