‘Pillownauts’ help future manned missions to Mars

The 3-day bed rest study is being carried out in Nottingham in parallel to a 60-day bed rest study by the European Space Agency at the MEDES facility in Toulouse, France. Bed rest is a tried and tested way to measure the effects of weightlessness on the human body which include bone and muscle mass loss, cardiovascular decline and impaired carbohydrate metabolism which could be a risk for type 2 diabetes.