RESEARCHERS at a space institute in Shenzhen are on the look for 24 fit and healthy male volunteers who don’t smoke to spend 15 days locked up in a simulated aircraft and lie in bed, a recruitment posted by the organizer on its official website showed.

In exchange for 15,000 yuan (US$2,199) each, the volunteers will be required to undergo a prolonged bed rest that is associated with a six-degree head-down tilt for 15 days, to mimic the fluid shift and increased cephalic pressure present during space flight.

According to the organizer, SPACEnter Space Science and Technology Institute, it has carried out bed-rest experiments many times before. This time, the experiment will be conducted from October to November.

More than 200 people have signed up for the experiment so far, said the institute. The deadline for the application is Sept. 30, and 24 volunteers will be selected.

The volunteers should be between the ages of 18 and 50, 160-175 cm in height and 50-80 kg in weight, have at least a senior high school education and have good communication skills.

In addition, they are required to be able to communicate with people in Mandarin, have good psychological quality and willpower, and have no clinical diseases, mental illness or a criminal record.

According to the institute, the experiment aims to replicate the weightless conditions astronauts on the International Space Station experience. Qualified volunteers will need to lie in bed for 15 consecutive days, during which a series of tests, exercises and examinations will take place.

A large number of experimental studies at home and abroad show that six degrees of head-down tilt is now most commonly used as the model of microgravity in bed-rest studies.

Selected volunteers are not recommended to quit the experiment if they do not have any special psychological and medical problems, said the institute. (Zhang Yu)