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Article: Research on Weightlessness Holds Key to Mars Mission; Focus Is on Body's Response to Long Trips
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 6, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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At special facilities in the United States, France and the Soviet
Union, groups of healthy volunteers have spent from one week to one
year lying in bed and living at a 6-degree, head-down slant. They
eat by propping themselves up on one elbow. They shower in bed using
hand-held nozzles, and they use bedpans. To exercise, they move
their legs in the air or do isometrics.
The experiments are the closest scientists have come to
simulating on the ground the effects of prolonged weightlessness in
space. The results of this kind of research may hold the key to
when, or even if, human beings will be able to explore the planets.
Although the United States, the Soviets and the European space ...