20 women to stay in waterbeds for five days

New Delhi : To study the effect of space on women astronauts, a study is being conducted under which 20 women will stay in waterbeds for five days. With the Artemis missions scheduled in the coming years, the limit further than the Earth will see a new population of men and women explorers launch from the earth for the Moon and farther.

In the past, men have been to the Moon and survived. But, in the upcoming mission, first woman astronaut will be on-board the Artemis. The VIVALDI research was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) to examine the gendered divergence in scientific data.

This is for the first time when all women study is being done in Europe. However, this is the second time when such study is being done only on women volunteers.

When astronauts go to space, they encounter weightlessness, which is the prime reason behind muscle and bone loss. Depending on body to body, vision and hearing losses are among the factors which can be experienced by the astronauts.

Participants lie down in bathtubs-like container covered with water resistant to keep them dry and equally immersed in water in a dry immersion experiment.  

24-hours long process

Volunteers complete 24 hours inside an immersed tank with body motions restricted to the greatest extent possible. All daily activities, according to the doctors, are carried out while immersed, and just a little pillow is permitted during meals to enable eating.