How does spending over two months straight in bed sound to you? It's a 24-hour a day commitment, although you'll still have access to your mobile, Internet, computer games and so on. You might have to conduct exercises while remaining in bed, although some test subjects will not (for control purposes, of course). And you'll be paid €13,300 for your time - although you'll also be spending an extra two or three weeks before and after the test in the facility.

That's the situation facing those chosen for NASA's forthcoming Exercise Study, to be held at the Johnson Space Centre in Huston, Texas. NASA describes the reasoning behind the experiment, explaining "head-down bed rest helps researchers study people on earth in a way that causes some of the changes the body goes through while traveling in space without gravity. This study will show how much your body, tilted down slightly with head down and feet up, for 70 days, 24-hours a day, without getting out of bed, except for limited times for specific tests, is like an astronaut’s body during the weightlessness of space flight".

The exercise programme will be designed to maintain "muscle size and strength, bone health, and cardiovascular function". A 14-day recovery period will be undertaken by all participants at the end of the trial.

You can read more about the test here. They're only looking for US applicants, unfortunately, so any Irish readers looking for a paid three month holiday are out of luck for now.