Continuing yesterday's achive theme, this July 24th, 1968 article shows Christopher Stevenson as the longest-serving healthy volunteer, having simulated weightlessness for the space program from December 1967 to September 1968.
A great find for the history of NASA studies, but what a headache and a half to read! I tried enlarging it graphically on my computer with various programs, but ended up simply using a magnifying glass to transcribe the text of the article for my "N A S A * Research * Articles" collection.
When James Mulberry of the United Space Alliance visited the research ward, he described his involvement in a similar study conducted by the military in 1967, one of the many 20th Century variations to measure skeletal, circulatory, cardiological or mental changes.
Differences from the modern program:
- Bedside turntables to play records! Ah, life before the internet…
- Subjects lost weight, something now curbed with caloric strategies.
- Subjects spent five weeks being studied after post-bedrest rehab, whereas now they take only a week to gather data, but bring subjects back at key dates over the period of an entire year for blood draws, bone scans, etc.
- $100 per week!
Guess that sounded adequate back in 1968, but the current studies pay $1075 per week! :)
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