“A NASA Study is willing to pay you $100,000 to stay in Bed for sixty days” a post by Trending Posts from 2017 that gained popularity recently on Facebook reads.
We, the plebian fact-checkers, are here to temper your lethargic dreams.
Several years ago, NASA conducted a 70-day, bed-ridden experiment in which participants were paid $18,000 to, well, lay in bed. Forbes broke down the payments at the time:
Oddly enough, the article gets this “$18,000” detail correct at the very end of the piece and rightly cites an article from Vice News, whose reporter was one such participant. But the headline of “$100,000” for 60 days is spurious.
Simply put, the goal of this study (and others) was to see how particular parts of the body might respond to dwelling in the weightlessness of space. As NASA’s website details:
One recent study looked at “the effects of pressure on astronauts’ eyes and optic nerve in space” with 12 participants who “spent 30 days in bed with a head-down tilt and in .5% carbon dioxide.” During the studies, participants “must eat, exercise, and even shower in the head-down position.”
TWS Fact Check breathes a sigh of relief knowing that NASA does not blow a whopping 100 grand on Rip Van Winkle impersonators.
If you have questions about this fact check, or would like to submit a request for another fact check, email Holmes Lybrand at [email protected] or the Weekly Standard at [email protected]. For details on TWS Fact Check, see our explainer here.
