Lie down for science. Stay down for two months. 🛌 That’s exactly what 24 volunteers did in Slovenia as part of our BRAVE study, short for Bed Rest with Artificial gravity and resistive Vibration Exercise. To understand how the human body reacts to long stays in space, participants lived completely horizontal, with their heads slightly tilted down. No standing, no walking — not even for meals, showers or loo breaks. Why? Because lying like this mimics the effects of weightlessness. But this study went further. Some participants exercised using resistive vibration (think squats and jumps), while others simultaneously underwent artificial gravity exposure by spinning in a human centrifuge — all under low-oxygen conditions, similar to being 4000 metres above sea level. Spinning helped push blood back towards the feet, countering the fluid shifts astronauts experience in orbit. Across 13 experiments, scientists collected data on everything from muscle and bone loss to brain function ...