Confined to bed with their head tilted below their feet to simulate the conditions of spaceflight, they have got into a well-established daily routine.

To mark this milestone, Claudie Haignere, France's Minister for European Affairs, and herself a former ESA astronaut, recently paid them a visit.

No time to rest

When you're lying in bed at an angle of �6� below horizontal, all activities obviously take up a lot of time.

Halfway through the experiment, they have nevertheless become part of the volunteers' daily routine.

Tests are performed throughout the bedrest period. For instance, bone measurements are made regularly and a full metabolic check-up is done at the halfway point.

So, the volunteers don't get much time to themselves. When they do, it is to call family and friends, send e-mails or study. The most popular subjects are computer science and languages.

The first observation at this stage is that the amount of physical exercise prescribed for the training group was too intense.

To prove the point, some slightly painful muscles and tendons obliged the experiment team to curtail certain sessions on the fly wheel and the LBNP.

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