Sex! In! Spaaaace!

Written by Alan Bellows on 23 October 2005

Mars Astronaut With the manned mission to Mars planned in the coming years, NASA has been devoting much attention to many of the nuances of long-term space travel. But some are concerned that NASA has not spent enough energy exploring one important area which has the potential to greatly impact a crew’s physical and psychological health: Sex.

When a mixed-gender crew is sealed into a tiny metal-and-plastic capsule for months on end, some sexual interaction is inevitable. The crew members are, after all, human. Researchers are now urging NASA to become as informed as possible on the specifics of space sex on such a long, close-quarters mission.

From the article:

Ellison says NASA should study the likely effects of taking couples up on long missions, as well as issues of sexual orientation and fertility. She suggests individual differences in sex drive could also be used to choose crews for Mars missions.

“One could perhaps select for people who seem to have less need for sex, or at least don’t use sex as a form of self-validation,” Ellison says.

Beyond that, she adds, NASA should consider the practical issues of out-of-this world sex. “How do you have sex in weightlessness?” she ask. “And there’s a lack of privacy – often they’re monitoring pulse rate and temperature. I don’t know how that would be handled.”

The research would be worthwhile, and I seriously doubt that there would be shortage of willing, excited volunteers for such a project.

New Scientist article

Alan Bellows is the founder, designer, and managing editor of DamnInteresting.com, and he is perpetually behind schedule.


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#1 jocomo 23 October 2005 at 01:50 pm

A sound field to explore for it’s implications.

Will NASA force future astronauts to suffer through a saltpeter riddled cuisine? Or commence astronaut training at the age of 5, completely ignoring the subject of sex, and celebrate the celibate?

Seemingly where you have people you will have sex.

#2 Odbert 23 October 2005 at 02:21 pm

It would be easy to write a best seller this way. Just record things and publish them. Think of the trouble that

would stir. Also you would need a tethered cocoon, and not attached with stretchy thethers. Everything would have to be straight, stiff and stable. Just think about! God’s Little Acre in Space! Read the book, it’s
hilarious!

#3 Schroedinger 23 October 2005 at 03:05 pm

Hmmmmm.a very interesting proposition.pardon the double-entendre..I think men will be men and it likely has happened already..wonder how NASA handles this “messy” event(s)?? My first thought is what happens to the ejaculate??Collected for testing/comparative studies? Ejected into space? ICK!! Talk about polluting space!! Imagine what aliens are going to think when semen found floating about the universes? Actually, I wonder if semen is ejaculated in same manner as on earth…….change in pressure=problems??? as in retrograde ejaculation???..anyone have ideas on these notions? thanks,

#4 HARDCASe 23 October 2005 at 09:20 pm

There is a problem with sex in space that no one is talking about, e.g., can sperm swim upstream, so to speak, if there is no gravity to allow procreation in space? Everybody talks about the fun and games but we have to face facts, folks: if there is no joining with the ‘usual suspects’, we may be reduced to the petrie dish. Quel domage!

#5 rp2 24 October 2005 at 10:09 am

Schroedinger said: “Hmmmmm.a very interesting proposition.pardon the double-entendre..I think men will be men and it likely has happened already..wonder how NASA handles this “messy” event(s)?? My first thought is what happens to the ejaculate??Collected for testing/comparative studies? Ejected into space? ICK!! Talk about polluting space!! Imagine what aliens are going to think when semen found floating about the universes? Actually, I wonder if semen is ejaculated in same manner as on earth…….change in pressure=problems??? as in retrograde ejaculation???..anyone have ideas on these notions? thanks,”

Ew.. something so natural is so gross because its not occuring solely on our world anymore.. don’t pollute space because the same elements are probably already exsiting there!?

Omg an article about sex. Lets all post comments!!1

#6 Bryan Lowder 24 October 2005 at 12:32 pm

In case this hasn’t occured to you, NASA and other space agencies have long used urine relief tubes that vent into space (not when one is using them). The resulting ice crystals are called “constellation Urion” as a joke. In the current toilet design, feces are shredded by rotating vanes and flung against the interior of the loo chamber, which is then exposed to space to freeze-dry the waste. Doubtless significant amounts of this stuff is lost to space in the process. Why should secretions be any worse a pollutant?

Eating, drinking, blood circulation, and other muscle-driven functions work fine in space, why shouldn’t release?

There are multiple rumors about already-conducted sexual experiments in space, claiming that inflatable belts and other improbable equipment was required. One article I read mentioned that one could make inferrences from dolphins mating– they require a third party to apply some pressure.

I was planning to be the first to post an article about sex– one I’m working on about waist/hip ratio and attraction. I just wanted to counterbalance all the articles about nuclear weapons. In a way, I’m relieved someone else did it first. -BJL

#7 mHagarty 11 February 2006 at 06:48 pm

Could this spell doom for the San Fernando valley?

#8 Dementia 26 March 2006 at 02:26 pm

According to Newton’s Third, I believe, Law of Motion (Every action has an equal and opposite reactioN), in weightlessness, wouldn’t the two kind of get… pushed apart by the force of ejection?
Great, this article has driven me to perversion.

#9 sleepwalker 17 April 2006 at 01:40 am

to overcome the problem of semen going places, female crew should be trained on how to swallow.

after all, it is protein and can recycle usefull fluids with pleasure.

#10 white_matter 18 April 2006 at 04:55 pm

I can’t wait for the space-sex tapes to hit the internet!!

Can’t friggin wait!

#11 freshmatrix 05 May 2006 at 04:56 pm

soon to be published on youtube.com…. “1st Sex in Space”.. haha

freshmatrix

#12 CauselessEffect 02 July 2006 at 12:14 am

Anyone seen the “Girls Gone Wild in Space” commercials? Hilarious late night TV entertainment! They’re actually doing that free-fall trick in an airplane for weightlessness (don’t know the name of this effect).

#13 Tink 25 October 2006 at 10:17 pm

The Fiery Balls of Naga & Sex! In! Spaaaace!

Oh hell, I just peed myself laughing now.

#14 iq_two 07 February 2007 at 06:11 pm

soon someone will be “the first child conceived in space”

#15 clemoda 22 March 2007 at 08:56 pm

I agree with sleepwalker – all problems would be solved

#16 Cloudshadow 26 February 2008 at 01:38 pm

Are you a member of the 100 mile high club?

#17 DanThinksDances&femaleGspot 22 August 2008 at 08:18 pm

Enter your reply text here. OK

Female ejaculation (squirting). How do you explain that to the ground crew? Back on earth, what happened up there?

#18 ValiantDefender 19 January 2009 at 03:25 pm

wow. Bunch a pervs. Anywho…sex is important for sanity and especially male “balance” of mood etc. I would think that in space it would be easier but perhaps not. If bone density drops amongst other health concerns, it could be that the vigorous activity could lead to accidents.

As a religious person, I would support only interaction of this nature between married people (married to eachother).

If I was going to be on a long manned trip through space I would not want THIS to be something that adds to my frustrations. Not only would having a spouse along help with that, but many other psychological benefits (loneliness of space comes to mind).

#19 WordSmith 23 January 2009 at 05:55 am

An interesting aspect could be : Planning to send out explorers to far-off places in space, with the praparation not to come back. With travel times of a few decades (or even a few hundred years), it may be likely that families are bred and brought up in space, to maintain continuity of the mission, when one generation of astronauhts is over. Remember seeing something on similar lines on Discovery long long back, but sounds like something interesting to plan out, for long-range manned (and womanned!) explorations.

#20 spontastic 30 September 2009 at 04:41 pm

Now I think this is an interesting topic and have wondered just a little about it but what im thinking is that bone loss happends in space. So then what are the birth defects that could happen when a child is born in space. Would it be taller, weaker, and what would happen to its dna and mind and things of that sort. it is very interesting to think about. What do you think?

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Sex! In! Spaaaace!