Proposal: Let Mice Have Sex In Space

savi writes: "Check out the story here. I bet they could get more funding if they did it with humans and offered to sell access to live-space-sex cams over the net. Heck, I'd pay." I just can't believe this hasn't been done before. The webcam idea would probably pay for this mission, even without humans. Before we get too settled on Mars though, it might be good to consider some recent evidence that there is already life there.

Yes but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I like to be on top.

How Does That Work?

[Self Bias Resistor]

In space, there is no "on top" (just like there is no "up" in space).

does it scale up

[matrix0040]

allright 2 months may be enough for mice but whats needed is to know if can humans reproduce in low gravity and what effect does it have on babies to grow up in low gravity. and humans take long time to grow and all .. so does the 2 month study on mice and other animals scale up to years for humans ?
But the concept is good .. and kindof essential before u start planning mars settlements.

Re:does it scale up

[pubudu]

allright 2 months may be enough for mice but whats needed is to know if can humans reproduce in low gravity and what effect does it have on babies to grow up in low gravity. and humans take long time to grow and all .. so does the 2 month study on mice and other animals scale up to years for humans ?

It doesn't scale up perfectly, but some things don't need to be scaled. If every mouse dies, that's bad. If, on the other hand, we notice no ill effects, that's good.

Of course, even if we were able to reproduce on Mars, I still think a colony would be a bad idea: our bodies are made to function under Earth-like conditions. Sending colonies to non-Earth-like planets is just begging for freaky adaptations. We have enough trouble not killing each other when we're all human; if the Martians are as close to us as monkeys, and we as close to them, what sort of politics can we expect in the future?

Web Cam

[Faux_Pseudo]

If they put mice haveing sex in 0g then I might just be tempted to get a GUI just to see that.
But then I would also have to install one of those pointy clicky things as well.

0G Sex

[pagsz]

But do they supply Barry White records and mood lighting?

Three quarters of the way to the insane asylum,

Animal Friendly "Spin" on things

[ianchaos]

Mr. Zubrin states that, "As far as the mice are concerned, they would live in comfortable quarters and be brought safely back to Earth for study". This makes it sound all nice and animal friendly but in all likelyhood these mice will be poked, prodded, dissected and pureed soon after landing. I have no huge problem with using animals in testing like this instead of humans, but lets not pretend like these little "heroes for the human species" are going to live a life of luxury on their return home.

International Space Station

[Mu*puppy]

Y'know, with the various husband/wife teams that NASA has sent up through the years (all the Shuttle years that get little to 'nil media coverage to begin with), I'd almost be surprised if '0 G copulation' -hasn't- been on the 'experiments to do' list.

IMHO, studying mice would at least give us humans some pointers on factors that could later become problems, general data if not necessarily 'human specific'.

Great use for the International Space Station, I'd say, though I wonder if the female would -stay- up there long enough to come to term (without going insane), not to mention re-entry with either a many-month-pregnant female, or a newborn.

As for web-cams... I dunno. Although it wouldn't be quite as bad as watching octopi go at it, I'd imagine it'd be pretty damn 'ametuer', awkward, and just plain -weird- action for the first few goes. ;)