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Science

Sex in Space 276

Posted by Roblimo from the how-to-make-NASA-blush dept.
Alex Farber turned us on to this story in the January 2000 issue of Scientific American about something NASA never talks about: sex in space. The article says, "Rumors of unofficial orbital couplings abound, but no one is talking." With manned (and/or womanned) Mars missions likely to take 2.5 years or more, and duty cycles on the planned International Space Station expected to be nearly six months, outer space sex is a subject even the most prudish NASA bureaucrats will not be able to avoid much longer. Face it: wouldn't you want to experiment with Zero-G lovemaking if you had a chance to do so - and you had a willing partner available whose curiosity quotient was as high as yours?
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Sex in Space

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  • Wouldn't the... you know.. love juices go all over the place?
    >;)
    Hrm, first post? :)

  • Interesting story... (Score:4)

    by Doctor Wonky ( 105398 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:08PM (#1464358)

    I especially like this:

    "...the few who don't like to think about sex, at least not officially."

    How do you officially think about sex?

    Doc

  • Blue Danube Waltz... (Score:3)

    by emerson ( 419 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:11PM (#1464361)
    I can't get the image out of my head: two would-be Zero-G lovers, rotating in space to get 'aligned' correctly like the docking scene in _2001_.


    --
  • I like sex, personally... I'll admit that ;) but, er, wouldn't the sperm have a hard time getting to its "destination" in the zero gravity? And if it, using the internal forces of Woman, made it, it would have one helluva time fighting to get into that egg... if humans have a hard enough time "swimming" around in space, imagine a sperm? hmmm..
  • Actually, I remember grabing a copy of SciAm about 20 years ago for the specific reason that it had a cover blurb promising an article on "Sex In Space."

    Turned out to be an interesting article about fetal development in zero-G. Not what I was hoping for, though.

  • In some of the space hotel ventures that I've seen, they talk about the draw being the view, and *ahem* the recreational possibilities of zero-gravity.

    To answer your question Roblimo, hell yeah I'd want to try it out!

  • After living for a couple years in a space station your muscles would be in completely different shape than they were on earth. Even if you worked out regularly there would still be muscle deterioration. It would be more difficult to perform any interesting acrobatics in that condition ;).

  • But Seriously... (Score:3)

    by snack ( 71224 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:16PM (#1464368) Journal
    With these 2.5 year trips to Mars, If there was a child concieved, would they pack some car-seats in on the spaceship?

  • You've obviously never been a sperm!

    :)



    --synaptik
  • In all seriousness, with most birth control methods being only 99% effective, the serious question of what to do if conception occurs comes up.

    Abortion in space? Imagine the religeous leaders of the world... they'll flip! Even more medically intrusive procedures such as getting a vasectomy (snip snip) aren't foolproof.

  • It seems to me you'd need some type of handles on the floor(or whatever, it doesn't matter in space), because how do you "push" with no gravity?

    So either the crew would have to jury-rig something up, or NASA would have to set up a "love-room" or something. Another interesting question(s): birth control? pregnancies? abortion? birth in space?

    If there's a 2.5 year trip to Mars, I don't think it would be all that unlikely for one of the women to get pregnant and potentially have to deliver in zero-g. Of course, the delivery and raising of the child pose all new dilemas(but on the bright side, there won't be any "SIDS" in space).

  • Fertilization isn't necessarily the point :) (Score:3)

    by Booker ( 6173 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:18PM (#1464373) Homepage
    At least not on a 2.5 year Mars mission. I think you'd want to be pretty damn sure that you didn't wind up pregnant on a 2.5 year space mission... in fact, I wonder if they'd require sterilization beforehand. I mean... nobody knows how well contraceptives would work in zero-gravity, and a pregnancy could be disastrous and/or tragic...

    Surely they've contemplated that scenario?
    ----
  • ... there is an equal but opposite reaction.

    In any case, I'm sure the engineer's solution to this problem wouldn't be sex at all, but a 'Net downlink with some pr0n and a little device that would prevent the compartment from getting 'sticky', if you know what I mean.

    But seriously, NASA has given us so many improvements for our daily lives, I'm sure that I'll be interested in whatever they have to say about sex.
  • I think NASA's been right not to let sex be part of the space program. If you're going to be in close quarters with someone for six months, sex just introduces too great a risk of communication problems that could jeopardize the mission.
  • I wonder what the...um...byproducts? of sex would do to all the switches, instruments and stuff.

    Maybe they could build a special chamber for it. Get some centrifuge action going on so you have some gravity to work with (otherwise you might have to use some rope...wait, that's not a bad idea!), build a shower system into it to clean things off when you're done...what else can we toss in there?

  • To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction... hmm...
  • If I remember correctly from my bio class, you are effectively sterile when you are in zero g, due to the lack of the sperm's ability to swim correctly as well as the egg not being able to move through all those tubes and stuff. It's been quite a while sense I took that class, and I'm not sure if that is true, but can anyone confirm it?

    (This obviously does not apply if you have centrifugal forces creating an artificial gravity)

    -mafried

  • I don't think that gravity is really an issue wrt to sperm motility, or standing up for a few hours after sex would be a sure-fire method of birth control!

  • Easily (Score:2)

    by / ( 33804 )
    You do it in your office, with other officials, as a public figure, and at tax payer expense. Numerous politicians and sitting presidents come to mind.

    Or you can just publicly and officially declare that you think about sex. Jimmy Carter's public confession that he considered himself an adulturer because he had adulterous thoughts in his heart must surely qualify.

  • Will SOMEONE please stand up?! (Score:3)

    by Woody ( 1159 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:24PM (#1464381) Homepage
    I, in an effort to further the human race, do volunteer to be one of the "testees" (har) for this noble experiment. I will contribute just about any part of my body that you want in order to help with this interesting, er, thing that you are doing. Just don't tell my girlfriend. Going to Mars, or anywhere outside of Earth for that matter, is a pretty good deal, too. NASA, you can contact me at the above email address. I eagerly await your reply!

  • I must continue the Slashdot tradition of saying that all of this has been done before.

    First of all, because there is frequently more interesting stuff there than here, and these guys need promotion, is that GeekNews [geeknews.net] posted this article to their website a couple of days ago.

    Second, the first married couple in space flew on the U.S. Space Shuttle a few years ago. There was talk of this back then, the official line was that it wasn't going to happen, but if you had the opportunity, would you pass it up? methinks not.

  • Remember the ending scene from Octopussy?

    Seriously though, there was a married couple on a recent space shuttle flight. You know they had to think about it.
  • Hush, son, before you make yourself look like you've never had sex before. Condoms don't require gravity. Neither do hormonal shots like Deproprovera. Neither does any of them.

    As for pregnancy, you take precautions, and if that doesn't work, you just pack lots of morning-after pills, and if it's too late to prevent implantation, there are other hormone regimes. Medically (chemically) induced abortion has been a reality for thousands of years. I just can't see it helping NASA funding any.

  • Re:It would be interesting to say the least (Score:3)

    by Kit Lo ( 45824 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:31PM (#1464387)
    So either the crew would have to jury-rig something up, or NASA would have to set up a "love-room" or something

    Hmmm... The room has to be sealed (from bodily fluids as mentioned from posts above and below), but how about the amount of life support (air) required in the room? Sex is a very intense activity to the heart (and the lungs, which would I guess need a lot of air). (Oh, great! The room has a busted CO2 filter!)

    birth in space?

    For health reasons, it's better not to have a pregnant woman in space to give birth. If the lack of gravity can weaken the adult body (weakens the bone structure and all -- the reason people worried about John Glenn in space in November 1998), what would zero gravity do to the newborn's body?
    --

  • They've already tried this.

    A couple years ago a married couple went up in the space shuttle and attempted to conceive a child in orbit. She didn't get pregnant though... I guess all the spermies got confused...

  • dude.. the little guys can swim up too. ;-)

    Maybe it is hard for them to swim in zero g, though.

  • ...Velcro©!

    Pope
  • Hrm, perhaps... although it's possible that if um... drips don't go in the normal (down) direction, you could be in for a surprise. Or new (previously impossible) positions that make things like diaphragms not work so well. Or the weightless shape of the uterus making an IUD ineffective... I'm not completely convinced. Hormonal contraceptives would probably be ok.

    And yeah, morning-after pills would probably be helpful, but still...

    A chemically induced abortion would remain an option, and I'm sure no one would ever know about it... but I still think that would be a tragic/traumatic experience.

    So there. :)
    ----

  • The solution to NASA's funding woes (Score:5)

    by / ( 33804 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:35PM (#1464393)
    Install cameras and charge pay-per-view. That would get most of America's attention. Hell, you could pay for a lot more than 2.5 years under that funding model.

    I can see the headlines now:
    "Mons Veneris Explored Near Venetian Mountain"

  • I heard the following quote about sex a few years ago. Since then I have been wondering about the meaning. Now I understand. ;-)

    Size is not important. It is the rotation velocity that makes a difference.

  • I think rob should worry about getting laid on earth before he moves on to space.
  • ...are we going to see "But seriously..." in this discussion? I've seen at least five in twenty-three comments...

    It wouldn't surprise me if astronauts have already had sex on the shuttle or in some space station. I've read female accounts describing how nice it is to be free from gravity's effects for a few weeks. Fat leaves the hips and deposits itself in the breasts, which takes care of two issues that many women worry about. Admittedly, it is less important for an astronaut to have nice breasts than, say, a Baywatch lifeguard, but there you go.

    As for sex in space in general, I think that it's an eventuality. (Can you imagine going six months - forget two years - without any kind of sexual release?) It would be wise of NASA to establish a policy, publicly or privately, before the public starts talking about it.
  • Seems to me that if one wants to experience some zero G sex, just rent the Vomit Comet for an hour. The flight has periods of Zero Gs lasting upwards of 40 seconds at a time which is enough to give one a good feel as to what sex would feel like in zero Gs.

    On an aside, a porno scene I'd PAY to see:

    A nude male and nude female jump out of a plane and get it on while falling towards the ground - that would be cool to watch. I'm not sure how they'd slow themselves down...but hey, who cares if the sex is good :-)
  • "How do you officially think about sex?"

    1)NASA == government == sexual harasssment

    2)NASA == military personnel == 'don't ask don't tell'

    3)any thing else is for adults to figure out on their own

  • You can push and pull off of your partner. Besides, all you really need is your hips. You can't push and pull, but you can wiggle in opposite directions. That's usually what does the job on earth, too. ;-)

    If they ever made a zero-G porno, I'd watch it just for laughs. I can see their big selling point being something like "Incredible and erotic one mile c*m shot!" or something obscene about the way breasts jiggle in space.

  • Citizen of where? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Birth control methods are only so reliable, so what would happen if a child were concieved? If a child were concieved, according to current laws as far as I remember, the child would not be a US citizen would it? If conception were to occure, what exactly would happen, an inspace abortion? (Just imagine the debate over that.) If a child were born, it wouldn't grow properly on the way back, 2.5 years each way right? The first 5 years are crucial in a childs development. Returning to earth's atmosphere could be very dangerous for it. If the child was born on Mars, Earth could have its first real Martian visit.
  • Appeared in 1997 in Cecil Adams's Straight Dope column.

    Part 1 [straightdope.com]

    Part 2 [straightdope.com]

    Part 3 [straightdope.com]

    Marissa

  • A healthy pregnancy is not something to attempt in space. In addition to all the biological problems related to zero-g, you've got the poor medical conditions with which to contend. Even with a doctor, there's no real replacement for a hospital. You wouldn't want to carry all that load just so that you can have a pregnant woman in space.

  • NEWS: NASA Announces New Strategy (Score:5)

    by cje ( 33931 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:46PM (#1464405) Homepage
    NASA ANNOUNCES NEW STRATEGIC VISION
    First Porno Made In Space Will Fetch "Billions", Says Administrator Goldin

    GREENBELT, MD (UPI) - After suffering several embarassing setbacks, including the loss of the Mars Polar Lander, Climate Orbiter, and XR-2300 Space Modulator, NASA has announced that it has decided to undertake a major shift in its funding paradigm and accept large donations from the private sector. This paradigm shift comes on the heels of sweeping condemnation from several key members of Congress, who have vowed to eliminate the agency from the federal government.

    With comments from the readership of Hustler magazine guiding him, NASA adminstrator Dan Goldin laid out a plan to shoot the first space-based pornographic movie. "We are confident," explained Goldin, "that space pornos can provide NASA with the funding that we need to explore the solar system and the rest of the Universe." Goldin continued: "It will make billions!"

    And perhaps Goldin is right. The American Taxpayer's Union, a Congressional watchdog organization, conducted a study on the effect of having American pornography revenue pumped directly into NASA. "Our figures indicate," explained group spokesman Terry Schmidt, "that if NASA were to go ahead with this plan, we could build a colony on Mars the size of Cleveland by the year 2002."

    Goldin's comments were made at the Press Briefing Room of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. His sentiments are also shared by U.S. president William Jefferson Clinton, who addressed the issue in his annual State of the Union speech before Congress.

    "I believe that we as a nation should commit ourselves to achieving the following goals," said Clinton. "First; I believe it should be the goal of this nation to film a porno in space before this decade is out, and return it safely to Earth." Clinton's comments were briefly drowned out by applause. "We choose to film the first orgy in space!" vowed Clinton. "We choose to film the first orgy in space .. not because it is limp, but because it is hard!"

    NASA insiders confirmed that adult film stars Ron Jeremy and Christi Canyon have been signed to a three-film deal with the space agency. The first film, tentatively entitled "Hot And Heavy Weightless Love", will be shot aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in the fall of the year 2000.

    "The agency that brought you microwave ovens and Tang is also going to be the agency that brings you the world's first zero-gee cumshot," beamed an ecstatic Goldin. "What a great time to be alive!"

    Larry Flynt contributed to this story.

    This story contained material unsuitable for children and should not have been read by any individuals under the age of 18.
  • 1. You'd expend all your energy just getting out of those heavy spacesuits.

    2. It would be difficult to get ol' Mr. Winky in with everything all floating around and stuff...

    3. Avoiding getting hit by floating debris while in the act... "Ohhh Yesssssss... OUCH!!!!! THAT $%$#%%$# CHAIR HIT MY ASS!"

    4. Cleanup... EWWWWWW

    5. Maintaining the position in the 0 G environment, especially tricky if you're doing it doggy style or trying kama sutra positions

    6. Contraceptives (Introducing the Trojan Glow-In-The-Dark Anti-Gravity Condom... in Cherry and Chocolate flavors!)

    7. What would you do if you were abducted by aliens while getting it on? Even worse, what if they wanted to join in?? I wouldn't mind if Martian chicks were hot, but if they weigh 600 pounds and have slimy acidic tentacles... *shudder*

    But hey, it's probably already happened on many NASA missions already. After all floating in a small confined environment in the middle of a space gets boring and lonely, and since NASA is allowing female astronauts now... *uNF* *uNF*

  • Re:Hrm...... (Score:4)

    by Deosyne ( 92713 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @06:49PM (#1464408)
    Oh, great, so we're going to see astronauts masturbating during the NASA tour in a room labeled, "Alternate Propulsion Technologies." I think I'll just stay home...

    Deosyne
  • Face it: wouldn't you want to experiment with Zero-G lovemaking if you had a chance to do so - and you had a willing partner available whose curiosity quotient was as high as yours?

    Let's face it; that pretty much sums up all heterosexual male fantasies in this culture. Replace "Zero-G" with any other contrived situation, and you have a winner. "Wouldn't it be neat if she let me put it there...." "Wouldn't it be neat if she let us do it with that one too...." "If only I could find a partner who wants to have sex as much as I do!"

    But I suppose I shouldn't expect people not to try to combine their primal drives like exploration and sex. And it is just a bit weird how America has made the great technological and cultural leap of putting convents into space, although that probably owes more to military culture than to science.
  • the astronauts for this? ;->
    I mean really, think about, NASA doesn't let anything happen in space that hasn't been simulated hundreds of times on Earth in their training facilities. Are they going to rig up some sort of harness and pulley system to simulate 0-G here on Earth? And if they do will I be able to buy one? ;->

  • The end of 'Moonraker' (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The end of 'Moonraker' featured James Bond and Jaws getting busy with there respective partners, I just wish i could find one like jaws had, mmmm pigtails, but anyways. This led to one of the best lines in a Bond flick ever. They turn on the camera's for the space station, and M, Q, and a host of other brittish officals are watching, one of them asks "What is Bond doing". Q's responce "I believe he is attempting re-entry." A bit commical, but still on topic Duck`
  • I saw a show a couple years ago that touched on this subject and they even had some examples of devices that would make sex, well, possible in zero gee. One was basically made of two belts that each partner wore that were connected together with an elastic strap that would go between each side of them. I'd imagine that you'd have to keep the straps close and tight since Newton's third could end the session right quick if a strap were to come undone. :)

    Deosyne
  • Obviously 69 gets a lot easier in zero-G. Same goes for anything that was formerly constrained to 2 dimensions. Circlejerks, for example, could go spherical.

    I want to officially coin the term "Buckyfuck" to refer to a 60-person orgy. It would require a large chamber, but I'm sure a civilian space hotel might include such a facility.

    And for normal sex in space: Don't worry about getting the controls sticky, just cover the panel with a tarp! Lots of velcro, some bungees, handles and toe-holds, maybe a motorized turntable... I'd pay to see the video too. SAREX would get a lot more interesting if we could hear some moaning every now and then.

    The hilarious part comes when they have to document their findings in scientific form.

  • "Home on Lagrange" by B. Higgins and B. Gehm (Score:5)

    by Guppy ( 12314 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @07:01PM (#1464418)
    Oh, give me a locus where the gravitons focus, Where the three-body problem is solved...

    Where the microwaves play down at three degrees K, and the cold virus never evolved.

    Home, home on Lagrange, where the space debris always collects; we've achieved, so it seems, two of man's greatest dreams...

    Solar power and zero-G sex.

  • Nah (Score:2)

    by / ( 33804 )

    IUDs are already grossly ineffective and dangerous, so they really shouldn't be up for consideration. The idea of the uterus changing shape and rendering them less effective, however, is absurd.

    Diaphrams aren't held in place by gravitational forces; they're held in place by normal forces produced by the surrounding muscles.

    If anything, gravity opposes the flow of semen on earth -- the motion is really completely dominated by muscle contractions and osmosis, which would be equally strong in space.

    As for whether medical abortion is tragic/traumatic, that depends on either your physical constitution or your political/moral views, both of which are largely unaffected by space travel, at least in ways relevant to this discussion. And in any event, military matters have a tendancy to steamroll over any such complaints. Surely it's a lot more traumatic to swallow a cyanide pill than to swallow a mifepristone pill.

    And no you weren't being serious, but it's more fun for me if I pretend you were. ;)

  • Aren't you talking about Moonraker?
  • To advance this initiative, I have decided to help by suggesting some good titles for the eventual space pr0n genre of films. Maybe for publicity NASA could use real astronauts in their films, like have Sally Ride and Jenna Jameson in some lesbo action.


    2001: A Sex Odyssey
    Alien Anal Assault
    Apollo 69
    ASStronauts
    Ass: The Final Frontier
    Close Encounters Of The 69th Kind
    Cosmic Cumsluts X
    E.T. Gets Nasty
    Extraterrestrial Ejaculation
    Intergalatic Intercourse III
    Jizz On Jupiter
    John Glenn: Uncut (note: UGH)
    Lunar Lesbos
    Oral In Orbit
    Ream My Rockets!
    Space Shuttle Sluts: The Oral Endeavour
    SputDick
    Star Whores
    The Martian Masturbators

    Dear God I have too much free time...
  • def. official sex :
    A $16 billion contraption built by highly qualified engineers meant to be used by consenting adult astronauts (preferably of different sex but don't ask don't tell :) ) who sign disclaimer documents before entering the device. All performance statistics are recorded for future scientific analysis.

    It is all for the good of man, science, universe, life, fish and everything.

    First giant step for Astronaut XYZ,
    A giant leap for the human kind!

    -ak
  • NASA has said they plan to have a woman on the first manned Mars mission. Just in case someone has to ask for directions.
  • ... Gibson's short story "Red Star, Winter Orbit" in Burning Chrome.

    But I also wonder how a gerbil in Richard Gere's ass would deal with zero-gee.


    k., just another karma gerbil

    • A $16 billion contraption built by highly qualified engineers meant to be used by consenting adult astronauts...

    Hmmmm.... What do we call it?

    The term "O Ring" is already taken...


    -Jordan Henderson

  • .. when you're talking about long-duration space flights (rotations aboard the International Space Station, trips to Mars, etc.) it would be silly to avoid the issue of sex altogether. I mean, let's be honest .. we are human beings, after all, and a period of six months or so is an awfully long dry spell. :-)

    If NASA hasn't specifically addressed and planned for space sex, then you have to hope that at least they've stocked plenty of Kleenex on-board. ;-) Cleanliness is a virtue, after all.
  • Advantage: You could sell the porno for a shit load of money.
    Disadvantage: When was the last time you saw a good looking woman go on a space shuttle?
    • I, in an effort to further the human race, do volunteer to be one of the "testees" (har) for this noble experiment.

    Very noble of you.

    First, there's the matter of the training course using simulated conditions.

    We fly you up to about 50,000 feet in a cargo plane and dive this "Vomit Comet" into a freefall trajectory. Uhmm, to make this realistic, we'll be asking you to make a complete, uhhm, runs in under 74 seconds, repeatedly.

    Thank you for your service to science.


    -Jordan Henderson

  • I would think the development period while in zero-G's would be the most dangerous part. People have been giving birth outside out hospitals for many thousands of years (and as far as I know animals still give birth to healthy offspring in the wild). I'm sure the sterility of space is a lot safer place to give birth than many of the places on earth where babies have been born.

  • dude .. (Score:1)

    by cje ( 33931 )
    Stop it, you're killing me! :-)

  • Re:this may have already happened (Score:5)

    by Thagg ( 9904 ) <thadbeier@gmail.com> on Friday December 17, 1999 @07:20PM (#1464432) Journal
    I tried to engineer some zero-g sex, but it didn't happen.

    We at Hammerhead produced the upcoming film Supernova, and there was a call in the script for a zero-g sex shot.

    Well, Novespace, a French company, has a big A300 fitted as a zero-g research vehicle. Much like the KC-135 that NASA uses, but without all of those pesky governmental interferences. We called Novespace, and they were willing to let us rent the plane and film our zero-g sequences.

    Before we got to the point of having to reveal exactly what these sequences would be, though, the deal was scotched. While the rental price was quite reasonable (less than 200K/day) the shooting would have to be done in France. Flying the minimal movie crew to France, putting them up for a week in a style to which we'd all like to become accustomed, and flying them back raised the price to something untenable. They couldn't fly the plane to the US because the FAA hadn't given them a US type certificate.

    Now, it would be hard to have sex 30 seconds at a time; and of course it wouldn't be honest to goodness sex for our movie; but it would have been fun. It would be like nothing anybody had ever seen before.

    thad

    • You've obviously never been a sperm!

    I don't remember it, but I'm sure that I was once a sperm. Or was I an egg?


    -Jordan Henderson

  • Re:But Seriously... (Score:4)

    by jeremy f ( 48588 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @07:23PM (#1464435) Homepage
    If there was a child concieved on any space station, imagine how hard it would be for her to adjust to actual gravity? A baby born in Zero-G, and spends his first few months, even years in Zero-G is going to have a hell of a time learning how to crawl, walk, and may possibly distort her sense of balance for the rest of her life. Plus, there's physiological issues here. INS, but I think we haven't done tests on creatures born in zero-g and adjusting to gravity. Would being exposed to earth-like gravity after several years of it's life developing in zero-g crush it's internal organs, much like we would be crushed if we were to visit the surface of Jupiter (if one existed...)?

    And even the child's body wasn't crushed by the adjustment to gravity, would he even be capable of learning how to walk?

    I'm opposed to animal testing, but this is something that should be researched before someone makes a mistake and loses a child unintentionally.

    (The above is purely opinion. Take it as such :-) )
  • After watching Klingon blood float through Star Trek movies, and hearing about the problems going to the bathroom or even sleeping up there, I bet you'd end up with some intesting chalenges. I wonder if it would require some sort of rubber band harness to keep you from floating away from each other. I'd hate to be in the heat of it, and get going a bit to fast and suddenly you each end up flying to opposite ends of the room...

    For those on a budget, I recomend practicing underwater, just like NASA does (although, they probably practice different things.) I wonder if you could create a shallow water device where you breath through your nose, in order to keep the mouth free? Anyone know?

    And yes, they do have lubricants designed just for that.

    Reed

  • But only with other men, becuase I love gay space sex.
  • According to G Harry Stine's book "Halfway to Anywhere," getting it on properly in space requires a third person to keep the main event from flying apart. This is derived from how dolphins do it. Therefore, the club for those who have done the deed in zero-g is the three-dolphin club. Apparently there is even a patch (helpfully reproduced in the book), and there are allegedly quite a few astronauts qualified to wear it.
  • I wouldn't be suprised if the sperm need gravity to know which way is up.
    • I would think the development period while in zero-G's would be the most dangerous part.

    I wonder if gravity isn't helpful in getting the fetus in the proper position for birthing. Gravity may also provide tensions that may help to induce labor in some indirect way.

    A breech presentation might be a problem. While a normal delivery might not be a problem in zero Gs, a ceasarian or unusual delivery could be serious.

    Of course, IANAD ;-)


    -Jordan Henderson

  • No problem. I've seen the Vomit Comet, I think it looks amazingly cool, and I'd be willing to do it. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. I THINK that I'm still game!

  • I remember that in "Stranger in a Strange Land" Heinlien's Mars mission required married couples for stabilities' sake. But I don't remember if he asserted that Valentine Micheal Smith was conceived on the way, or on Mars itself.

    The how many mile high club would that be?

  • Re:Will SOMEONE please stand up?! (Score:3)

    by JordanH ( 75307 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @07:39PM (#1464445) Homepage Journal
    And, being a typical Slashdot Geek, the 74 second "test cycle" is probably well within operational parameters...

    OK, you're in, so to speak.


    -Jordan Henderson

  • Acctually, once they were floating they could push and pull off each other all they wanted and their center of mass would stay moving at a constant velocity. Their center of mass can only move if an external force is applied. The difficult part would be getting into the middle of a room with zero net momentum (relative to the ship) between them. Possible, but difficult. Otherwise they might drift into a wall in the middle of the act.

    ---------------------------
    Attraction is Biology
    Love is chemistry
    Sex is physics.

  • Not to confuse all of the hetero's but what exactly do you expect was happening with week-long all-male closely-bonded high-tension crews? If there hasn't been at least a bit of "lend your buddy a hand" going on I'd be amazed.

    -- MM

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Supposedly NASA Document 14-307-1792 [hooked.net] has documents from a shuttle mission where tests were made. It's probably a hoax, but if it is the person had beuracrat speak down pat.
    --

  • Cecil Adams has covered this (Score:5)

    by Mr2001 ( 90979 ) on Friday December 17, 1999 @08:04PM (#1464452) Homepage Journal
    See part one [straightdope.com], part two [straightdope.com], and part three [straightdope.com] of his answer to the question "Has anyone ever had sex in space?"

    Cecil Adams is, of course, the world's smartest human and the author of the weelky column The Straight Dope.

  • Seriously, there's already a movie by the title "2001: A Sex Odyssey". Sorry. And don't ask.

    :)
  • What with all this talk about children being conceived.. eh.. what about giving the austronauts condoms? Just a thought.

    -Warren

  • Re:Babies in Space? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'm sure the astronauts would be given Ru486 ("Day After Pill") or such to avoid this problem. That's the only ethical thing to do, scientifically, if you want to have sex in space.

    This would likely set the religious right up in arms however. But on the other hand, astronauts are (or at least were in the past) given the means to commit suicide in case things got really fubared. And suicide is, of course, also a mortal sin in most religions.

  • Wow...I've never had sex before, and to have sex in space?! If they say sex in water is great, then this must be phenomenal.

    Maybe NASA has secret studies on the effects of sex in space, that we dont even know about. Hmmm....ah well.
  • So NASA is launching a study of behavioral issues in space in conjunction with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a consortium of national universities and labs.

    If we sign up for this project, do we make more than the $5 the psychology department is offering?

    -Chris

  • Is there any data on the effects of weightlessness on ovulation and menstruation? Is gravity needed for the movement of the egg and the discharge of the lining of the uterus?
  • Aw hell, I've seen a NASA document relating what to do in case of an attack by Vikings. People at NASA, and the aerospace companies have pretty good senses of humor.
  • I also can't imagine they'd go to Mars. You'd have to think that after a few months they'd turn for Uranus, no?
  • Does anyone know if this is covered in the Kama Sutra? maybe it needs a re-write......
  • I'm sure the techies at Nasa can figure out how to make sex possible without having a baby come out of it, don't you? ;)
  • hihi, we even made song about this. goes like,

    "...small white pearls..."

    and

    "...mother earth turns away in shame.. "

    :)

    PAT ("c4space", germany)
  • Hey, I've had sex in space, and now you can too! All you need is about 3 hits of acid and a willing partner.
  • The day/morning after pill is simply a higher strength oral contraceptive, and is really only effective three days after the sexual event has occured. RU486 is not the day after pill, it is a prostaglandin analogue and would more be correctly classed as an abortifacient, and thus has the advantage of being useful after the three days which the day after pill would not be effective.

  • Re:Blue Danube Waltz... (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18, 1999 @12:41AM (#1464503)
    While I worked there in Medical Operations, we did have some "flights of fancy" where folks versed in the functional and physiologic aspects of the activity speculated on various issues.

    1. In microgravity, one must be concerned with maintaining appropriate positioning. We discussed a variety of methods, but decided several (n=2 or 3) bungee cords would work, if they weren't too tight or too loose.

    2. In keeping with the concept of personal restraint for the Shuttle, it was decided (unofficially, of course) that this would be appropriate only on flights where the rigid sleep station was installed.

    3. The term "consenting adult" takes on new meaning when you realize that the entire living space of the Shuttle is about the size of a minivan. If your fellow crew members don't agree to your (and your partner's) activities, you could find yourself duct-taped into a corner. For the rest of the flight.

    4. Partaking of such activities is problemmatic because of the lack of a shower on the shuttle. Sponge baths were deemed unsatisfactory for further post-coital relaxation.

    5. For reasons associated with personal hygiene, the lack of a shower dictated such activities late in the mission, so that odor wasn't a major issue in the cabin.

    6. For reasons of personal hygiene, lack of a shower was expected to decrease the chances of this activity occurring as an unplanned event. Thecrew's well known for completing Crew Activity Plan (CAP) events, but unplanned optional events that are aesthetically unpleasant (like love-making after living together for 8 days in a minivan without a shower) have a history of being dropped. The participants would have to be committed to the experiment.

    So... don't think it's never been discussed by the technical folks at NASA... just never admitted to by the managers.

  • Re:Well... (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A number of experiment have been done in SpaceLab specifically to look at the potential for developmental problems. And there are some indications that embryo development is better aided in a positive-G environment (negative-G might work as well, but vice zero-/micro-G, they're the same: acceleration in a direction; thus, +G vice micro/0G).

    The physiology of motile sperm traversing the cervix and reaching the fallopian tubes for insemmination is not considered to be an issue because the sperm swim their way "up" the cervical mucous rather than engaging in a free fligth to the egg.

    As for maneuvering in micro-G, most get the hang of it pretty quickly. As I indicated in an earlier post, staying "docked" might require use of aids, but the maneuvers are not that hard to master, especially if you wait 24 hrs to make sure neither party's got space motion sickness problems, and has their "space legs."

    While I worked with a bunch of the crew while there, this is a topic that was really not discussed, even after a few beers... there were rumors, but nothing supportable, demonstrable, and certainly no willing witnesses to interview.

  • Re:There have been animal tests.. (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 18, 1999 @01:10AM (#1464513)
    Several Spacelab missions have looked at various aspects of this. Rats were used in at least 2 experiments I am aware of (I've been gone from there a long time) and fish and frogs were also looked at. Chickens were also used.

    The chicks that were early in development (last fertilized before launch) were the most severely affected. The implication is, early fetal development is potentially a +G phenomenon.

    The rats were similarly affected, but not to the extent of the chicks.

    The fish and amphibs were less affected, but with a slightly increased rate of mutation (extra limbs, etc.) that was never associated statistically with the experimental conditions. The investigators had no reasons to expect that sort of response attributable to development in micro-G.

    This is an area where a lot of physiology must be divined, and a lot of experimental work must go on. One reason that HAS to happen is, it's gonna happen and NASA's gonna have to be prepared for the results.

    I expect there remains a lot of interest in the Space Physiology arm of NASA for working on these issues at the applied and basic sciences levels.
  • I heard the President was standing...
  • Forget 2001: A Sex Odyssey because something like it ALREADY EXISTS!

    Do a search on IMDB for "2069: A Sex Odyssey"

    :)

  • Actually, twenty to thirty is the duration you're looking for on the Vomit Comet. The problem is that the unit is in seconds, not minutes.
  • thats why any mission as far as mars would be in a rotating craft, producing artifical gravity, duh.
    In case your curious, it looks like they are abandoning the big wheel idea of past, and just spining the current spacecraft about its z axis (that would be the axis from tail to nose) that way you would be pushed toward whatever is the closet wall. (But you do need to big wheel to stabilize the spin,, as such a small spin would be unstable and could easily change by a persons movements, if we can accually find water on the moon, its theorized we could use a large pump (powered by sun) to inflate a large wheel that could be compacted, but, thats a big if)
  • In microgravity, sperm motility *increases* and the passive movement of the egg is based upon smooth muscle contractions of the Fallopian tubes and uterine wall. Statistically, there might be a slightly greater risk of ectopic pregnancy (outside the uterus - say the Fallopian tubes) which can still kill you due to internal hemorraging, but the major concern is the radiation hazard on the developing cell mass.

    Any pregnancy in space had better allow for very good radiation protection and some pretty serious diapers since (particularly male) infants can be pretty effective waste product distributors in three dimensions. As well, I wouldn't want to expose babies to high acceleration for the same reason that Shaken Baby Syndrome is potentially lethal here on Earth even with constant gravity.

    Low acceleration, low radiation and good hygene should allow for good pediatric outcomes as long as development itself isn't affected by microgravity. I'd much prefer babies in non-accelerating radiation protected non-microgravity environments for now, at least until microgravity development is better understood. Moon and Martian colonies would be OK, as would any space station that provides the equivalent of at least 1/6th gravity through rotation.
  • But a third person is much more fun than a bungee cord!
  • If ever you have the chance to read "Exit Earth" by Martin Caidin, it has a scene dealing specifically with zero-g sex. It's by no means a literary masterpiece, so I wouldn't go read it just to find out what he wrote about zero-g sex.

    That now begs for further questions. How fast would one be propelled forward if they were to "cut the cheese"? Or how much fun would it be to race in the space station while holding onto a vaccuum?
  • "In space, no one can hear you come."

    credits to my friend JES for that one...

    Vovida, OS VoIP
    Beer recipe: free! #Source
    Cold pints: $2 #Product

  • It seems to me the child conception would be the hard part. It seems our seed wouldnt be able to "swim" in 3 dimensions, and still make it where it needs to be. (i say 3d there as opposed to on earth, because on earth they have the whole up and down thing done for them by gravity, they only have to swim back and hang a left...)

    It would more likely be a chemical scent trail that the sperm would follow, than reacting to gravity. Just a thought there.

    Also, even if all them sperms went a wigglin' in all kinds of different directions, at least some are going to go in the RIGHT direction.

    Simon

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