Out-Of-This-World Sex
• Sexual Health
A scientist says NASA would be foolish to ignore issues of sexual longing and romantic desire during a two and a half year trip to Mars and back.
NASA is a government agency so there's no way to appraise the possible depths of its foolishness.
NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2018 and later on to Mars. But a round-trip mission to the Red Planet would probably last at least 30 months and carry six to eight people. That would be a hotbed for intense crew relationships, says a report by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
"With the prospect of a very long-term mission, it's hard to ignore the question of sexuality," says Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an author of the report. It reviewed NASA's plans for research to keep astronauts safe and healthy in space – but the plans make no mention of sexual issues in spaceflight.
Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions
Earlier: Will NASA forbid sex in outer space?
Comments
Personally, I think Larry Niven has already provided the answer to this little problem. In Ringworld, 1970, he posited the existence of a ship’s whore on long trips. On a small ship, without enough room or enough people for everyone to do their own thing, how else are you going to stop the crew from going stir crazy?
Posted by: Jeff Sela | October 22, 2005 9:52 AM
Been a long time since I read Ringworld. Given that the crew is apt to be of both sexes it would require two sex workers.
I think the article in New Scientist said that in similar circumstances on the surface of the earth people work out arrangements for sex without attachment or pretending it will continue when they return to their regular lives.a
Posted by: Richard | October 22, 2005 4:28 PM
Apparently there was a NASA study on zero-gravity sexual techniques in 1996. Details at http://www.horowitzhoffman.homestead.com/research/sts-75NASA14-307-1792.html … An interesting read.
Posted by: strange_visitor | October 24, 2005 1:41 AM