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Sex in space

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The 2suit test in microgravity on The Universe series Sex in Space marked the first test for human intimacy toward humanity colonizing the universe; September 13, 2008.

The idea of human sexual activity in the weightlessness or extreme environments of outer space, or sex in space, presents difficulties for the performance of most sexual activities due to Newton's Third Law. According to the law, if the couple remain attached, their movements will counter each other. Consequently, their actions will not change their velocity unless they are affected by another, unattached, object. Some difficulty could occur due to drifting into other objects. If the couple have a combined velocity relative to other objects, collisions could occur. There have been suggestions that conception and pregnancy in off-Earth environments could be an issue.[1][2][3][4]

As of 2009, with NASA planning long-term missions for lunar settlements with goals to explore and colonize space, the topic has taken a respected place in life sciences. Scientist Stephen Hawking publicly concluded in 2006 that possibly human survival itself will depend on successfully contending with the extreme environments of space.[5][6][7]

Physiological issues

Numerous physiological changes have been noted during spaceflight, many of which may affect sex and procreation. Such effects would be a result of factors including gravity changes, radiation, noise, vibration, isolation, disrupted circadian rhythms, stress, or a combination of these factors.[8]

Gravity and microgravity

The primary issue to be considered in off-Earth reproduction is the lack of gravitational acceleration. Life on Earth, and thus the reproductive and ontogenetic processes of all extant species and their ancestors, evolved under the constant influence of the Earth's 1g gravitational field. It is imperative to study how space environment affects critical phases of mammalian reproduction and development as well as events surrounding fertilization, embryogenesis, pregnancy, birth, postnatal maturation, and parental care.[9] Gravity affects all aspects of vertebrate development, including cell structure and function, organ system development, and even behavior. As gravity regulates mammalian gene expression, there are significant implications for successful procreation in an extraterrestrial environment.

Studies conducted on reproduction of mammals in microgravity include experiments with rats. Although the fetus developed properly once exposed to normal gravity, the rats that were raised in microgravity lacked the ability to right themselves.[10] Another study examined mouse embryo fertilization in microgravity. Although both groups resulted in healthy mice once implanted at normal gravity, the authors noted that the fertilization rate was lower for the embryos fertilized in microgravity than for those in normal gravity.[11] Currently no mice or rats have developed while in microgravity throughout the entire developmental cycle.[12]

2Suit

Main article: 2suit

The 2suit (alternately 2-Suit or twosuit) is a garment designed to facilitate effortless intimacy in the weightless environments such as outer space, or on planets with low gravity.[13] The flight garment, invented by American novelist Vanna Bonta,[2] was one of the subjects of Sex in Space, a 2008 History Channel television documentary about the biological and emotional implications of human migration and reproduction beyond Earth.[13][14][15] The 2suit sparked international discussions in news and political debates as a metaphor for human colonization of space.[16][17]

Psychosocial issues

The psychosocial implications of in-flight sex and reproduction are at least as problematic as the related physiological challenges. For the foreseeable future, space crews will be relatively small in number. If pairing off occurs within the crew, it can have ramifications on the crew's working relationships, and therefore, on mission success and crew operations.[18][19][page needed] Behavioral health, close proximity, compatibility and coupling will all be factors determining selection of crews for long term and off-planet missions.

Lyubov Serova, a specialist with the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in the field of procreation in the conditions of spaceflight, says "After a period of adaptation for weightlessness, people will not need any special devices, like elastic belts or inflatable tubes to have sex in space," and "We study the impact of weightlessness on the reproductive function of male and female bodies by using mammals as test subjects, particularly rats." The overall conclusion is that sex in space is not a physical problem, and that individuals motivated enough to embark on space flight wouldn't be distracted by the need for sex.[20]

Studies

On July 23, 2006, a Sex in Space panel was held at the Space Frontier Foundation's annual conference. Speakers were science journalist-author Laura Woodmansee, who presented her book Sex in Space;[21] Dr. Jim Logan, board certified in Aerospace Medicine and first graduate of the new residency program to be hired by NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston; and Vanna Bonta, American poet, novelist, actress who had recently flown in zero gravity and had agreed to an interview for Woodmansee's book.[13] The speakers made presentations that explored "the biological, emotional, and ... physical issues that will confront people moving [off Earth] into the space environment."[22] NBC science journalist Alan Boyle reported on the panel, opening a world discussion of a topic previously considered taboo.[2]

Planned attempts

In February 2013, Dennis Tito's Inspiration Mars Foundation announced that they were going to send a two-person crew – a man and a woman – to a 501 days free-return flyby mission to Mars and back.[citation needed] Jane Poynter stressed the importance of the pre-existing stable emotional bond between the members of the couple. She cited her own experience as being a Biosphere 2 crew member together with her husband Taber MacCallum, who is the chief technology officer of Inspiration Mars.

In June 2015, Pornhub announced its plans to make the first pornographic film in space. It launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the effort, dubbed Sexploration, with the goal of raising $3.4 million in 60 days. The campaign only received pledges for $236 086. If funded, the film would have been slated for a 2016 release, following six months of training for the two performers and six-person crew.[23][24][25][26] Though it claimed to be in talks with multiple private spaceflight carriers, the company declined to name names "for fear that that would risk unnecessary fallout" from the carriers.[23] A Space.com article about the campaign mentioned that in 2008, Virgin Galactic received and rejected a $1 million offer from an undisclosed party to shoot a sex film on board SpaceShipTwo.[24]

"Sex in Space" was the subject of a History Channel documentary on The Universe television series in 2008. The globally distributed show was dubbed into foreign languages, opening worldwide discussion about what had previously been avoided as a taboo subject. Sex in space became a topic of discussion for the long-term survival of the human species, colonization of other planets, inspired songs, and humanized reasons for space exploration.[4][16][17][27][28][29][30][31][32]

Wire-based special effects in Moonraker (1979).

Among films that include space-sex themes are Moonraker, Moving Violations, Supernova and Cube 2: Hypercube. In the novelization of Alien, Parker tells Brett about an episode of zero-G sex that went wrong.

The issue of sex in space also appears in science fiction by Isaac Asimov who, in 1973, conjectured what sex would be like in the weightless environment of space. He anticipated some of the benefits of engaging in sex in an environment of microgravity.[33]

The difficulties microgravity poses for human intimacy were discussed in an anonymous fictional NASA Document 12-571-3570 in 1989, where the use of an elastic belt and an inflatable tunnel were proposed as solutions to these problems. A mission patch and other documents were determined to be hoaxes.

The adult entertainment production company Private Media Group has filmed a movie called The Uranus Experiment: Part Two where the zero-gravity intercourse scene was accomplished by flying an airplane to an altitude of 11,000 feet (3350 meters) and then doing a steep dive. The filming process was particularly difficult from a technical and logistical standpoint. Budget constraints allowed only for one 20-second shot, featuring the actors Sylvia Saint and Nick Lang.[34] Berth Milton, Jr, president and CEO of Private Media Group, says "You would not want to be afraid of flying, that's for sure!"[35]

When Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins published his autobiography Carrying the Fire in 1974, a contemporary Time Magazine quoted the following passage: "Imagine a spacecraft of the future, with a crew of a thousand ladies, off for Alpha Centauri, with 2,000 breasts bobbing beautifully and quivering delightfully in response to every weightless movement ... and I am the commander of the craft, and it is Saturday morning and time for inspection, naturally".[36] The magazine followed this up by running a letter from one Sharon Smith, who agreed that the presence of breasts "bobbing weightlessly" would render spacemen unable to do their jobs and added that the space program must safeguard itself by the painful but necessary step of excluding men.[37] Arthur C. Clarke in turn was quick to point out in a letter to the editor that he had beaten Collins to addressing the matter in the novel Rendezvous with Rama (1973):[38] "Some women, Commander Norton had decided long ago, should not be allowed aboard ship; weightlessness did things to their breasts that were too damn distracting. It was bad enough when they were motionless; but when they started to move, and sympathetic vibrations set in, it was more than any warm-blooded male should be asked to take. He was quite sure that at least one serious space accident had been caused by acute crew distraction, after the transit of a well upholstered lady officer through the control cabin."

A more recent and perhaps more realistic description of the mechanics of low-gravity intercourse is presented in "Sex in Space: The Video," a short story contained in Susie Bright's The Best American Erotica 2004. The story uses cheating astronauts to describe techniques humans might use to copulate in space without special apparatus.[citation needed]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Monks, Keiron (April 9, 2012). "Thrusters on full: Sex in space". Metro. Free Daily News Group Inc./Star Media Group. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; November 10, 2014 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ a b c Boyle, Alan (July 24, 2006). "Outer-space sex carries complications". NBCNews.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; April 25, 2015 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Seks in de ruimte: is het mogelijk?, By Caroline Hoek; 7 April 2012
  4. ^ a b S’envoyer en l’air dans l’espace Par Kieron Monks, Metro World News; 11 Avril 2012
  5. ^ Hui, Sylvia (June 13, 2006). "Hawking Says Humans Must Colonize Space". Space.com. Purch. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
  6. ^ Hui, Sylvia (June 13, 2006). "Hawking: Humans Must Spread Out in Space". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  7. ^ Delange, Catherine (May 20, 2012). "The importance of sex in space". Cosmos. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Jennings, RT; Santy, PA (1990). "Reproduction in the space environment: Part II. Concerns for human reproduction". Obstetrical & Gynecologial Survey. 45 (1): 7–17. doi:10.1097/00006254-199001000-00006.
  9. ^ Ronca, April E (2003). "Mammalian Development in Space". 9: 217–251. doi:10.1016/S1569-2574(03)09009-9. ISSN 1569-2574. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ B, Fritzsch; LL, Bruce (October 1995). "Utricular and saccular projections of fetal rats raised in normal gravity and microgravity". NLM Gateway Search. ASGSB Bull. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  11. ^ Wakayama, Sayaka; Kawahara, Yumi; et al. (August 25, 2009). Dey, Sudhansu (ed.). "Detrimental Effects of Microgravity on Mouse Preimplantation Development In Vitro". PLoS ONE. 4 (8). Public Library of Science: e6753. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.6753W. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006753. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 2727478. PMID 19707597. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. {{cite journal}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; February 17, 2015 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  12. ^ Crawford-Young, Susan J. (2006). "Effects of microgravity on cell cytoskeleton and embryogenesis" (PDF). The International Journal of Developmental Biology. 50 (2/3): 183–191. doi:10.1387/ijdb.052077sc. ISSN 0214-6282. PMID 16479487. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  13. ^ a b c "Vanna Bonta Talks Sex in Space". Femail.com.au. August 19, 2012. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ "Sex in Space". The Universe. Season 3. December 2, 2008. History Channel.
  15. ^ History Channel to air special on 'sex in space' New Scientist December 17, 2008
  16. ^ a b Ference, Audrey (October 4, 2012). "Celebrate Sputnik Day by Thinking About Space Sex". The L Magazine. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ a b Schwartz, Marty (December 16, 2012). "1000 Words, 1000 Days: Day 351 – Space-Boinking In The 21st Century!". The Paltry Sapien. Archived from the original on November 10, 2014.
  18. ^ Gallagher, Barbara (January 2000). "No Space Sex?". Scientific American. 282 (1). Nature Publishing Group: 22. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0100-22. ISSN 0036-8733.
  19. ^ Harrison, Albert A. (1 October 2002). Spacefaring: The Human Dimension (revised ed.). Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23677-6.
  20. ^ Karash, Yuri (March 16, 2000). "Sex In Space: From Russia... with Love". Space.com. Purch. Archived from the original on July 10, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
  21. ^ Greene, Nick, "Review: Sex in Space by Laura S. Woodmansee", About: Space/Astronomy, About.com, archived from the original on December 14, 2006
  22. ^ "NewSpace 2006 Agenda". Space Frontier Foundation. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  23. ^ a b Moye, David (June 10, 2015). "Pornhub Crowdfunds First Porn Shot In Space". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ a b Wall, Mike (June 11, 2015). "Sex in Space: Porn Group Wants to Crowdfund Zero-G Adult Film". Space.com. Archived from the original on June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Moyer, Justin Wm (2015-06-11). "PornHub crowdfunds for sex tape filmed in space". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  26. ^ "Pornhub launches crowdfund to film porn in space". CNBC. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  27. ^ La fantasía del sexo en gravedad cero PERU21; 29 August 2012
  28. ^ From Quarks to Quasars The Complications of Sex in Space October 9, 2013
  29. ^ Outside Magazine December 2006 issue
  30. ^ 7 Real Suits That Will Soon Make the World A Cooler Place by Soren Bowie, Cracked; 15 November 2010
  31. ^ Tener bebés en el espacio podría ser peligroso FayerWayer, (Science Feature) Boxbyte en Ciencia, Destacados; October 2010
  32. ^ Wakacje w Kosmosie? Dajcie sobie z tym spokój!, by Tomasz Rożek, GAZETA; 17 October 2011
  33. ^ Asimov, Isaac (January 1973). "Sex in a Spaceship". Sexology Magazine. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help) (Reprinted in Science Past – Science Future, 1975)
  34. ^ "Zero Gravity Sex Film Up for Award". SPACE.com. 16 May 2000. Archived from the original on 20 June 2000. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
  35. ^ "'To Boldly Go': Star Trek, Sex and Space". SPACE.com. 16 May 2000. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008.
  36. ^ Sherrod, Robert (1974-08-19). "Lunar Caustic". Time. Retrieved 2008-08-17.
  37. ^ Smith, Sharon (1974-10-07). "Letters to the Editor". Time.
  38. ^ Clarke, Arthur C. (1974-09-23). "Letters to the Editor". Time.

General references

  • Levin, R. J. (1989). "Effects of space travel on sexuality and the human reproductive system". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.
  • Freitas Jr., Robert (April 1983). Sex in Space. Sexology Today. pp. 58–64.
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