- May 27, 2002
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14002908/
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.jamesoberg.com/sex.html">NASA again denies decade old rumor that, they have performed sexual experiments in space.
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I cant help but find this funny.
Outer-space sex carries complications
Experts say new devices and data would be needed to hit the zero-G-spot
LAS VEGAS - Having sex in the weightlessness of outer space is the stuff of urban legends and romantic fantasy ? but experts say that there would be definite downsides as well.
Spacesickness, for instance. And the difficulty of choreographing intimacy. And the potential for sweat and other bodily fluids to, um, get in the way.
"The fantasy might be vastly superior to the reality," NASA physician Jim Logan said here Sunday at the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace 2006 conference. Nevertheless, Logan and others say the study of sex and other biological basics in outer space will be crucial to humanity's long-term push into the final frontier.
"Sex in space is not just a good idea, it's survival," said Vanna Bonta, a writer who blends romance with space travel and quantum physics in the novel "Flight."
Sex in the space environment has long been a source of rumor and speculation: Several years ago, one author claimed that NASA had conducted a study of sexual behavior during a space shuttle mission, sparking a quick round of denials. Today, NASA follows something of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the subject ? leading Logan to stress that he was not representing the space agency at Sunday's panel discussion.
The subject is coming to the fore again now for several reasons ? including next month's publication of a book by Laura Woodmansee titled "Sex in Space," as well as billionaire Robert Bigelow's plan to host research into animal propagation on his commercial space modules.
After all, sometime in the next decade Bigelow Aerospace envisions putting a hotel complex in orbit, "where people will probably be recreating and having sex," Bonta said.
Woodmansee said sex would be "the killer app of space tourism ... because every couple who goes up there, or threesome or whatever their personal choice is, is going to want to try this."
However, off-Earth romantics will have to cope with some practical challenges:
Sex in space would likely be "hotter and wetter" than on Earth, Bonta said, because in zero-G there is no natural convection to carry away body heat. Also, scientists have found that people tend to perspire more in microgravity. The moisture associated with sexual congress could pool as floating droplets.
The physics of zero-G make the mechanics of sex more complicated. Bonta said it was challenging even to kiss her husband during a zero-G simulation flight they took recently. "You actually have to struggle to connect and stay connected," she recalled. Partners would have to be anchored to the wall and/or to each other. To address that need, Bonta has come up with her own design for garments equipped with strategically placed Velcro strips and zippers.
Although zero-G could be a boon for saggy body parts, Bonta said males might notice a "slight decrease" in penis size due to the lower blood pressure that humans experience in microgravity.
Romantics will also need to guard against the type of motion sickness that space travelers often encounter, especially if they get too adventurous right off. "Save the acrobatics for post-play vs. foreplay," Bonta advised.
For all these reasons, Logan said spontaneous sex in space could be "a little underwhelming."
"It's a pretty messy environment, when you think about it," he said. "And for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. However ... I can well imagine how compelling, inspiring, and quite frankly stimulating choreographed sex in zero-G might be in the hands of a skilled and talented cinematographer with appropriate lighting and music."
When the crowd tittered, Logan added, "I'm not kidding: Sex in zero-G is going to have to be more or less choreographed. Otherwise it's just going to be a wild flail."
Bonta suggested that a honeymoon space hotel could offer specially designed environments to enhance zero-G intimacy ? for instance, "hydro rooms" filled with floating droplets of cool water or scented oil.
The issue of what happens after sex is, if anything, more crucial for those concerned about future generations of spacefarers. The animal studies conducted so far indicate that the "absence of gravity loading would cause all kinds of problems" for fetal development, Logan said.
For example, Russian studies with pregnant rats showed a 13 to 17 percent arrest in the development of nearly every area of the fetal skeleton in zero-G, he said. Logan also noted that the proper formation of neural connections ? a process that continues even after birth ? requires movement under gravity loading. Immune functions are also compromised in microgravity.
Logan isn't worried so much about the early weeks of pregnancy, but he said studies have shown that gravity should play a significant role for human fetuses after about 26 weeks of gestation.
"This has significant implications for the colonization of the solar system," he said. Multigenerational life might be impossible without at least some gravity.
As an alternative, future space settlers might create artificial gravity ? say, on spinning spacecraft like the wheel-like space station portrayed in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
How much gravity?
So how much gravity is enough? The one-sixth gravity of the moon, or the one-third gravity of Mars? So far, no one knows, Logan said.
"We still do not have an inkling of what the 'gravity prescription' is," he said. "Think of gravity as a medication. We don't know the dose, we don't know the frequency, and we don't know the side effects."
Cosmic radiation in the space environment is another worry surrounding fetal development in space ? and Logan said there may be a synergistic relationship between radiation and the ill effects of zero-G on the fetus. The unknowns are of such great concern that, given the current state of our knowledge, pregnancy in space would be "very dangerous," he said.
The efficacy of oral contraceptives in space is also a subject of concern, Woodmansee said, particularly because studies involving other types of medications indicate that drugs aren't absorbed as readily in space as they are on Earth.
Beyond the romance, more research
Logan as well as Woodmansee called for more research into how biological processes work in reduced-gravity environments ? not just in the near-weightlessness of the international space station, but also on research satellites that can reproduce one-third or one-sixth gravity. Only then can scientists figure out how much gravity will be required to keep space-dwelling romantics alive for the next generation.
"If you can't figure out how to 'bioneer,' you're not going anywhere," Logan said.
But if humanity can figure out how to live and reproduce in space, it would represent a giant leap ? not only for lovers, but for evolution as well, Woodmansee said.
"Our children and our grandchildren, et cetera, will be space aliens," she said. "They will change how humans are. They will be different from us in some way. Maybe if we are really going to go into space, these are good adaptations, but they're going to be painful, I think, in any case. It's disturbing, but it's something that we need to think about if we are truly going to be a spacefaring civilization and settle the galaxy."
© 2006 MSNBC Interactive
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.jamesoberg.com/sex.html">NASA again denies decade old rumor that, they have performed sexual experiments in space.
</a>
Space sex hoax rises again
By JAMES OBERG, UPI Space Writer
HOUSTON, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- A decade-old old Internet hoax about NASA "space sex experiments" has again popped up to excite and confuse the public, space experts have learned.
In response, NASA officials have severely criticized those in the news media who presented the material without adequate verification.
The media's attention was revived this week by publicity swirling about the release of a book by French astronomer Pierre Kohler called, "The Final Mission," to be published in Paris on Thursday. In advance publicity, Kohler described the contents of an allegedly secret NASA report about experiments involving different sexual positions in the zero-gravity conditions of weightlessness.
The press reports say the book, a chronology of Russia's Mir space station published by Calmann-Levy in Paris, describes a "Document 12-571-3570" detailing 10 different male-female positions which were actually tested on space shuttle mission STS-75. The shuttle mission was launched in early 1996. Most of the positions involved physical restraint systems to keep the couples close together.
Neither the publisher nor the author, a prolific author of popular books on astronomy, space, and UFOs, could be reached for comment. NASA officials have branded the document and its contents a hoax. "There is no truth to it at all," declared Johnson Space Center spokesman Eileen Hawley in Houston. She told UPI she had first seen the bogus report five years ago, and on some Internet sites it is identified as having been posted from the University of Iowa in 1989.
Brian Welch, NASA's 'Director of Media Services', was more vehement. "We categorically deny there is any such document," he told UPI. "This is a fairly well-known 'urban legend'", he continued, and expressed dismay that anyone could still be taken in by it without checking it out.
And in an exclusive interview with UPI, Dr. Rhea Seddon, one of America's first women astronauts, called the reports "ludicrous". She continued, "In my opinion, the [story] is pure fabrication."
Allegations of sexual activity in space have circulated for almost as long as there have been mixed crews on manned spacecraft. Among space flight experts, it is commonly believed that such private activity has actually occurred.
In August 1982, Russian cosmonaut and aerobatics pilot Svetlana Savitskaya spe nt a week aboard the Salyut-7 space station in the company of four male cosmonauts. "They greeted me at the hatch with an apron," she later recalled, and then tersely described how she rebuffed that attitude and established a professional working relationship with them.
Less than a year later, America's first woman in space, Sally Ride, shared a space shuttle cabin with four men for a week.
Since then, more than thirty women have taken part in space shuttle missions as regular crewmembers. One Russian and one American woman have conducted months-long tours on the Mir space station.
In September 1992, two married astronauts flew aboard STS-47, a "Spacelab" science mission. Mark Lee and Jan Davis got married after being assigned to the crew. They were divorced several years later.
Although spacecraft are commonly thought to be crowded and lacking in privacy, shuttle missions with Spacelab modules do provide extra room as well as private space in small bunks with sliding doors. In addition, manned space vehicles tend to be very noisy, with loud fans and other mechanical equipment providing a background din.
Consequently, experts who spoke privately with UPI do not consider it implausible that men and women in space have on occasion engaged in traditional off-hours paired recreational activities. "I'd be astonished if it hasn't happened," one told UPI, "and it's nobody else's business."
But these same space medical experts said it was easy to recognize the Internet report of an official experiment as a hoax. There is no such NASA program looking at psychological aspects of long-duration space flight. And they agreed with Welch's assertion that the alleged document's identification number wasn't even consistent with NASA standards. Houston space center official Eileen Hawley also pointed out that the cited shuttle mission, STS-75, had carried seven men and no women.
Seddon, an medical doctor who made three shuttle missions between 1985 and 1993, was a specialist in space medical experiments and now serves on one of NASA's advisory councils for life science research. "I have never heard of any experiments that even vaguely resemble those mentioned in the article," she told UPI.
She found the entire idea of sexual space experiments implausible: "I cannot imagine that the many review panels that must approve research on the Shuttle would ever let this go forward, that any crew members would sign up for it or that any Shuttle Commander would allow it to be a part of his or her flight," she went on.
Seddon concluded: "All astronauts are serious, professional people who work very hard to make sure the time they are given in space is used in the most efficient and responsible way."
Welch expressed similar exasperation at the news stories. "What is frustrating about this is that these news agencies didn't bother to call NASA to check on the story," he told UPI. "NASA has officially asked Agence France Presse for a retraction of its story," he added.
"There's no reason that American taxpayers should have to watch their civil servants having to bat down these silly rumors," he concluded.
I cant help but find this funny.
:thumbsup:
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