According to SPACE.com, NASA officials have said that sex between their astronauts has never taken place. Even so, the recent announcement by Inspiration Mars Foundation to send a married couple on a 501-day manned mission around Mars in 2018 suggests the first case of human sex in space may be around the corner.
But would it be safe?
“Sex is very difficult in zero gravity, apparently, because you have no traction and you keep bumping against the walls,” biologist Athena Andreadis of the University of Massachusetts Medical School told SPACE.com in 2011. “Think about it: you have no friction, you have no resistance.”
In addition to the mechanical difficulties of completing the act, actually conceiving and delivering a child in space could be “downright dangerous,” SPACE.com reports.
“There are many risks to conception in low or microgravity, such as ectopic pregnancy,” said Laura Woodmansee, author of the book “Sex in Space” (Collector’s Guide Publishing, Inc., 2006). “And, without the protection of the Earth’s atmosphere, the higher radiation levels raise the probability of birth defects.”
Yikes, okay. We’ll keep it in our pants until touch-down then.
[Source: LiveScience]
