Sunday, 2 August 2015

Is it possible to have sex in space?

Space Exploration is painstaking and exceedingly ponderous, given our current technology and our frighteningly enormous universe. If there is a need for us to leave our planet on account of, say, some global cataclysm, then we ought to build a spacecraft that would mimic something I'd like to call a ‘portable Earth', and would be able to accommodate as many civilians as possible, and could provide an environment like that of Earth’s in order to sustain our ordinary day-to-day activities. If you've seen the movie ‘WALL-E', then you'd know what I'm talking about. But since our journey will take tens of thousands of years at the least, we have to reproduce en-route so that our race doesn’t disappear by the time we get there. I mentioned that the spacecraft would provide an environment like that of the Earth's, and so, having sex aboard this ‘portable Earth' isn’t much of an impediment.

Consider another scenario, wherein a man and a woman aboard a spacecraft orbiting the Earth are yearning for sexual intercourse. Would they enjoy having sex in this spacecraft's microgravity environment? The answer is, of course not. Down here on Earth, couples have proper supports (bed, couch, etc.) on which they can copulate with ease, and with pleasure too! Their weights are being counteracted by the normal reactions of their supports, with the help of which they can perform all sorts of ‘stuff'. But in microgravity, they have no weight, which means no normal reactions. So, due to the absence of supports, they cannot perform any kind of sexual activity involving pushes or pulls. And that’s not all. If they decide to have sex while floating around in this environment, they will definitely collide with other obstacles in their vicinity, and his may lead to mechanical damages, or even injuries.

Also, the weightlessness hampers the uniform circulation of blood throughout the body, and tends to pool around the chest and head, which is probably why those ISS astronauts always look so puffy-faced. This makes it increasingly difficult for male erections, on account of the change in blood flow. We all know that couples tend to sweat while performing intercourse, but that isn't much of a problem down here on Earth. In microgravity, sweat tends to form a sticky and unpleasant film over your skin, which doesn't sound so good and is quite off-putting.

     Getting pregnant during inter-planetary voyages is exceedingly risky, due to the effects of microgravity on bone-development of newborns. Fetal development is also affected in space. Bones, muscles, and neurology will simply not mature properly without the Earth's gravity. Human hormones and even sperm motility are affected by a lack of gravity, so becoming pregnant in space is generally considered a huge no-no.


Shreyas Dahale

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