Day 5
Yes, we actually talked about whether or not sex in space is possible. We also talked about galaxies and star formations and dark matter. There were a lot of physics involved in that talk, a lot of which I didn't understand, and a lot of which I'm sure you don't care about. I will get to the good stuff...
The notion of sex in space sounds so kinky. A new horizon to accomplish. There have actually been some attempts to get tourism into space with the claim that sex up there would be a new frontier to experience. After hearing that lecture, coupled with the effects of space on the human body, I'm content doing it right here on Earth.
The first obstacle you have to overcome is Newton's 3rd Law. As a refresher, that's the one that states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That means, when your partner goes to thrust, you are both going to be pushed across the room, not stopping until you run into something, perhaps painfully.
So what do you do? Well, either one of you or both of you could be tied down. Yes, that brings a whole new element to bondage, and who knows if NASA will let you bring your whip with you. Or, you could include a third in your adventures (apparently dolphins do this since a water environment isn't much different than space). That could be interesting.
The mechanics of doing it in space are definitely plausible, and there have been mixed gender crews that have gone up. There was even a husband and wife team on the shuttle. Whether or not they did anything, no one is saying. But there are some downsides to doing it.
First of all, who knows if you'll actually have the energy. Remember, when you get into space, you loose muscle and bone mass, along with fluids. With that comes certain side effects. In men, the most noticeable is a drop in testosterone levels. With the loss of bone mass, fractures might happen more easily. We had a long discussion about penile fractures. I'm not going to delve into what happens there, and, trust me, you don't really want details.
Secondly, you are in very close quarters. Will you even get the privacy you need to accomplish the task? That's not even mentioning Space Adaption Syndrome, which occurs to 2/3 of trained astronauts. It basically is motion sickness in space. How sexy do you feel when you are about to throw up or have a major headache or feel dizzy?
Then, to turn you off even more, all the fluids that are produced during intercourse have nowhere to go in space. Well, they have somewhere to go, and that is condensing in the air that you are living and working in. Can you imagine floating through beads of sweat that were created during the heat of passion? Just sweat, I don't even want to go into the other fluids! Does doing it in space still sound exciting to you?
That's just the act. After our little lecture, I definitely don't recommend getting pregnant in space, although it has happened. They've sent rats and fish up, and they have reproduced successfully. However, the female rats absorbed the fertilized eggs back into their bodies, and when the males got back to Earth and mated with Earth-bound females, the offspring had a high amount of birth defects. The radiation in space will do that to sperm.
I don't want to get into the effects of space on pregnancy and kids, that's a whole other blog post, but just know there are some serious side effects. If you are interested, post a comment and let me know, I'll get into it tomorrow!
Until then, I have a guest post coming up this afternoon and one tomorrow. You can access the first one here.
