Sex in space

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The actress Vanna Bonta with her husband in the moment of microgravity during a flight with the G-Force One for recordings for the documentary series Secrets of the Universe (Season 3, No. 4: Reproduction in Space ) with the 2suit

As sex in space (even sex in space ; english sex in space ) is the human intercourse in the weightlessness referred.

Problem

Even if the space agencies have so far hardly discussed them publicly, considerations about future long-term missions in space raise questions regarding the sexual intercourse between astronauts in research. A mission to Mars planned by NASA would take around 30 months for a crew of six to eight people. Under such circumstances, strong relationships are inevitable, according to the US National Academy of Sciences . According to Lawrence Palinkas, an anthropologist at the University of Southern California , when looking at lengthy missions it is impossible to ignore the question of sexuality. Paul Root Wolpe, bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania and NASA advisor from 2001, also stated that sooner or later the space agency would have to deal with the issue.

As early as 1973, Isaac Asimov had considered the associated possibilities and risks. In 1976 a publication appeared in the Soviet Union on the reproductive system of rats after a space flight. Pawel Morgunow, spokesman for the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP), confirmed in 2007 that sexual intercourse and the associated reproduction will be a problem to be solved in the future. The physicist and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke claimed: "Weightlessness will lead to new forms of eroticism." As a desirable effect, the practice of sex can, according to experts, stimulate and promote balance in the boring everyday life on long-term missions. In addition to biological aspects, there are also ethical issues to be considered , especially when it comes to reproduction . Since the long-term goal of space travel is to find and colonize a habitable planet outside of the solar system , it may be necessary to multiply in order to preserve the species over decades of flights.

Investigations

As far as is known, there have been no studies of sexual intercourse between humans in space. There is also no evidence of sex practiced between astronauts in space. In 2001, the Russian cosmonaut Talghat Mussabaev stated in an interview with the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta that contrary to rumors to the contrary, sexual intercourse in space had not yet taken place. The German astronaut Ulrich Walter said in 2011: "So be confident, there has never been sex in the shuttle and on the American part of the space station."

In 2010, a report by the science author Pierre Kohler in his book La Dernière Mission caused a sensation , among other things the Guardian reported on it. Reference was made to a NASA documentation (no. 12-571-3570) that was published on November 28, 1989 by a Usenet group (alt.sex) and according to which astronauts on an STS mission had various sex positions in 1996 have been tested. The NASA report later turned out to be a hoax . As early as March 2010, NASA's spokesman Brian Welch had described the document as a well-known urban legend .

However, studies on sexual intercourse in space have been carried out several times on animals. For example, Russian scientists studied the effect of weightlessness on the sex life of animals on board the spacecraft Foton-M . The satellite carried geckos , fruit flies and microbes . It was launched on July 19, 2014 and instead of the planned eight, it only stayed in space for six weeks (around 500 kilometers above the earth's surface). The fruit flies had multiplied; the geckos had frozen to death due to technical problems.

regulate

According to the Astronaut Code of Professional Responsibility , NASA astronauts are committed to constant honorable behavior. The Crew Code of Conduct of the International Space Station stipulates: "No crew member of the ISS should show through his or her behavior that certain people are preferred on the mission." In a NASA guide to crew health published in 2007, the topic becomes Sexuality not addressed. Richard Williams, the person responsible for the health of the astronauts, also declined further discussion. Sexual intercourse does not affect health in space, but is a question of behavior, which in turn falls within the regulatory competence of other colleagues.

Realization of sexual activity

Weightlessness would make sexual intercourse in space considerably more difficult. According to Ulrich Walter, the libido is severely restricted in the first few days of being in space, as the hormone balance must first adapt to the new environment: “Nothing works there. During the ten-day shuttle flight we thought of everything, just not one thing. ”Due to the elimination of gravity and the associated higher blood content in the upper body, weightlessness often leads to long-term discomfort and headache.

In addition to the general malaise, the poorer blood circulation in the abdomen in men would lead to erection problems according to Harald Lesch . But even if an erection were possible after adapting to the circumstances, problems with sexual intercourse could arise due to the lack of traction . The University of Massachusetts biologist Athena Adreadis wrote in the British Daily Mail : “Sex in weightlessness is very difficult. You don't have any pulling power and you keep bumping into walls. ”The pushing movement would force the two partners apart. The act could only be carried out with aids. Suggested variants are an inflatable tunnel into which the couple slips, or the connection with elastic straps. As early as 1992, a teacher from Easton, Massachusetts, patented a construction of such straps that should enable sexual intercourse in weightlessness. Raymond Noonan of the Sex Institute in New York said that using this system could be helpful in relieving astronauts' flight stress.

Another variant discussed is tying one partner to a pole while the other, active person can move freely while holding onto other holding poles on the ceiling. Alternatively, models were discussed that, analogous to the act of copulation in dolphins, involve a third person to support the couple. Against the loss of blood pressure in the legs, the Soviet space agency has Chibis -Hose developed; it uses negative pressure to improve blood circulation in the abdomen. The use of the chibi pants is said to increase sexual arousal considerably.

Risk of fertilization

Sexual intercourse in space also raises questions of an ethical nature. The Kazakh cosmonaut Talgat Musabaev stated that sex should not take place because of unknown risks in a possible pregnancy: "We do not know what consequences this would have for an embryo."

Kerry Walton, a New York neurologist , believes babies conceived and born in space are viable - but not on Earth. In his opinion, muscles, the heart, the immune system and the bone structure would then be too weak to survive. It is known that spending months on space stations can cause considerable damage to the human body (especially muscles and bones) of adults, and that this would affect children to a greater extent as they grow. Birth in space is also hard to imagine. Athena Adreadis: "Giving birth under zero gravity is hell."

Incidents

Sexual incidents in space are not known. During an eight-month simulation of life in a space station on Earth in 2000, a Canadian scientist was harassed by a Russian team member. Lawrence Palinkas expects that long-term missions in space will lead to situations comparable to long stays at isolated research stations in Antarctica . Sexual relationships between team members regularly develop there. In September 1992, the couple Mark Charles Lee and Nancy Jan Davis took part in the space shuttle mission STS-47 . They got married while they were training on mission. In order to rule out the possibility of sexual contact, the two astronauts were continuously deployed on two different work shifts. Frank Schätzing claimed in October 2009 that there were rumors that there had been affairs between Russian and American astronauts.

In June 2015 it was announced that the Internet platform PornHub would like to finance a porn shoot in space using crowdfunding .

public perception

The question of sexual activity in space is repeatedly discussed in public. The writer Frank Schätzing regularly speculates with humor about it in his appearances. Joachim Fuchsberger chatted in front of his television audience about sex in weightlessness as early as 1985.

Michael Collins , a member of the Apollo 11 crew, jokingly commented on the benefits of weightlessness:

“No need to wear bras in space, that much is certain [...] Imagine a spaceship of the future with a crew of a thousand women [...] with two thousand breasts that rock and tremble wonderfully [...] and that's me Commander of the ship; it is Saturday morning and time for the inspection. "

- Quote from: Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles: Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. Basic Books, New York 2003.

The billionaire Richard Branson , who wants to offer tourist space flights with his spaceships Virgin Galactic and SpaceShipTwo , expects these flights to be a sexual pioneer: “Who will be the first couple to have sex in space? Weightless sex, that would be something. "

In the German-language edition of History Channel , an episode of the TV documentary series Secrets of the Universe from 2009 was devoted to reproduction in space (season 3, episode 4).

Various films took up the theme: Moonraker , Moving Violations , Supernova , Cube 2: Hypercube and Alien . In a broader sense, the 1968 tarnished in theaters film can Barbarella by Roger Vadim be expected to do so.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Original quote: “ With the prospect of a very long-term mission, it's hard to ignore the question of sexuality ” in: Maggie McKee: Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions. In: New Scientist , Space, October 21, 2005 (English).
  2. ↑ a b When it comes to sex, NASA gets out . In: Die Welt , May 14, 2007.
  3. ↑ a b Jonathan Margolis: O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm. ISBN 978-0-8021-4216-0 , Grove Press, 2005, p. 358. (English).
  4. ↑ a b Simone Schlindwein: Sex in the space station: Can men in space? In: Spiegel Online , December 8, 2007.
  5. ↑ Original quote: “ Weightlessness will bring new forms of erotica ” in: TA Heppenheimer, Colonies in Space, Chapter 11: What's to Do on Saturday Night? , 1977 on the website of the National Space Society (English)
  6. ^ Maggie McKee: History Channel to air special on 'sex in space'. In: New Scientist , December 17, 2008 (English).
  7. ↑ But no sex in space. On: Wissenschaft.de of June 2, 2001 (based on a report from dpa ).
  8. ↑ a b Ulrich Walter, Sex in Space - Typically American. N24 , September 11, 2013.
  9. ^ Pierre Kohler, La Dernière Mission. ISBN 2-7021-3080-1 , Calmann-Levy, 2000 (French).
  10. ^ Robert A. Freitas Jr., Sex in Space , Commentary on Original Publication in Sexology Today , Apr 1983, pp. 58-64. In English
  11. ^ Jon Henley, Astronauts test sex in space - but did the earth move? , The Guardian , February 2000.
  12. ^ "The 100,000-Mile-High Club" ( January 9, 2006 memento on the Internet Archive ) , Wired
  13. ↑ Sex in space. Or not , The Guardian, January 2010.
  14. ^ David Schmader: Last Days. In: The Stranger , February 22, 2000 (English).
  15. ↑ Frozen geckos: Sex experiment in space ends fatally , Spiegel Online , September 2, 2014.
  16. ↑ Original quote: “ No ISS Crew Member shall, by his or her conduct, act in a manner which results in or creates the appearance of: 1) giving undue preferential treatment to any person or entity in the performance of ISS activities;… ” In : Code of Conduct for the International Space Station Crew ( Memento from June 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). P. 5.
  17. ↑ Severely restricted libido. In: Der Spiegel , edition 27/1997 of June 30, 1997, p. 165.
  18. ^ Alan Boyle, Outer space sex carries complications , July 24, 2006, NBC News.com .
  19. ↑ Harald Lesch: Bad Vibrations - Sex in Space. In: The extraterrestrial is only human: unheard of scientific explanations. Knaus, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8135-0382-1
  20. ↑ a b c Clemens Mach, Sex in Space , raumfahrer.net, January 5, 2002.
  21. ↑ a b c Sex in weightlessness causes problems , Hessische / Niedersächsische Allgemeine , October 4, 2011.
  22. ↑ Nina Zeller: Sex in Space: No Blood in the Genitals ( Memento from March 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: Get lucky.
  23. ↑ Bernd Schuh : The sky is empty . In: Deutschlandfunk . Posted on April 10, 2011.
  24. ↑ No sex in space. In: Berliner Zeitung , June 2, 2001.
  25. ↑ a b Maggie McKee: Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions . In: New Scientist . October 21, 2005 (English).
  26. ↑ Frank Schätzing in an interview: “Cowards or fools” . In: Frankfurter Rundschau . October 3, 2009.
  27. ↑ derStandard.at - Pornhub wants to finance porn shootings in space with crowdfunding . Article dated June 11, 2015, accessed June 16, 2015.
  28. ↑ Andrea Herdegen: Sex in space is possible. In: Frankenpost , February 5, 2014.
  29. ↑ Der Stern , Volume 38, Issue 46–52, 1985.
  30. ↑ Michael Collins: Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journey. Charles A. Lindbergh (Eds.), Rowman & Littlefield, 2001, ISBN 0-8154-1028-X .
  31. ↑ Original quote: “ No need to carry bras into space, that's for sure […] Imagine a spacecraft of the future, with a crew of a thousand ladies ... with two thousand breasts bobbing beautifully and quivering delightfully […] and I am the commander of the craft, and it is Saturday morning and time for inspection, naturally. ”In a book review by Natalie Angier Building The Spatial Village . In: The New York Times . Category: Books , September 9, 2003.
  32. ↑ The original English quote is from an issue of Playboy magazine , Winklevoss twins buy space flight with Bitcoin , in News magazine , March 7, 2014.
  33. ↑ History Explores the Secrets of the Universe ( Memento April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , press release on the Universal Networks website , April 28, 2009.
  34. ↑ Wiebke Brauer: Barbarella: Half-naked in space. In: Spiegel Online - One Day , August 13, 2008.