Astronaut Sex

[Aggie87]

Astronauts test sex in space - but did the earth move?

US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.

Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.

"The issue of sex in space is a serious one," he says. "The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity."

He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere.

Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. "Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version."

Only four positions were found possible without "mechanical assistance". The other six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag.

Mr Kohler says: "One of the principal findings was that the classic so-called missionary position, which is so easy on earth when gravity pushes one downwards, is simply not possible."

[J Larsen]

Surprised to see this resurface in the news; this is the result of a misinterpreted inside joke from many years ago that Kohler has been trying to cash in on ever since:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/sex/a/astronauts_sex.htm

Edit: See also here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Document_12-571-3570

Looking back over the details, it seems this is actually just an outright hoax as opposed to a misinterpreted joke. The way I remembered it the document Kohler points to as his sole evidence was written as a joke by someone at NASA. Apparently it is now alleged that Kohler made everything up.

Edited December 3, 2007 by J Larsen

[clifford_thornton]

Hell, my girl takes me to the moon -

[Jazzmoose]

What happened? They had sex with guinea pigs???

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Ask any handy Science Fiction novellist.

MG

[AllenLowe]

"Only four positions were found possible without "mechanical assistance"."

well, in that case, they're doing beter than I am -

"The other six needed a special elastic belt and inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag."

No shit, I've been using that stuff for years -

[MoGrubb]

Sex In Space would make a good tv sitcom.

[Larry Kart]

Ask any handy Science Fiction novellist.

MG

"handy"?

[J Larsen]

space program is bullshit codename for MILITARIZATION OF SPACE

For the most part, I agree with that, especially with regards to the manned space flight program.

the fucking well ought to (so to speak) have studied this at SOME point, bc it is a real question/issue.

Why is it a real issue? Space colonization is a nice pipe dream, but the realities of living outside the protection of the earth's magnetic field for any real length of time and the pratical difficulties in compensating for the lack of that protection are unlikely to be overcome. This has never been adequately explained to the public. The physics community tried to, when Bush was pushing his ridiculous men to mars program pre-9/11, but the media weren't interested in listening to the party poopers.

any of you flyboys know offhand if any research has been done & acknowledged?

There are rumors of a little hanky panky on the ISS, but nothing on the clock.

[Free For All]

Sex In Space would make a good tv sitcom.

Yeah! And you could have the Geico caveman guys as the astronauts, and while they're having sex in space, they accidently bump the controls and go back in time and have sex in space with famous dead people, like Columbus or Francis Bavier. And the hilarity ensues*!

*Of course, you'd have to find some part for Fred Willard

[Jim Alfredson]

Why is it a real issue? Space colonization is a nice pipe dream, but the realities of living outside the protection of the earth's magnetic field for any real length of time and the pratical difficulties in compensating for the lack of that protection are unlikely to be overcome. This has never been adequately explained to the public. The physics community tried to, when Bush was pushing his ridiculous men to mars program pre-9/11, but the media weren't interested in listening to the party poopers.

Okay, I'll bite: Why is living outside the magnectic field worse than living outside the earth's atmosphere?

[AllenLowe]

"have sex in space with famous dead people, like Columbus or Francis Bavier"

now I'm getting hot - question is, do they have to be alive again to have sex with you, or it sufficent to have sex with Aunt Bee post-mortem? I'm not really sure which would be worse - though I have heard rumors that Columbus, in moments of great passion, was said to have screamed "I have discovered the New World!"

[J Larsen]

Why is it a real issue? Space colonization is a nice pipe dream, but the realities of living outside the protection of the earth's magnetic field for any real length of time and the pratical difficulties in compensating for the lack of that protection are unlikely to be overcome. This has never been adequately explained to the public. The physics community tried to, when Bush was pushing his ridiculous men to mars program pre-9/11, but the media weren't interested in listening to the party poopers.

Okay, I'll bite: Why is living outside the magnectic field worse than living outside the earth's atmosphere?

When you put it that way, it isn't worse. But replicating the earth's low-altitude atmosphere is a relatively simple technological problem. The earth's magnetic field enables advanced life by deflecting the hordes of alpha particles, electrons and protons spewed out by the sun as a consequence of fusion reactions. Replicating this is far more difficult. You'd have to encase the spacecraft in so much led that no current rocket could get it off the ground (and it is worth noting that a vehicle this massive would be very difficult to maneuver). You'd have a similar problem designing space suits that provided adequate protection.

[MoGrubb]

Sex In Space would make a good tv sitcom.

Yeah! And you could have the Geico caveman guys as the astronauts, and while they're having sex in space, they accidently bump the controls and go back in time and have sex in space with famous dead people, like Columbus or Francis Bavier. And the hilarity ensues*!

*Of course, you'd have to find some part for Fred Willard

Fred could be the director/camera man, and later insert narration.

Finally, genius is recognized.

[AllenLowe]

"and later insert narration"

-among other things -

[Jim Alfredson]

Why is it a real issue? Space colonization is a nice pipe dream, but the realities of living outside the protection of the earth's magnetic field for any real length of time and the pratical difficulties in compensating for the lack of that protection are unlikely to be overcome. This has never been adequately explained to the public. The physics community tried to, when Bush was pushing his ridiculous men to mars program pre-9/11, but the media weren't interested in listening to the party poopers.

Okay, I'll bite: Why is living outside the magnectic field worse than living outside the earth's atmosphere?

When you put it that way, it isn't worse. But replicating the earth's low-altitude atmosphere is a relatively simple technological problem. The earth's magnetic field enables advanced life by deflecting the hordes of alpha particles, electrons and protons spewed out by the sun as a consequence of fusion reactions. Replicating this is far more difficult. You'd have to encase the spacecraft in so much led that no current rocket could get it off the ground (and it is worth noting that a vehicle this massive would be very difficult to maneuver). You'd have a similar problem designing space suits that provided adequate protection.

Thanks. I kinda realized that after I posted. I remembered that the sun emits these massive solar flares now and again and it is the earth's magnetic field that reflects most of their nastiness away from the earth.

[BruceH]

Not to mention cosmic rays...

[porcy62]

Not to mention cosmic rays...

Cosmic rays? Are you kidding me? Cosmic rays are like Disneyland compared to this:

[porcy62]

And it might be even worse:

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Not to mention cosmic rays...

Cosmic rays? Are you kidding me? Cosmic rays are like Disneyland compared to this:

I thought it was a resording by Ray Charles & Milt Jackson

MG

[J Larsen]

Not to mention cosmic rays...

Cosmic rays are so energetic that the magnetic field doesn't do nearly as good of a job deflecting them, but yes there are those too. Come to think of it, it may be that the cosmic rays are so numerous that even though the geomagnetic field is less effective at deflecting them, that you are subjected to a larger increase in the number of cosmic rays when you leave the field than the increase experienced in particles emitted from the sun. I'm honestly not sure.

[Jazzmoose]

Yes, yes, but could we get back to the sex, please?

[Brownian Motion]

Oh well. At least there's still sex on Earth. Too little sex, too much procreation but hey, who's counting?

[7/4]

I thought Cosmic Rays is a pizza joint in the Village.

[porcy62]

Yes, yes, but could we get back to the sex, please?

Here we go!