|
We'd Be on Mars if You People Could Just Stop Bonking Each Other for a Second...
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Renegade |
Oh human beings. What natural biological inclinations won't you let get in the way of space exploration.
| quote: | Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions
Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers.
NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2018 and later on to Mars. But a round-trip mission to the Red Planet would probably last at least 30 months and carry six to eight people. That would be a hotbed for intense crew relationships, says a report by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
"With the prospect of a very long-term mission, it's hard to ignore the question of sexuality," says Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an author of the report. It reviewed NASA's plans for research to keep astronauts safe and healthy in space – but the plans make no mention of sexual issues in spaceflight.
Palinkas says long-term space missions may be similar to extended periods in the isolated and confined environments of Antarctic research stations. He says crews in those stations often pair up in "bachelor marriages" that last the length of their stay – or less. "If there are instances of sexual conflict or infidelity, that may lead to a breakdown in crew functioning," he told New Scientist.
Alleviating boredom
"Breakups can lead to violence and all kinds of things," agrees Carol Rinkleib Ellison, a psychologist specialising in sexuality and intimacy based in Oakland, California, US, who was not part of the NAS panel. "People are very primitive in their emotions around partnering and sex."
Sexual harassment may also endanger a mission. In an 8-month space station simulation on Earth in 2000, a Russian man twice tried to kiss a Canadian woman researcher just after two other Russians had gotten into a bloody brawl. As a result, locks were installed between the Russian and international crews' compartments.
Palinkas says such problems may be minimised by training astronauts ahead of time in how to deal with stressful situations or by having them speak with psychologists on the ground in group therapy sessions. "You'd deal with it basically the same way you would with any potential crew tension and conflict," he says.
But he says sex may also benefit missions by creating "a sense of stability or normalisation". Ellison agrees, saying sex or masturbation could help alleviate boredom and anxiety on the long, lonely journeys through space.
"It could help or hinder, depending on how many people you've got, their relationship, and what it means to them," she told New Scientist.
Zero-g spot
Ellison says NASA should study the likely effects of taking couples up on long missions, as well as issues of sexual orientation and fertility. She suggests individual differences in sex drive could also be used to choose crews for Mars missions.
"One could perhaps select for people who seem to have less need for sex, or at least don't use sex as a form of self-validation," Ellison says.
Beyond that, she adds, NASA should consider the practical issues of out-of-this world sex. "How do you have sex in weightlessness?" she ask. "And there's a lack of privacy – often they're monitoring pulse rate and temperature. I don't know how that would be handled."
The NAS report also calls for NASA to study the effects of cultural differences on how crews function and quantify the amount of radiation astronauts will face on long-duration space missions. |
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8195
I say that if I can go 8 months at a time without sex then they can bloody well do it too. :mad: |
|
|
| Sunflower |
| quote: | Originally posted by Renegade
Oh human beings. What natural biological inclinations won't you let get in the way of space exploration.
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8195
I say that if I can go 8 months at a time without sex then they can bloody well do it too. :mad: |
The article said 30 months though.... can you do that? :D |
|
|
| Renegade |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sunflower
The article said 30 months though.... can you do that? :D |
I'll let you know in about three weeks... :(
(Just kidding... barely.) |
|
|
| Q5echo |
that's a pretty exclusive club doin the hibbidy-dibbidy in space.
i wonder what my ding-dong would look like in a vacuum?
oh wait! i already know.:( |
|
|
| Purple |
| quote: | Originally posted by Renegade
I say that if I can go 8 months at a time without sex then they can bloody well do it too. :mad: |
You must have masturbated sometimes dont you? |
|
|
| kush paintings |
| Don't worry renegade, if I had sex at this point I feel like I'd be cheating on my hand. Im right there with you. |
|
|
| josh4 |
| Dude, did you just say "bonking"? |
|
|
| Shakka |
| So far we have "bonking" and "hibbidy-dibbidy" in the same thread. Any others? Bumpin' uglies? Knockin' boots? |
|
|
| Fir3start3r |
I can't wait for the game, "Spore".
I'm simply going to kill everyone else on my planet so I can get down to it and be the most technologically advanced species in my corner of the galaxy...
:p :disbelief :thepirate |
|
|
| Renegade |
Frankly I don't think any of you are taking this topic of inter-stellar hanky-panky seriously enough. Sure we can make light of people wanting to slip their body parts into each other, but do you really think that these snide comments will be of any benefit to NASA when the time comes to send procreating organisms to Mars? Seriously, I think if we're ever going to make it to the universe unseen then we're gonna need to draw up a fairly concise list of priorities with regards to having sexual intercourse and not having sexual intercourse in the context of long space trips. I'll even save you the time and divise it myself:
LIST OF PRIORITIES (NASA - LET'S GO TO MARS DIVISION)
It's time to get serious, ladies of the world. Stop having sex with NASA scientists, PLEASE. The inexorable march of human progress depends on you. |
|
|
| Shakka |
| quote: | Originally posted by Renegade
Frankly I don't think any of you are taking this topic of inter-stellar hanky-panky seriously enough. Sure we can make light of people wanting to slip their body parts into each other, but do you really think that these snide comments will be of any benefit to NASA when the time comes to send procreating organisms to Mars? Seriously, I think if we're ever going to make it to the universe unseen then we're gonna need to draw up a fairly concise list of priorities with regards to having sexual intercourse and not having sexual intercourse in the context of long space trips. I'll even save you the time and divise it myself:
LIST OF PRIORITIES (NASA - LET'S GO TO MARS DIVISION)
It's time to get serious, ladies of the world. Stop having sex with NASA scientists, PLEASE. The inexorable march of human progress depends on you. |
OK, in all honesty, the whole premise sounds really dumb on the surface. Hell, it's a blatant excuse to film some zero-gravity astronaut smut (I can just see the footage leaking our). I guess one salient point they might study is in incidents of breakups or episodes of jealousy and how they might completely derail a mission. Hell, I dunno, but 30 months is way too much time to go without clearing out the soldiers and I guess some folks just aren't comfortable with the idea of a circle-jerk.
Who knows, maybe this is related to Stephen Hawking recently saying that mankind must aggressively expand into space if it is to survive (though he does tend to think in light years--n'yunk n'yuk). |
|
|
| Q5echo |
send couples up.
embrace the fact that the inevitable is going to happen. embrace the idea that having a couple that can really work, train and love together for at least three years can be beneficial to the mission as a whole.
have them bond while they are here. train together. monitor their progress in the relationship like you would the rest of their training using scientific and social study whenever appropriate. when ready, take advantage of the ideal window of oppurtunity a couple has in the critical first years of an intense relationship.
just throwin it out there.
(btw i was just kidding earlier about my d**k being in a vacuum. never done that) |
|
|
|
|
