Elon Musk doesn't just want to send people to Mars, the CEO of SpaceX has much more ambitious plans. According to his idea, humanity should create "interplanetary species", an independent civilization of colonists, which also implies such spicy aspects of human relationships as sex and pregnancy. But how will this work in space?
Given that Musk has not yet fully resolved the problem of human survival during interplanetary travel, it is unlikely that he has a clear plan for the further reproduction of humanity on the Red Planet. So far, we do not have any official data on how the human body will behave under the long-term influence of the space environment and in the conditions of an alien planet, but even the data that scientists have accumulated is enough to argue that sex in space is a very difficult process. …
As far as we know, no one has yet had sex in space, although the "space marriage" took place in the early 90s when astronauts Mark Lee and Nancy Jan Davis were secretly married before their flight. NASA generally prohibits couples from flying into space because it believes it could negatively affect the work of the entire team. Be that as it may, for those who plan to indulge in carnal pleasures in weightlessness, there are a number of physiological difficulties. Muscle degradation in space does not contribute to fruitful intercourse, and due to microgravity, partners will be very difficult to hold on to each other, as they will constantly fly apart if they do not fix themselves with an anchor. In addition, the speed of blood flow in space can be significantly reduced, which means that maintaining an erection will be problematic.
Due to the peculiarities of physics, all bodily fluids in zero gravity can simply collect in droplets and scatter throughout the ship. It's not for nothing that NASA doctor Jim Logan, in his story about the difficulties of copulation in zero gravity, said that there is a lot of choreography in this. But is it worth, in this case, to make a crew only of married couples? Musk believes the trip could take as little as 80 days, although in practice it could take up to 6 months. Cheryl Bishop, a researcher who studies human capabilities in extreme conditions, strongly opposes this. “If you send 10 married couples into space for 6 months, they may be completely different 10 couples upon your return. Do not forget about the possibility of polygamous relationships and adultery,which in the worst case will lead to breakdowns of marriages and in any case will negatively affect the overall morale of the team,”she shares her opinion.
In addition to sexual relationships, pregnancy in space is still a very poorly studied phenomenon. Cosmic radiation can negatively affect the fetus, but this is not the worst thing: even primitive tests on mice have shown that pregnancy is extremely difficult in microgravity conditions and leaves negative consequences for the mother's body. Insufficient blood supply, muscle weakness and many other factors can complicate the situation so much that, according to Bishop, all participants in long-term space travel should agree to sterilization, so that even in the case of strong sexual desire, the female half of the crew is not at risk. Perhaps in the future, when Mars is colonized and closed centers with its own gravity close to that of the Earth can be built on it,pregnancy on the Red Planet will become possible - but so far these are only hypotheses.
Vasily Makarov
