SEX in space is possible, though bonking astronauts will have to battle through a low sex drive and erectile dysfunction, experts claim.
Speaking to Russian outlet Sputnik News this week, space researchers discussed the challenges that couples might face on trips to alien worlds.
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Rompers will have to learn how to connect body parts in weightlessness, as well as fit in time for lovemaking around their busy work schedules.
While the challenges may sound insurmountable, cosmic coitus will be necessary if humanity is to stand any chance of colonising other planets.
“Yes, [sex in space] is possible,” Kira Bacal, a physician and scientist who worked as a clinical consultant for Nasa, told Sputnik.
“Humans have been having sexual relations in all sorts of weird and wonderful and odd places, I think, since our species began.”
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While spacefarers will have the opportunity to come up with a range of creative new positions, they’ll need a good grip of Newtonian physics, first.
That’s because, in microgravity, if you push on someone, you both go in different directions, Bacal said.
That will make sex among the stars a nightmare to coordinate – though you could get around this by tethering one partner down, she added.
Astronauts also won’t have much free time to flirt during long-distance flights, she added, and will live in cramped conditions.
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That may make it difficult to strike up an intimate relationship with others due to a lack of privacy.
All of this will likely leave astronauts with a low sex drive, according to Bacal.
“I think that a lot of the libido and sex drive for many will be somewhat reduced by the other factors that we’ve talked about by being far from home, by having in most cases a fairly busy work schedule,” she said.
“You have moonlight, but it’s not exactly candlelight. So, it’s not a very romantic setting. And you simply may not have accessible mating candidates.”
As if that wasn’t enough, getting an erection in space may prove one small step too many for blokes.
When you spend a long time in weightlessness, your body changes quite drastically, explained Dr Adam Watkins, a reproductive biologist at the University of Nottingham.
“There’s a recent study that shows that the hearts of astronauts are actually smaller than it is on Earth,” he told Sputnik.
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“We see that our blood vessels, muscles may well change.
“That may influence the ability to get an erection and maintain an erection, obviously critical for successful intercourse.”
Despite all the challenges faced by romancing spacefarers, Bacal said that she expects it to become the new-normal for astronauts.
As space travel becomes more common, having sex off-world may even become the new “Mile High Club”, she joked.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
