noe@sunc6.cs.uiuc.edu (Roger Noe) (05/26/91)
Follow-ups redirected to sci.space.shuttle. In a previous article I claimed that NASA's position regarding whether or not a specific married couple, both astronauts, engaged in sexual activity while together on the space shuttle would be "it's none of our business." In article <19743@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> jclark@sdcc6.ucsd.edu (John Clark) writes: >But the scientific data and its use on long space fights >would be invalueable. On the contrary, this "scientific data" would not be valuable, at least not for the forseeable future. Presently the only crewed U.S. space vehicle is the shuttle, which is absolutely limited to less than two weeks on orbit. I'm doubtful that NASA will be operating any longer duration crewed space vehicles within the next 20 years, although there is still a slim possibility of a continuously occupied space station toward the end of that time frame. What did you have in mind? Multigenerational voyages to the stars? Not in the next 100 years, most likely "never." Until someone discovers warp drive there's little purpose in it. >Again the mechanics are important since a simple thing as a spilt >glass of milk (I know there are glasses up there but I'm sure can >imagine the situation) could waft droplets throughout the ship. I think you overestimate the potential problems. The mechanics of sex underwater are difficult, but only because of breathing equipment which tends to get in the way, and safety considerations peculiar to the underwater environment. The neutral buoyancy, which closely resembles the microgravity environment, makes sex considerably easier so far as mechanics are concerned. Issues of containment of liquids are also not difficult to solve. These issues are certainly not as complex or serious as those involving human ingestion and elimination. Certainly no formal "experimentation" is required. There are many more serious and challenging problems of human presence in the microgravity environment. -- Roger Noe roger-noe@uiuc.edu Department of Computer Science noe@cs.uiuc.edu University of Illinois 40:06:39 N. 88:13:41 W. Urbana, IL 61801 USA