Monday, July 24, 2006

Treating Sex In Space With Gravity

Scientists advise down-to-earth-approach to feasibility of orbital flings.

“Sex in micro-g might be a little underwhelming. That is, the fantasy might be vastly superior to the reality. It’s a pretty messy environment…for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction,” Logan told an attentive audience over the weekend at the NewSpace 2006 meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada, sponsored by the Space Frontier Foundation.

Sex in zero-g is going to have to be more or less choreographed, “otherwise it’s just going to be a wild fling,” Logan advised. But for those looking forward to space migration and setting up self-perpetuating civilizations off-Earth, the space physician raised several warning flags.


It makes perfect sense, of course, but I never considered the necessity of gravity for proper skeletal development in fetuses, for example, and movement in babies after birth. Yeah, I can see how that might be a problem in setting up space colonies with long-term "native" growth potential.

And am I the only one who finds the employment in this article of such phrases as "front and center" and "tall pole in the tent" just a teeny bit suggestive, even provocative, given the the headline and general context?