heinleinblog

Valentine Michael Smith — the hero of Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land” — was the result of an extramarital affair during a long voyage to Mars. He ended up in the soup — literally.

NASA, according to this article anyway, is talking steps to make sure that doesn’t happen:

In the First World War, frontline troops who were away from their loved ones for long periods famously had bromide put into their tea to reduce the distraction of their sexual drive. But yesterday it was suggested that such measures might be taken a lot further – to Mars, in fact.

Dr Rachel Armstrong, speaking yesterday at a British Interplanetary Society symposium on the Human Future and Space, said the US space agency NASA was considering how to deal with the natural urges of astronauts travelling on long journeys such as a three-year trip to Mars, where the six-strong crew would be likely to include two women.

“NASA is talking about the chemical sterilization of astronauts on longer journeys,” Dr Armstrong said, in a talk discussing the problems humanity may face in trying to reach the planets and, eventually, the stars.

NASA was nonplussed by the suggestion yesterday. “I haven’t heard anything about that,” said a spokesman at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, where the long-range trips announced by President George Bush in January are being planned.

But that denial may hide a reluctance, in a nation where the showing of a nipple on national television provokes a religious outcry, to discuss the rather delicate subject of sex in space. Certainly, some scientists believe it is a topic that should be dealt with head on. Douglas Powell, a psychology professor at Harvard University who was recruited in 1999 by NASA to investigate the behavioral needs of long-term space trips, said: “Like anywhere, these are normal healthy people in their prime and they are sexually active so they are going to get involved with each other. So what’s going to happen in space? It’s a serious question and it needs to be confronted.”
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Interestingly, there is no NASA ban on sex between crew members. “We depend and rely on the professionalism and good judgement of our astronauts,” said a NASA spokesman in 2000. “There is nothing specifically or formally written down.”

And that may be part of the problem. A crew heading to Mars would potentially be away for three years: six months travelling out, two years on the Red Planet waiting for the Earth to come back into alignment for the six-month trip back.

The psychological strains of such a trip would be huge, noted Dr Joanna Wood of NASA’s National Space Biomedical Research Institute, who compares it with the isolation experienced by scientists in Antarctica. But they have the comparative luxury that they can be rescued if necessary. With a Mars trip, there comes a point of no return determined by fuel and the planets’ positions.

“Interpersonal relations is a big issue, but we leave sexual stuff to the discretion of the individuals,” said Dr Wood.

Heh heh heh. Her name is “Dr. Wood.”

Sorry. I’m having a Beavis and Butthead moment here.

Seriously, the article also discusses a rumor that two astronauts have already engaged in sex — at the behest of NASA scientists wanting to study the prospects of long-term survival in outer space

Boy, talk about taking one for the team.