Mars is for Lovers
The three-dolphin rhumba is getting some attention in light of the Moon-Mars plan.
The thrust of the article is that sexual urges and the associated interpersonal relationships between crewmembers could be distracting and possibly even dangerous on long missions, such as the manned missions to Mars proposed as part of the Bush plan.
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.
Why two? Why not an even split? Hey, why not five women and one very, very lucky engineer…
Ahem…
Anyway…the boffins have apparently developed some, er, “creative” solutions to this “problem”:
“Nasa is talking about the chemical sterilisation 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…
I’ll bet the conversations around the JSC water-coolers this week have been pretty interesting.
Other scientists have suggested that the best way to ensure there is no interplanetary interplay is to crew the mission with astronauts over the age of 50.
Ouch…
(And here is a PG-rated site with links to much more information on the subject.)
April 29th, 2004 at 9:08 am
Erotesian Mechanics
Last week I mentioned that I had fleshed out a more or less complete theory of erotesian mechanics, and hinted that someday I might publish it. Without giving away too many of the details, I will say that it includes…