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NASA Puts A Stop To Space Romance

Posted by Zonk on from the heinlein-rolling-in-his-grave dept.

electro-donkey writes "According to a New Scientist article, romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail long-haul space trips. A top-level NASA panel has decided, though it could alleviate boredom, space sex could cause trouble too. On a mission to Mars, for example, which would take up to 30 months, sexual conflict or infidelity could lead to a 'breakdown in crew functioning'."

2 of 431 comments (clear)

  1. From TFA by putko · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fine to make such a well-considered policy -- but if the astronauts are like these brutes, they'll ignore the rules and revert to their natural behavior:

    "Sexual harassment may also endanger a mission. In an 8-month space station simulation on Earth in 2000, a Russian man twice tried to kiss a Canadian woman researcher just after two other Russians had gotten into a bloody brawl. As a result, locks were installed between the Russian and international crews' compartments."

    --
    http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_s tone_your_children/dt21_18a.html
  2. Re:Geez... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    No space sex?

    TFA (yeah, I read it) doesn't say anything about banning space sex. That's something made up for the Slashdot headline.

    The first paragraph of the article sums it up pretty well "Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers."

    So a panel of researchers want to 'study' sex and romantic entaglements. Nice work if you can get it, but no 'ban' implied.

    First actually-read-the-article post.