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NASA Puts A Stop To Space Romance
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'."
No space sex? Why the hell am I wasting my time at astronaut school, then?!
Just because you sold your soul to the devil that needn't make you a teetotaler. --The Devil and Daniel Webster
Haven't these people seen Star Trek? Kirk did it with every green woman in space, and that crew turned out fine...
Being an astronaut is about to swiftly leave the number one spot on the "cool careers" list for most people.
they will be reading Slashdot. It's the only medicine for 30 months without sex.
Just send a married couple, two gays, two lesbians, the Pope and Darl McBride on the mission.
Since no one loves Darl, and the Pope loves everyone but does not have sex, relationships are stable.
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
In 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'.
30 months??? Who the heck can function properly without sex for 30 months?
I am offering my services to NASA. As a true geek (obvious by reading Slashdot at 8:30Z) I would stick to the pure sciences of the mission and clearly state now that I not interested in sex by any means. Who needs sex when you have zero gravity anywho!
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
This sounds prelude to state sponsored wacking off. Does NASA provide the pron? I'm waiting for that next announcement with them saying they do support flogging the dolphin.
30 months? Nothing the slashdot crowd ain't used to, then
The indiscriminate use of vulgar language is the linguistic crutch of the inarticulate motherfucker
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_
Ensure that every member is a complete slut.
...it could increase productivity because in the barren Martian landscape we would still have some sign of humanity around to keep us going.
"One could perhaps select for people who seem to have less need for sex, or at least don't use sex as a form of self-validation", a quote from some random psychologist not part of the NASA board, but happens to be quoted in this article (seriously...do journalists just accept anything that agrees with their news titles as evidence?).
Heh sex is a major part of all forms of life...why paint it in such a light. This is like moral judgement.
There is validity to both sides (free choice versus disruption of work), but I don't think personal matters should be part of NASA's decisions...it just seems to be outside of their jursidiction, if you will, especially on long-haul missions where astronauts are away from other human beings for long periods of time.
At least you'd have privacy for the moment of climax. In space, no one can hear you scream...
How can I tactfully ask this?
nevermind, I'll be point blank...
So are you allowed to jerk off?
Sick I know, but imagine this stuff floating around in zero G.
Forget I said that...better *ban* this activity also.
*sigh* There go my dreams of Mars.
Hey baby, want to join the 238,857-mile-high club?
no one can hear you go "uuuuuunnnnngggggghhhhh".
Nothing in the article suggest they will put a stop on it.
It's just another overgeneral article about pro's and cons of relationships on long missions, and some examples.
Oh, and they're going to stuy it some more...
Nothing to see here, move along.
They'd be killing all their birds with one stone, for pete's sake. Huge media coverage, lucrative advertising sponsorships... man NASA would be overfunded and popular again for the first time since the 60's. C'mon NASA, give America what it really wants!
They could call it "Pigs in Space" or wait.. yeah that one was taken. Too bad it's a classic.
"Vote 'em off the shuttle!"
[I have no name!:/]# _
... in 'Stranger in a Strange Land.' I would have thought that the issues would have been well understood.
I think it would also be understood that as long as you have a mixed gender group of people together for an extended period of time, there isn't a lot you can do to prevent it either.
Valentine Smith.
-Rusty
You never know...
...chunks of foam are still breaking off of the space shuttle and the heat shielding tiles need to be fixed via spacewalks. Fortunately, the agonizing decision as to whether astronauts should have sex has been laid to rest. Thank goodness, because I was beginning to think that NASA had lost its focus!
Honestly, I'd tell this panel to go fsck themselves, but they can't now anyway... right?
I also heard a story of a pair on a shuttle having a relation and getting married shortly after the flight. Apparently NASA wasn't told before and was not happy. (Might have been the same couple.) And of course the rumours that some Russkies sacrificed themselves for science. I can't find a reference for both stories unfortunately.
karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
What is worse than 30 months without sex? 30 months in a small closed environment, where others have sex, but you don't get any.
Man, that would get me frustrated beyond reason. And the realisation of this is why I understand why NASA is doing this.
Actually, 30 months without sex, I think I could do it if I were on such a mission. Because I would be mentally prepared for this. I know the other crewmembers are not having sex either. And the sex fixation in our siciety would not be there on a daily basis. Of course, I would expect periods of frustration. But I don't think it would be a major problem.
When there is no potential for sex, when there is no constant reminder of sex around you, it is much easier to live without it. But if others in your crew are having sex, and you don't get any. That would really make things difficult.
Of course, drugs that temporary kill libido would be very welcome too.
No matter how weird things get, the air will clear when ground control calls to remind the crew, "if you miss the timing on this deorbit burn, you're all going to burn to death."
No Earth-based station simulation is going to completely capture the urgency of real space travel.
NASA said no sex with fellow crew members, so i guess they'll be flying about in the hope that some UFO comes find them to give a good old probing!
You're forgetting the pilot and first officer of Serenity.
(You know, that blonde geeky guy and the hot chick from Cleopatra 2525.)
They're married and get it on regularly (it seems), but the only conflict that I've seen them have is that he sometimes gets jealous of the relationship between his wife and the captain, and she wants a kid but he doesn't.
Also, Serenity is a small ship with a small crew, and no holodeck, replicators, or transporters.
All in all, Firefly seems to be a much closer match to what an actual Mars mission would be like, in terms of technology and the size of the ship and crew, than the various Star Trek scenarios.
Well, except for the artificial gravity.
And the hooker.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Noone feels left out and if they've lived together for years before on earth there's no reason to assume they're going to break down during flight either.
I'm completely serious btw.
Well, those might keep you happy for a while, but they surely won't keep you from hitting on the hottie next door!
hopelessly flawed. First they missmanage and over use an inefficiant air/spaceframe design. During which they get two crews killed needlessly. They have ignored repeated warnings from the manufacturer on one incident. They lose/destroy multiple multimillion dollar probes. Commission needless studies that in this case even duplicate earlier efforts. And just when I think that they have run out of stupidity they start the magnum project, and pursue hyper x as space transport.
The magnum project is supposed to provide a mars launch vehicle. It was estimated that the crew to mars would need approx 100 tons to be launched. Magnum is slated to lift far less than that requiring a slow and expensive orbital assembly period. Meanwhile the Russians have a nice reusable space vehicle called Energia. In its Vulcan config it can lift up to 175 tons and has been sucessfully launched with a good safety record (so far). But nasa cant be bothered with existing tech that works - we need expensive and buggy tech instead.
Hyper x - now it is a wonderfull device and I have great respect for it. It is just not what nasa is selling it to be. They claim it will be a space plane that will not use a rocket and fly at high speeds and even into orbit. Just one problem - SCRAM jets need a supersonic air flow at the intake and through the engine to even work. You just do not get that at subsonic speeds. The test data that I have seen thus far indicates that they have not even had it work below mach 5 yet and it needs to be boosted to speed by a pegasus rocket. Hyper x makes more sense as a return craft where speed can be a "bit" more easy to come by.
The really sad thing is that there are real high quality people working for nasa that are getting painted with an ugly brush here. Nasa has made wonderful contributions to military,comercial, and general aviation in the areas of new materials. wind tunnel research, new safety systems, new avionics systems, manuverability studies and developments, aircraft design and testing and many more. These hard working people are doing many things that are improving the world arround us and no one is talking about it. Instead we all sit back and notice what the PHBs that they are saddled with go on to the next idiotic stunt. Nasa needs new management from the top down, a swift kick, some better media coverage, LOTS more money - with a better oversite to make sure that it gets used intelligently, and support from the government and the average citizen - in that order. If they dont get all of that stuff soon they will become totally irrelevent. Which, in light of their tremendous achievements to date(Apollo 11 for one), and their enormous potential, would be a terrible loss.
Three days is more than I can usually handle without my brain going into a fit of chaos. If they really expect people to go 30 months without sex then they should provide medication that will reduce their sex drive. Even then you have basic human emotional needs which sex plays a part of so people would still probably have sex. Trying to go without sex will cause more problems than just planning for sex.
Send them up half male and half female with orders that they need to rotate partners on a daily basis. Well laid people with multiple partners they aren't previously attached to are less likely to get into jealous rages or similar problems. Expecting them to go without for 30 months is foolish and choosing to ignore the problem will work just about as well as not providing sex ed to horny highschool kids. These people are astronauts and know their lifes depend on working together. If they can't work together even when they hate each other (or worse - love each other) then they shouldn't be sent up.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Re-entry.
Mother, do you think they'll like this sig?
(what NASA will do if it decides to send George Bus^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H a moneky along with the human crew is anyones guess)
/. community that you're politically astute, would it?
/. mods, though.** clearing throat ** Let's send Dick Cheney up instead. At least then if two of the crew start to get involved in some hanky-panky, he will intervene by telling them to "Go fu*k yourselves", which he has a penchant for doing.
Ah, yes, it just wouldn't be a proper Slashdot thread with the totally inane and unnecessary Bush bashing just to (try to) prove to the rest of the
I guess that I'd better post this as AC. We all know how anti-anti-Bush posts get modded into oblivion by the "still pissed that Gore and Kerry lost" Slashdot mods.
Maybe if I put in an unnecessary Cheney insult I can sooth the ire of
How did the nation that BUILT the space shuttle get THIS stupid THIS fast? I want my tax dollars back!
Train Ron Jeremy, Amber Lynn and a host of other porn stars to be astronauts.
They could have sex all the time, they wouldn't care who's fucking who.
and with all the montoring of the crew, NASA could podcast the whole thing
as pay-per-view porn and make some money back from the failed polar lander attempt.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
To be fair, it's not "Dark Ages puritanism" - it's more like not mixing work and personal life. There are a number of ways in which sex in space could make interaction between crew members very awkward, which would in turn make the whole crew less efficient, which could be dangerous and costly. Plus, can you imagine what would happen if whatever method of birth control they're using failed? Hopefully they'd be smart enough to get permenantly sterilized before trying something like that, but if not it could be a serious problem.
That said, I don't know how they'd enforce it either.
is FORBIDDEN space sex
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature. Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
"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 in reality we've got a top-level panel of US researches who are tantalizingly close to achieving the ultimate Holy Grail - pursuing workplace sex, romantic entanglements and porn in the name of "research".
Godspeed lads, godspeed.
>I think a device would be needed here [for] raw material capture and containment
What, no kleenex on board?
Yeah, I can picture it now. NASA spends millions studying the problem and comes up with a 'device' to ensure the containment of seminal emissions and develops the thing at a cost of millions more.
The russians just jack off into kleenex like everyone else.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.