What would happen if two lovers had a spat or two rivals had a fight during a multibillion-dollar mission to Mars? Maybe the question seems silly, but the issues it raises are serious. After all, attraction is natural, and a crew headed for Mars would be together all the time for anywhere from nine months to three years under unusually intense circumstances. Could people really be expected to avoid physical intimacy?
So far, not much thought has gone into the need, likelihood, or advisability of sex in space. Neither NASA nor any other space agency has seriously addressed the question. But talk of assigning crew members of both sexes to the planned international space station, Freedom, and renewed discussions of long missions to Mars are making it harder to ignore.
Most suggestions, which range from assigning crews of all men or all women to sending only married couples, still avoid the heart of the issue. And, no matter what policies space agencies ultimately choose to follow, the many physical, psychological, and sociological issues surrounding sex in space will still exist.
Contraception in a weightless environment, for example, may be a serious problem. The most common and acceptable forms of protection may not be as effective in space as on Earth, and effectiveness will be extremely important. A pregnancy in space could be disastrous. Not only could it endanger the mission as a whole, but the effects of radiation, weightlessness, and other stresses could seriously harm both the fetus and the mother.
