Harness for sex in space

Elaine Lerner, a New England Sunday School teacher, has patented a system of straps and loops to allow one partner to exercise control of the movements of the hips of the other partner during love-making. She is trying to interest NASA in her invention, so that astronauts will one able to effect the delicate docking manoevre of zero gravity intercourse. Ray Noonan, head of the Sex Institute in New York, argues that in-flight intercourse would help relieve astronauts of the enormous amount of stress they undergo during missions. And science writer G. Harry Stine relates a rumour of one couple's attempts at intercourse in NASA's weightlessness tests who required the help of a third party: 'They found out that it was nice to have somebody else there to push at the right time and in the right place.'

NASA have rebuffed Lerner's approaches to date. She's decided to market the device on her own. 'I'd especially like to have that husband-and-wife astronaut call me.'

Elaine Lerner, 670 Depot Street, Box 1247, Easton, MA 02334-1247 (tel 1 800 982 BELT).