Having sex in space can be tricky, but having children in space is dangerous

Sex in space is a great topic for fun and double penetration, and the panelists at the Deep Tech Week session held at Thinkspace Seattle leaned into the joke early on.

“We can all think of Newton’s Third Law saying that, unrestrained, you get one bounce and you’re on the other side of the spacecraft,” said Shawna Pandya, chief of space medicine at the Florida-based Advanced SpaceLife Research Institute, or ASRI. Early pioneers in the field even designed a space suit designed for near zero-G that was equipped with feathers and harnesses in vertical positions – giving new meaning to the term “love handles.”

But the researchers at Friday’s session didn’t focus on the mechanics of sex in space. “I think the sex part is going to be the easiest part, in practice,” said James Logan, former medical director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “Problems come after that.”

For that reason, the panels left the trend behind and focused on the sensitive topics of pregnancy and fetal development in a challenging environment beyond our home planet.

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Last year, researchers found evidence that exposure to space radiation during pregnancy could have a “very high” risk of producing birth defects. Recently, a separate set of researchers reported that zero-G conditions interfere with sperm motility, egg fertilization and embryo development in mammals.

Alex Layendecker, founder and director of ASRI, said the health effects of exposure to space may not become apparent until more than a generation later. That assumption is based on research on female mice flown to the International Space Station, which are brought back to mate with males on Earth. “The first generation didn’t seem to have much of a difference, but when the grandkids were born — and this was a really big shot — the grandkids actually had a very different phenotype,” Layendecker said. “They were different in their numbers. They were different in behavior.”

All of this would be a killer for the kinds of space habitats seen in fantasy shows like “For All Mankind” – and casts serious doubt on SpaceX trillionaire Elon Musk’s dream of sending a million settlers to Mars.

“Based on my knowledge and experience, I don’t think one-third of G (Mars-level gravity) is going to be enough, and if one-third of G is enough, one-sixth of G (lunar gravity) isn’t going to cut it either,” Logan said. “So, it’s possible that eventually the moon and Mars will be resource depots. They will always be rented places. I really don’t believe that men, women and children for many generations will live on the moon as imagined.”

Layendecker said that raises an “existential question” about humanity’s future beyond our home planet. And maybe for the future of man, period. “If you can make multiple planets, statistically, over time, single-planet species don’t survive,” he said. “There’s only so much time in geological history before some cataclysm happens that takes you out of the game.”

Proponents of extraterrestrial settlements, led by Musk, view settlements on Mars, the moon and other celestial bodies as a Plan B that ensures the survival of the human species. But for that plan to work, people must be able to breed in those habitats. “Let’s think about it here,” said Layendecker. “We have a habitation on Mars … and Earth is completely destroyed, so there are no people here. The planet is uninhabitable. If the people of Mars cannot have children and cannot reproduce over time, they will die within one generation.”

Pandya said genetic engineering could provide a way out. He pointed to an article published by the MIT Technology Review. “They make the argument that it’s not a question of genetics to develop your astronauts,” he said. “In fact, it is very unacceptable to send them to this high-radiation, dangerous place if you don’t protect them.”

Logan said radiation shielding and anti-gravity measures should be considered as important to future space occupants as air, water and food. However, so far those issues have received little attention.

ASRI is trying to do something about that: The agency has mapped out a 30-year roadmap for space research focused on reproductive biology — an initiative known as Sexual Health and Reproductive Planning, or SHARP. It is also looking to expand its presence in Europe, where the regulatory environment is friendly to reproductive science, and possibly in Seattle.

“We are one organization that I hope will blossom many organizations around the world,” Layendecker said. “I hope we won’t always be the only ‘space sex center’ there is, because it will take hundreds, maybe thousands of researchers, thousands of people to really start to tackle this problem.”

Although extensive research on sex in space has not yet advanced beyond the initial baseline, Logan sees reason for hope. “When you talk about sex in space, no one really giggles anymore, because people are familiar with it,” he said. “They know that the main thing is to get people out of the world, so very few people still giggle – and that giggle during my time at NASA was the biggest obstacle to progress.”