Porn Site Plans to Shoot First Sex Tape in Space

As far as we know, no one has ever had sex in space.




NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency have consistently and aggressively denied that any astronaut has had sex in space on the International Space Station (ISS).




So it seems that no one, yet, is part of the "250-mile-high club."




And one of the largest pornography websites, wants to change that.




The website made headlines last week when it announced its plans to be the first company to shoot a sex tape in space. It even launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the $3.4 million it estimates the film will cost to produce.




The company wants to film its stars having sex during the few minutes that the spaceship will be in zero gravity as it reaches its maximum height over Earth. (No word yet on what spaceship they'll be using for the film yet, but we can only visualise a thrusting rocket).




There's one glaring problem here: We know almost nothing about the science of sex in space and the potential risks and problems that could arise.




There are some biologists, astronomers, and anthropologists who have spent time speculating about what sex in space will be like. We can't be 100% sure of anything since we have little research and zero data, but it's clear that sex in space won't be anything like sex on Earth.




It's not something most of us spend any time thinking about, but gravity is pretty critical for sex.




Getting it on in a zero g environment might sound kind of hot, but most experts who have spent time thinking through the logistics have a different opinion.




"One of the things that gravity helps us do is stay together, so sex in microgravity might actually be more difficult because you’re going to have to make sure that you’re always holding each other so you don’t drift apart," Paul Wolpe, a senior bioethicist at NASA, told interviewers. "It might be a lot more challenging and a lot less fulfilling than most people think."




Chris Impey, an astronomy professor at the University of Arizona, takes this idea even further.




"But there'd also be ways in which Newton's third law — of action and reaction — interfere with the normal methods of sex that you might use on Earth," Impey said during another interview.




Then we have to consider how zero gravity affects the actual human body, not just its motion.




The human body — blood vessels, muscles, everything — is designed to deal with the pull of gravity. Blood doesn't flow through the body very well in zero-g. That means men could have a difficult time getting and keeping an erection.




Another natural turn off is that people sweat way more in space. It builds up in layers and clings to the body because there's no gravity to make it drip off. That could make intimacy a lot less pleasant.




If we work out all the logistics here, there are still more questions to answer.




So how do we move forward? NASA seems a little prudish about the subject — it's published very little information about sex in space and most of its communication effort on the topic has gone toward squashing all rumours that any astronauts have done it.




In some ways that makes sense — there are still tons of other, more pressing health issues we need to figure out about living in space. So sex research is not a priority for any space agency right now. But it's a subject that needs a lot more attention and open conversation.




One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be one heck of an adventure—out of this world in fact as we boldly go where no bonk has gone before!

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