Well, Obviously It Will Never Happen, Then

I hadn’t seen it this explicit before, but unless he’s off the reservation, apparently NASA bans sex in space, at least at the ISS. No big deal. They’re only up there for six months at a time…

I could write a long essay on the ways in which this encapsulates everything that is wrong with the American space program, going all the way back to Mercury. I’ll bet that NASA banned adultery back then, too. Tom Wolfe just made those stories up.

[Update a few minutes later]

Glenn says that this opens up a market niche for other facilities. Well, yeah. Though it’s more like just one more reason not to count on the ISS as a tourist destination. Or at least as the hotel. What we need is a habitat coorbiting with it where space visitors can stay, and use as a base for visiting the ISS for tours, which will minimize disruption if they ever actually start doing research there, and allow people to do what they want in the sack (or floating out of it) without disturbing the little Miss Prisses on DE Street.

13 thoughts on “Well, Obviously It Will Never Happen, Then”

  1. What we need is a habitat coorbiting with it where space visitors can stay

    A cohabitat so to speak.

  2. Pretty sure. On reflection it would also give a whole new meaning to the word Service Module. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.

  3. Hm, if we can’t make love, can we make war?

    Seriously, has NASA or any outfit known to have access to space done any studies on free-fall fighting? I seem to remember there were some pretty big spaces in Sky Lab that would have made pretty good dojos….

  4. This is where I think the Moon might actually have something to offer. You still have a bit of gravity to give one a foothold. Yet, the 1/6 gravity will lessen the burden of those moments of, um, aggressive calisthenics.

  5. What are they going to do: send them home early? Most are only going to get one flight anyway, right?

  6. In 2007 former NASA astronaut Lisa Marie Nowak allegedly wore adult diapers when driving hundreds of miles across the United States without bathroom breaks to confront a suspected rival in a romance with a fellow astronaut.

    This bit of news never loses its relevance.

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