Astronauts may conceive baby on board ISS someday

Space flights have become a common practice for mankind. What does the future have in store for the human civilization? Excursions to the orbit, or maybe a romantic night in a Martian hotel?

Photo: Astronauts may conceive baby on board ISS someday

Astronauts may conceive baby on board ISS someday

“While a lot of scientists all over the world are busy searching for extraterrestrial civilizations, astronauts plan a more earthly contact, that is conceiving a human baby at the orbital station,” Rostislav Beleda, a Candidate of Medical Sciences said. Mr. Beleda worked as the chief sexologist at the Central Aviation Hospital for 14 years. “The biggest problem is how to conceive, because liquid cannot be spilt under the condition of weightlessness,” he added.

“But they do not need a bed in space. They can love each other in the air.”

“And what will come out of that? As soon as he touches her, she will fly away in the opposite direction. A bed or at least some fastening device on a wall is more likely to be used.”

“Is astronauts’ sexual need taken into consideration during long-term flights?”

“Certainly. In space men exercise on treadmills. In addition, they can theoretically masturbate too. But they should not forget about condoms or other containers, otherwise drop of sperm will be flying chaotically in the cabin and they will have to collect it. As a matter of fact, humans are not eager to make love in space. Right after the take-off a human being experiences a great load, which is six or nine times as bigger as that on Earth. When a spaceship enters the orbit, blood starts flowing from lower parts of the body to the head. A person adapts him- or herself to new conditions within three days. Space does not admit interfering: astronauts get old very quickly. Space flights affect adversely all life functions, especially the reproductive function. None of US female astronauts got pregnant after flights. Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova was an exception, though.

“Is that true that astronauts may have disabled children after flights?”

“I can assure you that six healthy children were born after their fathers had traveled into the space. Tereshkova’s daughter is fine as well. However, a problem with potency emerged after one of the first long-term flights into space. A press-conference was broadcast the next day after the flight, but nobody saw that the astronaut was sitting in an armchair with pillows. He had difficulties to hold his head straight and raise a spoon in his hand. Even after his muscle tone and other functions were restored, he still suffered from low potency.

Then scientists developed a special suit for cosmonauts, called Chibis. The suit bears some resemblance to a metallic barrel with a stool in it. The lower part of the astronaut is pressure-sealed and the air is pumped out of the barrel to make blood rush to legs. On the basis of Chibis specialists later developed a device to treat ejaculation dysfunction.”

As a rule, people show great interest in the relations between astronauts in mixed crews of long-term space flights. The would-be International Space Station enables the mutual work of people of different ethnities, sex, age, cultures and traditions.

Valery Polyakov, the world’s flight endurance record-breaker, told Interfax about his long-term flights and relations with his female colleagues. He spent 438 days on the orbit during one flight. He was flown to the Mir Space Station in 1994-1995 together with Alexander Viktorenko as the commander and Elena Kondakova as an onboard engineer.

At the traditional press-conference after the flight Elena Kondakova answered a question about sex in space: “The environment, including weightlessness is of no importance for sex, but I think the most important condition is a person you love.”

“After all these tortures in space you do not love us,” her male colleagues proceeded. Elena kissed them and said “Of course, I love you but like brothers.” However, Polyakov considers that astronauts’ motivation and their attitudes to perform difficult tasks dominate certain relations between men and women during the flight. Polyakov doubted that NASA had already conducted a “sexual experiment” in space. “Even during the Cold War era, US and Soviet doctors were on friendly terms,” he said and added that he could not remember the USA unveiling any data concerning such experiments.

He finds such experiments immoral. “Americans are not less moralistic than we are,” said the astronaut. Nevertheless, he does not deny that sexual experiments in space will be thought over.

Meanwhile, French writer Pierre Kohler in his book The Final Mission wrote that US astronauts tested several sex positions in 1996 for conditions that would be comfortable under conditions of zero gravity. The author referred to the NASA document about the secret experiment.

Helen Sharman of Britain confessed in 1991 that she had had a fantastic experience with Russian cosmonauts on board the Russian Mir. A video record on which 28-year-old maiden Helen is wearing a pink night-shirt gave reporters a reason to make the most daring suggestions.

“During long-term flights cosmonauts may see female crew members in erotic dreams,” Polyakov admitted. “But they can prevent platitudes, pay women compliments, speak about her attractiveness and support her psychologically,” he said.

Translated by Julia Bulygina
Pravda.ru