Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!umich!gumby!wmu-coyote!Dale
From: Dale@sol.cs.wmich.edu (Dale Gee)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Microgravity Sex Redux (was Re: Best position for pregnancy)
Message-ID: <1991May30.141830.7256@sol.cs.wmich.edu>
Date: 30 May 91 14:18:30 GMT
References: <1991May27.015128.29378@agate.berkeley.edu> <7870@ecs.soton.ac.uk> <1991May30.013526.20485@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Western Michigan Univ. Comp. Sci. Dept.
Lines: 32

In article <1991May30.013526.20485@agate.berkeley.edu> fcrary@lightning.Berkeley.EDU (Frank Crary) writes:
>In article <7870@ecs.soton.ac.uk> lm89@ecs.soton.ac.uk (McIlhoney L) writes:
>>There's a thought : mixed gender flights aren't so uncommon these
>>days : how do we know the experiment hasn't already taken place?
>>(Behind our backs)
>>
>We can be reasonably sure that no one has had sex in orbit due to the type
>of spacecraft that women have flown on. There are, to date, only 2: The
>soviet Salyut 7 (could be 6, I don't remember) and the Space Shuttle. 
>I am ignoring the Vostok capsule since this was a one-man craft. There
>is/was no real privacy on either of there crafts. All I can think of is
>the airlock on the shuttle and the Soyuz craft docked to the soviet space
>station. If anyone had tried to have sex in either of these places, EVERYONE
>on board would have known about it (e.g. would have seen them go in, for no
>other reason, FELT the vibrations (at least on Salyut 7, which can be shook
>by jumping up and down.) possible heard them, and seen them come out.) As
>a result, the entire crew would have had to have keep quiet. This was 
>3 other people in the case of the soviets. For the US, it depends on the
>particular shuttle mission. I really doubt that this would have remained
>a secret.
>
>					   Frank Crary

I am sure that the astronauts could keep this secret. They all security 
clearances.  Plus do we know what kind of relationship the astronauts
have with each other. Sex in the work place is not unheard of.
The have classified missions where the general public dosn't know what 
took place during the flight.  I think they had more than enough 
chances to do the research.  I doubt they did.  At this moment in 
NASA's life they couldn't afford to have something like that leak.
 
Dale