Something for the nasa psycologists

www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8195

I guess the idea of colonies on Mars is a bit in the future then
--

Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions

Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars and should therefore be studied by NASA, warns a top-level panel of US researchers.

NASA plans to return astronauts to the Moon by 2018 and later on to Mars. But a round-trip mission to the Red Planet would probably last at least 30 months and carry six to eight people. That would be a hotbed for intense crew relationships, says a report by the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

"With the prospect of a very long-term mission, it's hard to ignore the question of sexuality," says Lawrence Palinkas, a medical anthropologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an author of the report. It reviewed NASA's plans for research to keep astronauts safe and healthy in space – but the plans make no mention of sexual issues in spaceflight.

We'll just have to send a few priests then...

Why only a few....

We'll just have to send a few priests then...

They'll be looking to change the law after a few months, priests should be allowed to marry and all that! Then that crew is back to square 1!

They'll have to be eunuchs! :shock:

This may be a longshot but I wonder if they can find married couples qualified to be astronauts ....

Anthony.

This may be a longshot but I wonder if they can find married couples qualified to be astronauts ....

Thats already happened actually, the first married couple were aboard the Shuttle mission STS-47, that was in 1992. I remember that making the news, for similar reasons as this article!

Cheers,
~Al