And if we're serious about becoming a spacefaring species, that needs to change.
We talk a lot about the future of space travel. Mars missions. Lunar bases. Elon Musk wants to put a million people on the Red Planet by 2050. SpaceX, Blue Origin, NASA, they're all racing to get us out there. But there's one very basic, very human topic that almost nobody in the space industry wants to talk about.
Sex.
More specifically: what happens to our bodies, our arousal, our orgasms, and our ability to reproduce when we leave Earth's gravity behind? Because if we're planning to send humans on multi-year missions to Mars (seven months just to get there, by the way), or build permanent settlements on the Moon, we're going to need to figure this out. And right now? We barely have any data.
NASA's Official Position: "Nothing to Discuss"
For decades, NASA's stance on sex in space has been essentially: we don't talk about that. A NASA spokesperson once stated plainly that they don't study sexuality in space and have no ongoing studies. "If that's your specific topic, there's nothing to discuss." A commander at NASA in 2010 even said there was a ban on astronaut sex.
To be fair, NASA has studied reproductive biology in space using fruit flies, worms, snails, fish, frogs, and rodents. They've even studied human sperm samples. But research on actual human sexual experience, intimacy, arousal, relationships? Basically nonexistent.
Researchers Simon Dubé and Maria Santaguida, psychologists at Concordia University in Montreal, have been pushing hard to change this. In 2021, they published a landmark paper arguing that space agencies need to embrace what they call "space sexology": the comprehensive scientific study of extraterrestrial intimacy and sexuality. Their argument is simple. If we're going to live in space, we need to understand how space affects every part of being human, including the parts we tend to get weird about discussing.
And recently, in February 2026, they brought this conversation to an even bigger stage when they appeared on The Daily Show, complete with a replica of the 2Suit (more on that in a second).
Your Body Does Wild Things in Microgravity
Here's where it gets really interesting from a Lioness perspective, because the physiological effects of space on sexual function are significant and, honestly, kind of fascinating.
Blood flow gets redistributed. On Earth, gravity pulls blood toward your lower body. In microgravity, that changes. Blood pools in your head and chest instead. This shift has real implications for arousal, which relies heavily on blood flow to the genitals. For people with penises, getting and maintaining an erection could become more difficult. For people with vulvas, the engorgement that increases sensitivity and produces lubrication could be impaired.
That said, the picture is more complicated than "nothing works." Some astronauts have reported the opposite effect. Former astronaut Mike Mullane described fluid shifts that occasionally resulted in strong morning erections. So the reality may be inconsistent and unpredictable, which is part of why we need actual research.
Testosterone levels drop. Studies have shown that male astronauts experience temporary decreases in testosterone during spaceflight, which tracks with self-reported decreases in sexual drive. The decrease appears to be related to reduced testicular blood flow caused by fluid redistribution, combined with stress, disrupted sleep, and the general weirdness of living in a metal tube.
Vaginal lubrication faces unique challenges. Without gravity, fluids don't flow or drip the way they do on Earth. Vaginal moisture would tend to pool at the site of secretion rather than spreading naturally. Sweat does the same thing in space, clinging to the skin and forming floating blobs instead of dripping away. It wouldn't necessarily prevent arousal, but it could make the experience physically uncomfortable.
Cosmic radiation is a serious concern. NASA-funded research published in 2023 found that exposure to galactic cosmic radiation can cause vascular tissue damage through oxidative stress, and that this damage can persist even after returning to Earth. Vascular impairment is directly connected to erectile dysfunction. For people considering long-duration missions, this isn't just about comfort. It's about long-term sexual health.
Pelvic floor muscles atrophy. Astronauts can lose 10-20% of lower limb and core muscle mass during extended missions. That includes pelvic floor muscles, which play a role in everything from erectile rigidity and ejaculatory control to orgasm intensity. If you've ever wondered why pelvic floor exercises matter, space is the ultimate case study.
The Newton's Third Law Problem
Beyond what's happening inside the body, there's the physics of actually having sex in zero gravity. Newton's third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In practical terms: every thrust pushes your partner away from you. One physicist compared it to two ice skaters pushing against each other on fresh ice. You'd both just shoot in opposite directions.
Without some way to stay anchored to each other and to the spacecraft, sex in microgravity would involve a lot of bumping into walls, floating apart, and general chaos. You'd need handholds, straps, or some other mechanical solution.
Enter the 2Suit: a garment invented in 2006 by Italian-American writer Vanna Bonta, essentially a pair of flight suits with Velcro-lined fronts that let two people attach to each other and maintain close contact while floating. It was tested during a parabolic flight in 2008 and took eight attempts for Bonta and her husband to successfully link up. The verdict? Cumbersome but moderately successful. Researcher Maria Santaguida recreated a replica for her Daily Show appearance in 2026, bringing new attention to the concept.
Santaguida has also pointed to sex toys and masturbation aids as practical tools for space intimacy. Teledildonics (remotely-connected sex tech) could even make it possible to maintain some form of sexual connection with partners back on Earth during long missions.
Why This Actually Matters
This isn't just a fun thought experiment. There are real, practical reasons we need to take sex in space seriously.
Mental health and mission success. Astronauts on long missions already deal with isolation, confinement, disrupted sleep, and separation from loved ones. Sexual satisfaction is a significant factor in overall wellbeing. Researchers have argued that denying or ignoring this basic human need could jeopardize crew morale and mission performance.
Reproduction and species survival. If the long-term goal is human settlement beyond Earth, we need to understand conception, pregnancy, and fetal development in altered gravity. Studies on mice sent to the ISS in 2010-2011 showed that some females stopped ovulating, and others lost their corpus luteum (a structure needed to sustain early pregnancy). Mouse embryos fertilized in simulated microgravity had lower success rates when implanted under normal gravity. Rats raised in microgravity couldn't orient themselves properly. We have almost no data on what would happen with human reproduction.
Consent and safety. Santaguida and colleagues raised an important point in 2022: as more people live and work in space, we need frameworks for addressing sexual harassment and assault in space contexts. Confined quarters, power dynamics, isolation from normal support systems, these are conditions that increase vulnerability. Space agencies and private companies need policies that go beyond pretending sex doesn't exist.
What Lioness Thinks About All This
At Lioness, we're in the business of understanding what's actually happening in the body during sexual experiences. We use sensors and data to help people learn about their own arousal patterns, orgasms, and pelvic floor activity. We believe that better data leads to better experiences.
The conversation about sex in space reinforces something we talk about all the time: we still know shockingly little about human sexual response, even here on Earth. NASA has studied how microgravity affects bones, muscles, vision, the cardiovascular system, the immune system, and even gut bacteria. But sexual function? That's apparently too awkward to fund.
The researchers who are pushing for space sexology are fighting the same battle that sexual health advocates have always fought: getting people to take sexual wellbeing as seriously as every other aspect of health. Whether you're on the International Space Station or in your bedroom, understanding your body and how it responds is powerful.
And hey, if you want to start collecting your own data without leaving the planet, that's kind of our whole thing.
Sources: Wikipedia "Sex in Space"; Dubé et al. (2021), "The Case for Space Sexology," Journal of Sex Research; Santaguida & Dubé (2023), "Sexual Health in Space: a 5-year Scoping Review," Current Sexual Health Reports; Gimunová et al. (2024), npj Microgravity; Favor et al. (2023), NASA-funded cosmic radiation and erectile dysfunction research; Inverse; CBC Life; The Daily Beast; New Space Economy.
