The Universe: Cosmic Phenomena

The Universe :COSMIC PHENOMENA
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 12 (final)

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:

AURORA BOREALIS
"It was named after Aurora,
the Roman goddess of dawn,
and the Greek god of the north wind, Boreas.


Auroras, by themselves pose no threat to humans
But the incrased solar activity associated with them
can generate about one millin megawatts of electricity
and cause us problems in other ways.


Sun has an atmosphere that extends well beyond the Earth
So the Earth is actually living in the outer atmosphere of the Sun.


So the Sun has a 22-year cycle of activity.
Every 11 years it becomes more active
and then it reverses its polarity and comes back.
and the auroras are one of the best markers of that.


SHOOTING STAR.
"Its a just a little, tiny pebble
likea grain of sand from outer space.
zipping through our atmosphere.
and colliding with the molecules and
atoms in the atmosphere.
and casing them to glow.
It is not star at all,
nothing even remotely similar to a star.

These glowing pebbles are better known as
meteors.

Most burn up in the atmosphere.
Some, if they're large enough
can make it all the way through the atmosphere
and drop to the Earth
and we find a rock
calle d meteorite.

Many come from Asteroid Belt.


The one in 1833,
by some accounts
had as many as 200,000 meteors per hour.
Some observers thought the world was coming to an end.


COSMIC RAYS
These are not rays, these are particles.
They can cause mutation in DNA.
and that leads to variations in species of animals.'
and evolution.

They also may influence the weather.


SPRITES


ELVES
(Emissions of Light and Very low frequency perturbations from Electromagnetic pulse Sources)


BLUE JETS


PHOTOSYNTHESIS
"If photosynthesis were to quit working, we'd all be dead."
(no food to eat, no oxygen to breathe)

That includes animals.
Like us they rely on Sun to regulate their lives.
and just maybe how to navigate their way in the world.

Studies offer some clues to the mystery of how animals navigate.
Many species use the Sun to determine direction.
... And so animals do, in fact, have a biological clock
as do we, which gives them the right time of day.

If conditions obscure the Sun
some animals switch to the Earth's magnetic field.

It provides not only directional pointers, but also positioning cues.
Every place on Earth has a unique magnetic signature.

The problem is the Earth's magnetic fields changes...


PIGEONS
"There are two sense organs that seem to be involved
in detecting the Earth's magnetic field.
One is in the visual system in the eye
in the retina of the eye
and the other is in the pigeon's upper beak
the mandible of the beak
where there are whole bunch of deposits of magnetite
which is a magnetic mineral
and that also seems to be involved in detecting the magnetic field.
So there are tow sense organs
and we still don't really understand exactlyu how these interact,
and how they are used by animals to find way around.


ULTRAVIOLET
UV A
UV B
UV C
"Ultraviolet C blocks almost completely by the ozone layer.
Ultraviolet B gets through a little bit more
and Ultravilet A gets trhough the most.

UV A is considered the aging and sking cancer ray
UV B is considered the burning ray.

While UVB interacts with the sufrace layer of skin
 UVA penetrates deeper
adding a new wrinkle to sun exposure.

In fact, tanning booths are even more harmful to the skin.
The reason is because the bulbs are over 90% UVA rays.

Not even sunscreens with a high SPF number
 will prevent these harmful effects form the Sun.
(SPF = Sun Protection Protector)


RAINBOW
"The red is one extrem, long wavelenght
The blue is another extreme, which is a short wavelength
there's other wavelenghts in between
that are refracted at different angles
so thatsy why you get that spectrum of light.
Because the change in wavelenghts is continuous
as you go from short up to long wave.

Different wavelengths of light refracted or bent at different angles
explains why the colors of the rainbow
appear in the order they do and in that arc-like shape.


That angle is 42 degrees fomr the anti-solar point.
a fancy astronomical term for the shadow of your head.
At that angle the incoming light is at its most intense
and where the rainbow appears.
But 42 degrees fomr the shadow of your head
is different than 42 degrees form the shadow of someone else's head.
THIS MEANS NO TWO PEOPLE SEE THE EXACT SAME RAINBOW

Sometimes if you're really lucky
or at least standing at the right angle
you'll see a secondary rainbow.
Sometimes (light) bounces (from raindrop) more than once.
And so when it bounces a second time
it comes out at a different angle
its a larger angle.
51 degrees to be exact.
And it'll be dimmer
because most of the light escapes after the first bounce.
Now the interesting thing about the second rainbow
is it's in the opposite order.
So the red that's on one side on one rainbow
will be on the opposite side on the other.

Whether in single or double form
a rainbow doesn't appear at a fixed point in the sky.
Its apparent existence depends solely on the observer's loactaion.
and the posiionof the Sun.

Rainbow is an illusion.

________________________

The Universe: Edge of Space

The Universe : EDGE OF SPACE
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 11

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:

EDGE OF SPACE
(Edge of Earth/ Atmospheres)

SPACE DIVING
"the zone of space that surrounds Earth
and begins 120 miles above sea level.

In the first two minutes of the jump
the space diver will reach speeds of 2,500 miler per hour.
while in free fall.
Atmospheric drag will heat the spacesuit
to 474 degrees F.


SPACE SUIT
"To protect the body, spacesuits are designed in layers.


"Comfortable is a relative term.
So if you're comfortable on a camping trip
then you'll be fine on the space station.

I can't tell you when it will be $4,000,

If it doesn't start off at $40 million.


Earth orbit, our edge of space,
is generally divided into three parts.
Low Earth orbit is a 1100 mile wide belt
that is closest to Earth's atmosphere
and begins only 120 miles above sea level.
... Most of the manned space proggram takes place in that radius.
Low Earth orbit is likea busy city, lots of activity (by satellites)
... orbit the Earth in 90 minutes.

Above low Earth orbit is a region called Meduim Earth orbit.
This wide stretch of space is 1200 to 14000 miles above Earth.
Many communication satellites are launched into orbit here.
GPS satellites roughly orbit the Earth at about 12000 miles.
They orbit the Earth twice per day.
Medium Earth orbit is also home
to the treacherous Van Allen radiation belts
These belts of high-energy charged particles
can send a $300 million satellite spiraling out of control
or give a human being a fatal dose of radiation.

High Earth orbit, or geo-synchronous orbit
if low Earth orbit is a busy city,
high Earth orbit is rural farmland.
22,000 to 35,000 miles above sea level.
Here, over 2000 satellites call high Earth orbit home.
They orbit around the Earth every 24 hours.



To reach the target
a spacecraft must travel 17,500 miles per hour.
Even one degree of and spacecraft will end up in the wrong orbit.


In theory, objects can stay in orbit forever
as long as they have enough speed
to resist the pul of Earth's gravity.

You just keep falling around the world over and over again.


In October 2007, the US Navy shot down
an out of service satellite with a cruice missile
before it reentered the atmosphere.
The reason?
The satellite carried hazardous material onboard
and had it crashed to the ground,
could have poisoned thousands.
... The operation was called "Burnt Frost."


From the first launch of Sputnik in 1957
debris (space junk) has steadily been
accumulating around planet Earth.

It looks like the Earth is surrounded by a hive of bees.

these pieces are traveling upwards of 22,000 miles per hour.
Say, more than ten times faster then a bullet.


In 2007, the total estimated amount of space debris
was 20,000 pieces,
14,000 of which were trackable.

Then in 2008
China's space program
intentionally crashed two satellites together as an anti-satellite test.
The international space community was outraged.

By th 10th Jan 2007, the number of objects we were tracking
was less than 14,000.
Here we are 16 months later
and we've increased that number by over 30% to over 18,000.


Back in 1997, we had a 570-pound stainless steel tank
that landed about 50 yards from a farmer's house in Texas.
He was not particularly pleased byu that.

There was a re-entry that came into Cape Town in SA.


3/4 of the Earth's surface is water
so a lot of it lands in the water.
_______________________

The Universe: Strangest Things

The Universe :STRANGEST THINGS
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 10

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:

STRANGEST THINGS

"The more we learn,
the less we know."


Strange as it may seem
astronomers have discovered
interstellar clouds
actually filled with the same kind
of alcohol found in beer.

Giant molecular clouds are enormous complexes of gas and dust.


The first alcohol cloud was detected in 1975.

The cloud G34.3, which resides
in the constellation Aquila
is 1000 times the diameter of our solar system.

In fact, in G34.3, there's enough ethyl alcohol
to supply 300,000 pints of beer everyday.
to every single person on planet Earth.
for the next billion years.

The only downside is that
it would probably give you a pretty bad headache
because it's also mixed in
with hydrogen cyanide
carbon monoxide, cabron dioxide, ammonia
and some other fairly not-so-nice chemicals.


PLANET X,  a hypothetical planet, still to be discovered.
Kuiper Cliff


a trio of pulsar planets about 900 light-years away
located in the constellation Virgo.

If i had my say, they'd probably go down
as the weirdest planets in the universe.
And these planets are all very close in to the pulsar.
Now, that's no place for a planet to exist.
Nobody expect to find planets around these things.
because a pulsar or a neutron star
is the remnant of a supernova explosion.
The star has ripped itself apart
in one of the most violent, chaotic explosions known in the universe.
So what are planets doing there?
This was the real surprise.
- MICHELLE THALLER



Magnetars and pulsars are both strange stars
but scientist have discovered something even more bizarre:
a star that acts like a pulsar and a magnetar.
NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer has observed this unusual star
ejecting five colossal outbursts of energy in the form of flares
which are charactereistc of magnetars.
They occured five ties between Mayu and July of 2005.


NEUTRINO
"Human beings and most of the universe
are made up of normal matter
which primarily consists of four fundamental particles.
One is a ghost-like particle called a neutrino.

At this very moment, every second there are 50 trillion neutrinos
actually coming from the Sun
that are passing through my body.
and there are other neutrinos
from other stars, coming in different
directions right through the Earth.
These things, by the trillions are pouring into me every second.

These things are so non-interactive
that if you imaging a light-year thickness of lead
and you shined a beam of neutrinos toward it
half of those neutrinos would make it through that light-year thickness of lead
completely unscathed.

Neutrinos are commonly formed
by nuclear reactions inside stars, including our Sun.

About 60 billion solar neutrionos
pass throiugh our tumbnails every second.

But there are other sources that create neutrinos.
They are produced by nuclear reactors
there are some being produced by the radioacive decay
of elements in the rock around all the time.
And there are others that are actually produced
when cosmic rays slam into our atmosphere.
[so do gemstones also create neutrions, and wearing may effect on you!?]


TAUTATIS
one of the strangest asteroids.
Tautatis also has a highly elliptical orbit
which carries it from the asteroid belt to inside the Earth's orbit.
It's an Earth-Crossing asteroid and that
puts it in the danger zone.

In Sept. of 2004 Tautatis got too close for comfort.
The asteroid came withing a million miles
or about four times the distance to our Moon.


About 240 moons exist in our solar system alone.
And yet Earth's Moon is the only satellite in the solar system
that perfectly eclipses the Sun.


 moon of Jupiter.
290 miles across,


ULTRALUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES
aka, ULIRGs
"in our galaxy, about one new star
the size of our Sun is born every year,
but in ULIRGs, about a hundred new stars are formred yearly.


MINI-BLACKHOLES


DARK MATTER
Planets, stars, moons and galaxies
make up less than 20% of all matter in the universe.
The rest is made up of dark matter.

Galaxies spin faster than
counting up the amounf of gravity that you can see
from the matter they have.
And if that gravitational attraction weren't there
the hot gas would disperse.
So we know there's more gravity
than we can accounf for
by the mass that we see
and that is just simply called dark matter.


DARK ENERGY
"It's a theoratical form of energy that exists everywhere
and accounts for 70% of all mass and energy in the universe.


Dark Energy doesn't really have all that much to do with Dark Matter.
They're different things.
The "dark" really means we just don't know what's going on.


... that the universe is actually expanding more quickly with time
and dark energy may be the culprit.


Normal matter and energy tend to slow down the rate
at which things are going away from each other
because normal things pull on one another gravitationally.
But dark energy appears to accelerate the rate
at which object pull away from each other.

One theory suggests that dark energy
will accelerate the expansion of space to such an extent
that the entire universe will be ripped to shreds
in about 50 billion years.

.. even smallest atom will be ripped apart.
 

____________________________

The Universe: Another Earth

The Universe :ANOTHER EARTH
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 9

GLIEASE 581 D (Super Earth) 

 Libra Constellation

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29


EXCERPTS:

ANOTHER EARTH
(Super Earth, Super Venus, Super Jupiter)

"Astronomers have found over 300 exoplanets
that is, planets outside our solar system.
The vast majority is gas giants.
which are easier to find than
small terrestrial planets like our Earth.


Goldilocks Zone, Habitable Zone, Just Right


"Water is an amazing substance.
We are frankly fortunate that
the universe has something called water.
It's the great cosmic cocktail mixer.


How many stars are there?
How many of those stars have planets?
How many of those planets are close anough to have water...
and on and on.
Thats a problem that astronomers Carl Sagan
and Frank Drake took on decades ago.

Drake came up with equation that estimated that
upto a million civilizations may exist
in just our Milky Way alone.

N=N* x fp x ne x fe x fi x fc x L/Tg

BOOK:
RARE EARTH
by Peter D. Ward & Donald Brownlee
explains why they think complex life, animal life, like humans
may be rare in the universe.


PLATE TECTONICS
"Plate tectonics is continental drift
and one wonders why whould that have anything to do
with the frequency of life on the planet.
Plate tectonics also produces a recycling of elements
and that recycling does some very fundamental things.
The most fundamental thing it does,
it produces a temperature gauge.
It's like a thermostat on the planet.
If we get too warm, plate tectonic processes help us cool off.
Then there's the presence of metal on the planet.
Secondly, if you want to be an intelligent civilization
you better have metal.
Metal is hard to find on a planet like Mars or Venus.
Plate tectonics rotates everything, causes cracks.
Up come the heavy metals.

then we need a Good Jupiter.
(to protect us from asteroids/comets.)


First Position in the galaxy.
away from killer neturon stars, black holes, and deadly gamma-ray bursts.


Earth itself may have narrowly missed such an even in 1998.
(extinguishing life)
Then a high density star called a magnetar
burped out a flare of deadly gamma rays,
unleashing as much energy in two-tenths of a second.
as the Sun will put out in the next 100,000 years.

Luckily, the magnetar was located 20,000 light-years away from Earth.
(if magnetar were 10,000 light years away, then)
It could punch our atmosphere off-whoof-in one burst...
and you go, "I can't breathe."

Thats catastrophic, and that is totally possible.


The Drake Equation was a fantastic construct
but it was done in the 1960s
We know so much more now.
So we've added in stuff that wasn't known then.
And i think it makes it more accurate
But, ultimately, it also brings down the numbers.

Advanced Civilizations in our Milky Way
"More than one but way less than a million."
[another scientist say in another program, 10,000 in one galaxy]


How to See an exoPlanet.
"Suppose you have a firefly,
a very small firefly, a very weak light.
and suppose that firefly is orbiting around
a light house.
and suppose you're trying to look at this firefly
flying around this lighthouse from 3000 miles away.


TRANSIT METHOD
When a planet move in front of star, the star would get dimmer
and you would notice that.
It's called the transit method of discovering a planet.
...
The amount of light it blocks
tells how big the planet is.


RADIO VELOCITY METHOD
The tranist method works if the observer of the telescope
is in the same plane as the star and its planets.
But if you're above or below the system
another technique, called the radio velocity method
might be used.

That method depends on careful observations of a distant star
to watch if it's being gravitationally tugged.
back and forth by an unseen exoplanets.


[If Star has iron so its planets have iron]
Astronomers have found a relationship between the composition of a star
and the probability that it may have planets.
The stars that have heavier elements in them
the iron and the nickel and the silicon
have heavier elements for a good reason.
...
And in so doing left some placental material around them
that eventually coagulated into the planets.


RIGHT SIZE
"Astronomers calculated that the smallest a palnet can be is
one-third of Earth's mass
On the high side, a habitable palnet
cannot be greater than 10 times our Earth's mass."


LAST DECADE.
"A little over 10 years ago
we had no known extrasolar planets at all.
The only planets we knew of were those orbiting our Sun.


FIRST EXOPLANET
"In the Pegasus constellation, some 50 light years form Earth
the planet 51 Pegasi B can be found.
It was the first planet discovered outside our solar system,
a gas giant as big as Jupiter.
4 days orbit around its Sun.


The planet 70 Virgins B is even farther away than Pegasi
60  ligty years
It's 7.5 times as massive as our Jupiter.


Trace 4,
is over 1.5 time the diameter of our Jupiter
making it the largest planet found so far.
Its' 1400 light years from Earth.
3.5 days orbit its sun.


Astronomers haven't been able to find
true Earth-like planets outside our solar system
... relatively small such rocky planet.


GLIEE 581 C
20.5 light years from Earth
in the Libra constellation.
5 times mass of our Earth.
Super Venus
600 degrees


GLIEASE 581 D
SUUPER EARTH


HD 69830 D
"This is a big planet,
17 times the size of our Earth.
42 light years away.
in the constellation Puppis.

"HD 69830 D is a potential planet where life could form
because it has aprox. the right temp.


Venus, Earth, and Mars
Venus is in the wrong place.
Mars is the wrong size.
Earth is the right place and the right size.


"There's a number of reasons why Alpha Centauri
is the best star in the sky for hunting for Earths.

Alpha Centaury has higher metallicity than our own Sun does.


The first exoplanet-finding mission will be Kepler
which launches in 2009.


Planets are 10 billion times dimmer than its star.

_____________________________

The Universe: Stopping Armageddon

The Universe : STOPPING ARMAGEDDON
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 8

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:
STOPPING ARMAGEDDON
[stopping asteroids to hit the Earth]


"There are three fundamental steps
to stopping Armageddon.
Detection and Mitigation
comprise the first two.
The third and maybe most challenged one of all
is who makes the decision when to act.
...
Right now,
there are no protocols
about what to do,
when to act,
and who makes these decisions.
in the event
of an imminent Earth impact.

______________________

The Universe: Living in Space

The Universe :LIVING IN SPACE
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 7

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:

LIVING IN SPACE
[living in Mars]

" ... the sky on Mars is not so blue.
It's red because all of this oxidized dust that's aloft.
and these winds blowing all the time."


BIOSPHERE 2


ROBONAUT
"His motions get translated into robot motions."


"The Martian soil, or regolith,
is an inconsistent resource.
... They cannot rely on Mars' soil
to nurture plants from Earth.

____________________________

The Universe: Deadly Comets and Meteors

The Universe :DEADLY COMETS AND METEORS
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 6

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:


Asteroids and Comets
hold secrets of universe
and building blocks of life
and
also enemy.


Asteroids
"Because they were formed at the same times as Earth
asteroids contain the same basic elements
we find on our planet to build things.


Fragments of asteroids
that actually survive an impact
with the Earth's surface
are called METEORITES.


Asteroid Belt - After Mars
Kuiper Belt - After Neptune - Ice and Dust bodies
Oort Cloud - couple of light years from Sun,


"In 1986, the Giotto spacecraft
became the first mission to fly by a comet.
It was Comet Halley.
the only one known to return within our human lifetime.
also visible to the naked eye.


"The so-called carbonaceous chondrite types of asteroids
which are typically found
in the outermost reaches of the main asteroid belt
have an almost exact match
between their deuterium-to-hydrogen ratios and Earth's oceans.


"Jupiter's gravity or light pressure from the Sun
can bump these cosmic relics out of the asteroid belt.
Similarly, the gravity from planet Neptune
can nudge comets out of the Kuiper Belt.


"65 million years ago, a cosmic object
roughly six miles across
impacted the Yucatan Peninsula
near the modern village of Chicxulub, Mexico.
It produced kinetic engergy equivalent to
eight billion Hiroshima atomic bombs.

Many scientists now believe the impact event
extinguished 75% of animal and plant species.

The next Chicxulub-sized impact
is estimated to occur 35 million years from now
but one can never by too certain when it comes to space rocks.


Somwhere on the order of 85 to 95 percent
of the objects that collide with the Earth
come from the main asteroid belt.


Although most potentially hazardous objects are asteroids
comets reamin a legitimate threat.
These icy bodies, which come from the outer solar syatem
can travel three times faster than asteroids.
so it takes only 9 months
for them to get from the orbit of Jupter
to the orbit of Earth.


Fortunately, Jupiter acts as a planetary shield.
It deflects or absorbs comets that drift towards Earth.
And scientists now have the pictures to prove it.
On July 22, 1994, telescopes around the world
caught a glimpse of one of the most violent comet impacts
in the history of humanity.

A String of about 20 comet fragments named Shoemaker-Levy 9
crashed into the upper cloud decks of Jupiter.


On June 30, 1908,
the biggest cosmic disaster in recorded human history
on Earth occurred in Russia.
A large object exploded in Siberia's remote Tunguska wilderness.


smallaer asteroids can create significant damage at the surface.

It's estimated to happen once every 500 years.

Believe it or not,
Earth takes a hit
from soccoer ball-sized space rocks every day.
Most go unseen.
But in 1992, amateur video caught a meteorite.
flash across the nighttime sky.


Congress mandated that NASA must detect
over 90% of near-Earth objects.
over a half-mile in diameter.


APOPHIS, size of city
This space rock will make a close pass
near Earth on April 13, 2029.

___________________________

The Universe: Alien Faces

The Universe :ALIEN FACES
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 5

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29




EXCERPTS:
ALIEN FACES
[imaginary alien worlds and imaginary alien creatures.]



ERONEL orbits the M star a red dwarf.
ERONEL one face always to star as Moon to Earth,
"This would mean that half of Eronel is constantly in daylight
and the other half is constantly in darkness.
In the middle, there would be a 200-mile-wide area
constantly in twilight.


Theoretical planet AG-143
orbits a bright F-class star.


On Earth, our atmosphere is
79% nitrogen, 20% oxygen
and 1% other gases.


planet GPC-925
89 light years away.
half the size of earth.


Theoretical Planet, YANEER G
72 light years
8 moons


"When the tiems comes
that the people of Earth
discover life in the cosmos
or that life finally decide
to reveal itself to the human race
it may not be a biological entity at all.
Rather than flesh, blood and corbon
we might be met with steel and silicon
a machine.


Theoretical planet GAIA' LEO
_________________________

The Universe: Sex in Space

The Universe : SEX IN SPACE
History Channel
Season. 3 Episode. 4

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Universe_%28TV_series%29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW3qvfWjINA


EXCERPTS:


"The number one enemy of sex in space
is Isaac Newton's 3rd law of motion
for every action, there's an equal and opposite reactions.
So we're going to have to learn, tediously
a new law of human behavior when it comes to sex in space.
- MICHIO KAKU

Ready to test that law and boldly go
where no man and woman have gone before is
VANNA BONTA.


G-FORCE ONE
a modified Boeing 737
that produces the effect of weightlessness.


Vanna (and husband Allen) was invited on the aricraft's maiden voyage in 2004.

A pair of 2suit prototypes have been manufactured
and they're about to be throughly tested
38,000 feet above Nevada.

To crate the effects of zero gravity
G-Force One takes a parabolic vertical flight path.
As the pilot arcs the aircraft over the peak of the parabola
the occupants experince about 30 seconds of weighlessness.


MICRO GRAVITY
When you take a human and put them in a micro-g setting
the bones are losing calcium
the heart is getting lazy, it's losing mass
the skeletal muscle is losing mass
You lose red cells mass,
you lose plasma volume.

ANIMALS IN SPACE
The first animal
to successfully mate in space
was the medaka fish,
which flew on the space shuttle in 1994.


A study with rats aboard
a 1995 space shuttle mission.
showed an abnormal behavior in newborns.
For the fist week after birth,
the young rat pups
weren't able to turn themselves from their backs to their bellies
which is a very characteristic response in rats.
We think that rearing them in micro-gravity
cause that sensory system to be under stimulated by gravity.


In fact, there's one evidence that men tend to have erections
easier in space because of the fluid shift.
The conclusion?
Males need to worry less about performance issues
in space than they do on Earth.


We do have a small sample size of four shuttle crew members
who basically said that their sexual desire
actually decreased on orbit,
and this correlated
with decreased testosterone levels as well.


If gravity affects all aspects of certebrate development
then there are profound implications
when you consider successful procreation.


Earth-Suit
for space born man, when visiting Earth.


What better opportunity to figure out how to do it right
than NASA's planned three-year mission to Mars.
But will sex be invited along for the ride?


NASA currently has plans to return humans to the Moon,
by the year 2020.
That's just a warmup for the main event
a three-year voyage to Mars and back.


Despite NASA's denials
and their history of avoiding the subject
some say sex has already occured on a u.S. space flight.


in 1992, Davis and Lee (married couple) blasted off
for a 7 day mission aboard the space shuttle Endeavor.


NASA has no official policy banning sex in space.
But they do have a policy against sending married couples into space.

Davis and Lee met during mission training
fell in love, and wed just before liftoff.

Mark Davis and Jane Lee have refused to confirm
or deny the rumors.


Russian have been more involved in the issue of zero gravit sex.
and sex in space than the Americans have.
The Russians are a little bit more open-minded.


In space;
The faces get a little bit more flush,
woman's breast get larger.
The legs are thinner because there's less fluid down there.
Women don't need bras because there's nothing to pull them down.


It seems inevitable
that where humans go
sex will surely follow
even into the cold,
vast reaches of the universe.

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