# Sex in Space **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 18, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194 "2013-11-18T18:44:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GRobLewis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5e925/32.png) [@GRobLewis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GRobLewis)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/1 "2013-11-18T18:44:26Z")
Ah, Cecil, you have (at last) betrayed your ignorance! As anyone with a knowledge of basic physics would know, a Lava Lamp will not function in space, as it requires gravity. * * * LINK TO COLUMN: [Has anyone ever had sex in space? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1042/has-anyone-ever-had-sex-in-space) ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/2 "2013-11-18T19:08:31Z")
Well here’s a [link](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1042/has-anyone-ever-had-sex-in-space) to the column in question anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/3 "2013-11-18T19:08:32Z")
Link? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/4 "2013-11-18T19:31:57Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Link? [Airplane]It’s a way to look at information from another website without reposting all of the information here, but that’s beside the point.[/Airplane] ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2013, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/5 "2013-11-18T20:44:02Z")
Well, the lava lamp would glow and get hot, it just wouldn’t circulate. ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/6 "2013-11-19T05:53:04Z")
[http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=105965](http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=105965) An xkcd elaboration ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2013, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/7 "2013-11-19T12:17:15Z")
Ummm, Cecil knows exactly how lava lamps work: [How do lava lamps work? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/568/how-do-lava-lamps-work) In the sex-in-space column, he was making a joke. He often does. They’re sometimes lame. Oh, wait, he’s the boss – they’re always very, very funny. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/8 "2013-11-20T02:24:02Z")
I just wanted to say that this column is one of my top five favorites from Cecil. #1 is reserved for “Do male pigs really have corkscrew shaped penises?” That was my first introduction to the Straight Dope, I saw it in a student paper in Chicago in 1983-4 ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/9 "2013-11-20T03:56:29Z")
On to a point from the second supplementary column: in the late 50s / early 60s, serious proposals were made that (astronauts, of course, being all straight, manly men) it would be prudent, nay, imperative for NASA to institute a Whore Corps. This was probably the only time the same jumping-off point was used in short stories by _both_ Robert Heinlein and C. S. Lewis. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/10 "2013-11-20T13:44:48Z")
Cecil focuses mainly on American space missions, in which it is indeed unlikely that sex took place either on all-male missions or the zero-privacy Shuttle. But what about the Ruskies? I keep seeing references on this topic to the USSR’s Mir station and one particular time when the crew consisted of two Russian cosmonauts and an American female guest crew member. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/11 "2013-11-20T20:51:44Z")
You mean [Shannon Lucid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Lucid)? ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2013, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-in-space/674194/12 "2013-11-20T21:47:04Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > You mean [Shannon Lucid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Lucid)? I must admit that I had something of a crush on her in 1978.