Taking the High Road To Mars

Perhaps I am taking the "low" minded road.  I've been torn all day between blogging about The Naked Man Festival in Japan... as an example of exotic Festivals around the world that might be used as inspiration for world-building; or about Innovations that every science fiction author has freely given away in their work, only to see it also appear in someone else's work; or about sex.

I'm plumping for sex. Or rather, abstinence therefrom.

http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars144.html

You should follow that link.

The scientists'  "Recommendations include the possibility that male and female astronauts on a mission to Mars, should fly in separate space craft."

The scientists presuppose that both space craft will land safely. I think... if I were organizing the expedition,
and I really felt that the astronauts could not be induced to abstain from sex, and if hibernation were not to be a viable solution, I'd send along some deep-frozen embryos on the males' space ship, and some deep frozen semen on the females' space ship, just to hedge my bets.

The scientists' concerns stem from real life experiments aboard the Mir, and isolated in the Antarctic, and they conclude that "rape, murder, the monopolization of female astronauts by one or two high ranking males" are highly likely, and would be absolutely beyond the power of NASA (or the Russian space agency) to control.

Possibly Doria Russell was on to something, in THE SPARROW, when she sent Jesuits on space missions. What would be the calming effect and influence of an astronaut man --or woman-- of God on such a mission?

On the other hand, why not sent a latter day Noah's Ark? If there are to be three males and three females, why shouldn't they be stable and happily married couples? One of the consultants suggests that we send married couples, but the scientists worry about divorce.

Maybe, a different demographic would be a good idea. I'm just throwing this out. If sex is such a potential problem, what about a gay couple, a lesbian couple, and a straight couple? Wouldn't that be the perfect team for a long term, one-way, colonizing mission to Mars?

There must --surely-- be qualified couples.

If you are interested in SFR, you really should (IMHO) read this study.
http://journalofcosmology.com/Mars144.html

As for naked men, I don't know whether a .mp3 audio podcast can be shared via a Blogspot blog, but if it can be, here's the internet radio show I did yesterday with bestselling author Sally MacKenzie about her Naked Duke, and soon to come Naked King, and also with Mia Marlowe about her thoroughly distracted Duchess (Distracting The Duchess) who was expecting a nude model suitable to pose as Cupid, but a definite Mars revealed himself to her instead.

Have a great week.

Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/