Sex in space? Sperm struggles to navigate without gravity, scientists find
Researchers set up a tiny ‘obstacle course’ for the little swimmers to study the difficulties of procreating on spaceships or other planets
Scientists have used a tiny plastic “obstacle course” to test how much sperm would struggle to navigate during sex in the weightlessness of space.
Some particularly resilient sperm still made it through the course, suggesting that conceiving children in space will still be possible, according to research published on Thursday.
However, a bigger problem could be that the development of embryos after fertilisation was harmed by a lack of gravity, the Australian team of researchers found.
With humanity setting its eyes on colonising space – next week Nasa hopes to launch its first crewed mission around the moon in half a century – scientists have been studying how difficult it will be to procreate on spaceships or other worlds.
One of the biggest challenges is that sperm will no longer be pulled downwards by Earth’s gravity.
“Sperm need to actively find their way to an egg, and this study is the first to put that ability to the test under space-like conditions,” said Nicole McPherson, a researcher at Adelaide University in Australia.