Scientists Are Trying To Figure Out How We Can Bang In Space: "It Is A Real Concern"

In case you, like me, haven't been keeping up with the world of space travel, allow me to catch you up.

Basically, scientists are trying to figure out how to make it possible for human beings to take some more long-term trips to space... and maybe even move there permanently!

But in order to figure out how to make someone's potential ~extended stay~ in outer space as comfortable as possible, they obviously have to look into making sure all of our basic physical needs are met.

HuffPost UK reports that many of these needs have already been looked into: how to protect us from radiation, how to make sure we're properly nourished, and how to make sure we don't go nuts up there with minimal social interaction.

That all being said, there's one thing they still haven't looked into: sex.

OH, STOP BEING SO DANG BASHFUL ABOUT IT.

The fact of the matter is, just like our food, our clean air, and our sanity, most human beings also need sex. In fact, on the off chance you missed the whole "birds and the bees" talk from mom and dad, we need sex to keep the human race going.

So, yeah, it's a pretty big deal.

Assistant Professor Kris Lehhardt of George Washington University knows just how big of a deal it is.

In a recent panel for Atlantic Live, he pointed out that sex in space "real concern" that needs to be looked into much more extensively.

During the panel, he said, “Something we really don't know about is human reproduction in space.”

Obviously, reproduction is NBD if we're just talking about a couple months in space, but if people are really planning on extended stays in space in the future, we've gotta get that figured out.

Lenhardt highlighted the importance of this: “If we're talking about colonization, there's a key component to colonization that makes it possible and that is having babies and this is something we have frankly never studied."

He went on to explain that this is crucial "if we want to become a spacefaring species and live in space permanently."

A month ago, Japanese researchers did make the first small step into for reproduction in space by breeding a litter of mice pups with sperm kept in the International Space Station.

The researchers hoped that their findings could be the foundation for creating the first "lunar sperm bank" that will let humans store sperm samples on the Moon to keep humanity going in case of a natural disaster destroying the entire Earth.