Sex In Space? Research Into Making Babies During Space Exploration Is Underway

Spaceborn United has created a special disk that mixes the cells together to produce an embryo. The embryo would then be cryogenically frozen to pause its development and to protect it during reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. “It’s a lot of shaking, a lot of vibration, a lot of G-forces. You don’t want to expose embryos to this,” Edelbroek said.

Speaking of shaking, vibration, and G-spots—er—G-forces, any actual physical sex in space is still quite a ways off. Spaceborn’s current research is being done in simulated partial gravity conditions created in a laboratory here on Earth, but Edelbrock plans to launch “mice cells” into space by the end of next year. Meanwhile, the launch of a human embryo is at least five or six years away, making actual cosmic coitus unlikely until well into the next decade.