genuinegirly

What happens to breasts in orbit?
Do Astra-nauts wear bras, or are they unecessary in microgravity?
It must feel freeing to be unburdened by the usual weight. I suppose anyone who has experienced freefall (skydiving?) would have some perspective on the matter.
What do you say, TFP? Enlighten me!

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

wooÐs

I'm guessing they would feel like they do when you're in a bath or pool. Just kinda floating around...

Willravel

Female astronauts don't wear bras, they wear custom space suits which are built to fit their whole body. They don't squish or anything, but for a well-endowed woman they restrict some of the movement of the breasts that happens in zero or low gravity.

Edit: Source - space camp.

FuglyStick

Space boobs? Form fitting spandex, of course

__________________
AZIZ! LIGHT!

Shauk

I wonder if/when we ever live in low/no-grav environments if we'll just literally have a case of the moon-babes on our hands since the age+gravity effect will go away ;P

Plan9

I'm waiting until I can pay for some hot anti-gravity fuck action.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

dlish

now you have me thinking about what happens to my scrotum in space

i hope they dont just 'float around'. i expect the crown jewels to be below my penis, and not hovering above it!

__________________
An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

ratbastid

There's no "above" in zero-g.

You guys seen the video with the sphere of water in zero-g? I imagine boobs behave more or less the same way.

Willravel

Sex in space is, um, complicated. First of all, Newton's third law goes right out the airlock, so when you thrust into her, the force from your hips will move her whole body back, which means bracing yourself a lot more than normal. Then comes the sperm. If any of that gets out, and it will, you're going to have that shit everywhere because they're all swimming in a million different directions. They won't just necessarily float slowly like when you see Tang floating in zero-g.

Oh, and without gravity, I have no idea how the circulatory system might try and give you extra blood pressure for an erection. Humans generally have lower blood pressure in zero-g, so it's possible that it would be more difficult to get stiff.

All that said, there are a few good parts. Humans perspire more in space, so it's possible that the astronaut lady will become more wet. Also, the fact that there's no gravity means less flab, which I suppose would be nice.

I've obviously never thought about this before.
This alone is a good reason to shoot Lindsay Lohan into orbit.

telekinetic

If only we had an expert on the effects of microgravity among us...

In any case, I'd imagine the "floating in water" analogy is a very accurate one, since neutral boyancy is a good analog for micro/zero gravity. Although, they'd be less damped, so I imagine if you got appropriately vigerous, there could be very aesthetically interesting oscillations...think, 3D bouncing.

__________________
twisted no more

Willravel

Okay, I'm looking for volunteers. I need a willing lady and a billion dollars. Also, a Victoria's Secret catalogue. Let's do some science.

ratbastid

Oooh, Will, I think I'm gonna have to take exception to your physics work there...

Newton's third law most certainly does NOT go out the window in a microgravity environment. If it did, the Shuttle's navigation thrusters could never put it in a docking posture with the IIS, among other things. In fact, without gravity to add an extra vector of acceleration to the equation, the action-and-reaction behavior gets pretty straightforward.

Imagine you and your good lady are floating in zero g, right in the center of a 10' diameter sphere. Absent any outside action on your bodies, provided you stay "united", you won't move an inch. You have nothing to push against to give any sort of acceleration to yourself, and every action you take has a reaction back against you. Your thrust into her doesn't actually impart her any momentum because of the negative acceleration of your hips at the end of your thrust. And since she's in free-fall too, no pushing or pulling against her (I'll get to an exception in a second) is going to result in any delta-V for the combined pair of you. Fuck all you want--you'll never significantly move toward the wall of your sphere.

Now, you CAN impart momentum to each other individually. That's easy to picture--just touch your hands against her hands and push off. You'll move away from each other. Ba da bing. Same way a rocket works--you've thrown mass in one direction to propel your craft in the other direction. But my point is, the *combined "fucking" mass* of the two of you will never be able to push or pull against itself in any way that imparts momentum to *your combined mass*.

I'm discounting "swimming", because frankly air resistance is insufficient for any real acceleration that way, and because human beings aren't really built for it. I leave it to you to bio-engineer an air-breathing jellyfish, so we can test whether such a thing is possible for an idealized body form.

I don't know if it's any different on a cellular level, but I still suspect that a sperm-tail flagellating in the air isn't going to work too well for propulsion. Sperm evolved to swim in fluids.

Charlatan

I find it hard to believe that *none* of the astronauts living on the space station haven't put all of this to the test.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

telekinetic

I think space sex would be quite possible. All that would be needed is a 12" wide lycra ring big enough to go around both participant's hips, that was also anchored with bungies to at least 3 points inside the room. Essential equipment for banging the big-breasted green chicks from planet X!

Attached Images

spacesex.gif (12.4 KB, 257 views)

__________________
twisted no more

Lady Bear Cub

__________________
"I give myself very good advice,
But I very seldom follow it,
Will I ever learn to do the things I should?"

Willravel

I suppose I could have been more clear. What I mean to say is that when hips meet in thrust, unless you've got computers and servos in place to ensure that there's equilibrium in place, you're really going to need to brace yourself well, much better than you might on earth. I can just imagine a thrust simply kocking two naked astronauts towards opposite directions of the "mating pod". The newton's third law thing was more about colorful language than anything else.
They did, but they also developed to swim upstream and through some interesting obstacles. In zero gravity, I'd not be surprised of the flagellum could operate, if not as effectively, similarly to how it normally works in liquid. Anyway, this is all postulation until I get my billion dollars.

Good use of flagellating, btw.

Reese

Well, Ya see, There's this heavy boob theory.. An A-cup would probably float in place, while a D-cup would float slowly toward the nearest large object.. a FF or higher would likely have a gravitational effect and draw in objects nearby. Actually, Each boob would probably begin orbiting each other faster and faster until they collided and formed a black hole.

__________________
“It is better to be rich and healthy than poor and sick” - Dave Barry

Willravel

/thread

Shauk

/nominate thread for hall of fame

Willravel

Found a picture!

They look like that, only less hangy.

LoganSnake

Boobs become mini parachutes?

__________________
Maturity is knowing you were an idiot in the past. Wisdom is knowing that you'll be an idiot in the future. Common sense is knowing that you should try not to be an idiot now. - J. Jacques

ratbastid

I'm assuming here that you can manage to cling onto your partner, that your wild-ass thrusting doesn't overpower your ability to use your arms and legs to keep from being pushed apart. That doesn't happen in normal sex even when the direction of thrust is perpendicular to gravity, or for that matter underwater (ask me how I know!), so I think it can be factored out. Obviously if you're not hanging on, a pelvis is just as good as a hand for pushing away from somebody.

There are really only three things a mass can do to accelerate itself in zero g. One is to push some of its mass away from itself like a rocket does, or like our two lovers pushing off against each other. Another is to have a force act on it from outside, like some external mass hitting you. The third is to apply resistance against a gyroscope, which can impart rotational acceleration.

There's literally no way that reconfiguring the mass of a space ship (which is what we're talking about here) can make any change to the orientation or velocity of the ship.

This is why the IIS is designed so you're never more than an arm's length away from a hand-hold. If you could get yourself stranded out in the middle of a module, you'd be boned (if you'll pardon) until somebody comes and hauls you back to a wall. No gyrations you could perform could even change your orientation--you could twist your arms around to the right and get your torso facing slightly to the left, but then reaching back around to the left to grab whatever hand-hold you're trying to reach would just re-orient you back how you were first facing. The 3rd Law giveth, and the 3rd Law taketh away.

So... If you had enough room, could you go nuts in space without straps and restraints? Hypothetically, sure. I actually think the SEX part would be physically very easy. Problem is, you're almost never without some drift. And nothing kills the mood like banging your head into something (as we know from earthly mating!). Or, say, accidentally floating out of your private room into a common area. Embarrassing! So I suspect that in practice, velcro is your friend. But not because the motions of sex will propel you around, just because station-keeping is damn near impossible under these circumstances.

/sci fi reader

GreyWolf

Sex is possible in space... we've done experiments using living animals. Conception has occurred. Unfortunately, the long-term effects on gestation, birth and development haven't been studied due to the short nature of our space flights.

As for human sex, it's possible, too. The Russians (reportedly) have had couples copulate in space. The inertia of a human body, as well as the natural tendency to hold on somewhat in most sex positions, make the absence of gravity not much of a problem to thrusting. Or so the theory goes. Like Will, I'm prepared to suffer in the name of science to prove (or disprove) the possibility of human sex in weightless conditions, should any of the fairer sex here be interested in joining me.

__________________
The secret to great marksmanship is deciding what the target was AFTER you've shot.

wooÐs

I honestly can't believe this thread has gone on like it has.

The power of boobs.

GreyWolf

A question about boobs? and space? and you find it hard to believe it's caught on here?? Are there better things to discuss?

__________________
The secret to great marksmanship is deciding what the target was AFTER you've shot.

wooÐs

You're right. Space and boobs.
...did I just here the crack of a beer can opening?

Plan9

No, that's the sound of the fly on my Levi's.

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

Lady Bear Cub

Wouldn't the sperm float around and cause equipment to malfunction? I was at the Houston Space Center and they said they had a similar problem with certain foods.. I'm assuming we are talking about sex inside a space craft.

__________________
"I give myself very good advice,
But I very seldom follow it,
Will I ever learn to do the things I should?"

Redlemon

In a bit of searching, I found this quote: A quick Google for more information on this research experiment located several torrents. I leave the rest of the research as an exercise to the reader.

__________________
I can't read your signature. Sorry.

JStrider

I actually have a friend who works at nasa, his team approves everything that is brought on to the space shuttle... I'll ask him and see what he says.

__________________
-=JStrider=-

~Clatto Verata Nicto

Willravel

Maybe ask for pics!

ratbastid

Yeah, well, any loose liquid inside a spacecraft is bad news. Water has pretty high surface tension so it tends to ball up under microgravity. But it can make lots of tiny droplets, and they go everywhere. I imagine loose semen would do the same. Again, I'm not convinced the flagellation behavior of individual sperm cells would add much to the behavior of the semen, but just as a loose liquid, it's something to be avoided.

Space condoms to the rescue!

ZombieSquirrel

Confession....

When I read the title of this thread I thought it said "Boobs w/out GRAVY."

Ok carry on with the actual discussion.

__________________
Attack ZombieSquirrels

genuinegirly

Well, it is nearly Thanksgiving...

__________________
"Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq

"violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

Plan9

Brown gravy or white gravy?

*rimshot*

(remembers Tinychat sessions that dealt with boob/meat combinations*

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

MSD

Unfortunately, the chest muscle will atrophy without gravity and they'll get saggy anyway.

Lucifer

but they'll still float, right?

__________________
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

Zeraph

I really really want to see this experiment. Also, boobs underwater or free falling (outside a plane) would be way different than micro-gravity or 0-gravity as the water pressure and air pressure would keep them more confined.

ratbastid

Oh, I'm assuming we're talking about boobs in a pressurized environment. Zero-g doesn't mean hard vacuum.

Boobs in a vacuum.... I mean, frankly, the boobs' owner probably has more pressing matters on her mind than what her boobs are doing, ya know?

JStrider

I asked my friend about this.. he said that he was pretty sure they all wore bras of some sort... he said for the women with smaller boobs it was mostly out of habit/modesty... and for the larger boobed astronauts to keep them in place so they wouldnt just float around and get in the way.

__________________
-=JStrider=-

~Clatto Verata Nicto