Sex...in Space

Disclaimer: I hope my sense of humor about this subject doesn't offend anybody!
My friend Sarah and I have a radio show on 91.3 from 5-6 on Mondays, and yesterday as we searched for something to talk about, Sarah stumbled across a very interesting article on reddit.com. I think the title pretty much says it all: "Which Sexual Positions Are Possible In Space? NASA knows..."

If you're like Sarah and me, you're probably getting a good chuckle out of that title right now. After the chuckling stopped, something occurred to me. Sex is pretty personal, and granted astronauts have to go through all kinds of embarrassing and overly-personal tests before they go up in space, but isn't this crossing the line just a little? It's one thing to say "We need you to test how the bathroom facilities work in space," or "We need to know how zero gravity affects your normal bodily functions," but to be told that you and your coworker are supposed to have sex in space while you're being monitored I think would be just a little too weird. But, I guess if we're really serious about wanting to colonize another planet someday, this is probably a pretty valid test.

The results were rather humorous (at least to me). They tested 20 positions by computer simulation to find the top 10 (by the way, you really ought to read this article for yourself; the astronauts are actually called "guinea pigs" at one point), which were then tested by the astronauts and videotaped.

*Side note: does it count as porn if it's in the name of scientific research?

Only four positions were possible without "mechanical assistance" (seriously, read the article!). One of their biggest findings was that the standard missionary position is not possible without gravity. I guess future generations will have to be a little more experimental in order to populate other planets...