The Universe

In the beginning, there was darkness...

and then, bang...

giving birth to an endless expanding existence...

of time, space, and matter.

Now, see further than we've ever imagined...

beyond the limits of our existence...

in a place we call "The Universe."

Sex is the most basic of human drives.

It propagates the species, connects us...

provides pleasure, and permeates our culture.

As human beings expand their habitat...

to include the vast reaches of space...

are we prepared to take sex with us?

The future of the human race itself...

may eventually depend on one question:

can we have sex in space?

The first baby to be born off-world...

is going to be a historic day for humanity.

I think that people will be surprised...

at how much work it is to have sex in space.

You've heard of the mile-high club.

I've been talking about the 200-mile-high club.

Prepare to experience "Sex in Space."

When scientists envision our future in space...

they see cities on the Moon, colonies on Mars...

and, eventually, human expansion throughout the cosmos.

If we are going to make the jump...

between a terrestrial species and a celestial species...

sex and reproduction will be part of that leap.

But, actually, performing sex in space...

is easier said than done.

The number one enemy of sex in space...

is Isaac Newton's laws of motion.

The third law of motion:

for every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction.

lf you push against something, it pushes against you.

So we're going to have to learn, tediously...

a new law of human behavior when it comes to sex in space.

Ready to test that law and boldly go...

where no man and woman have gone before is Vanna Bonta.

Vanna is the author of the quantum fiction novel "Flight"...

a poet, and a dedicated space advocate.

Once, someone I was working with said...

"You know, Vanna, some people think about...

"what they're having for lunch tomorrow...

"and you're thinking hundreds of years into the future."

Today, in Las Vegas, Nevada...

Vanna and her husband, Allen Newcomb...

are doing their part...

to usher in the future of human space exploration.

Vanna and Allen are rehearsing for a test of the first garment...

created to help facilitate sexual intimacy...

in the weightlessness of space.

Vanna calls her invention the 2suit.

The 2suit is a utilitarian garment...

that functions by itself as a flight suit...

and can unzip or attach with Velcro and attach to a partner's suit...

with very lightweight fabric inside that can expand.

Vanna and Allen will conduct the first ever test...

of her 2suit aboard G-Force One, a modified Boeing 737...

that produces the effect of weightlessness.

As the early designer of the interiors for G-Force One...

we discussed many, many things...

that could happen within that environment...

and sex and intimacy and floating as couples or more together...

is certainly one of the things.

l think the concept of the 2suit is perfect...

but I also think just the philosophy behind thinking...

thinking beyond normal into creating a suit...

for two people is wonderful.

This isn't Vanna and Allen's first trip aboard G-Force One.

Vanna was invited on the aircraft's maiden voyage in 2004.

The moment I first experienced gravity lift and micro-gravity...

it was unlike anything I ever imagined...

and you can think something physically...

and execute it by intent.

For example, I barely thought "somersault"...

and it was effortless.

It was exhilarating.

It was while trying to initiate an intimate moment with her husband...

that Vanna realized something was lacking from the weightless experience:

physical intimacy.

We somersaulted, we spun around, we flew, did various acrobatics...

but one impression that l really had...

was just how zero, zero gravity is in that there is no attraction.

You know, you just couldn't-- You just couldn't quite--

You know, you just really had to work at it.

Just for a kiss.

Vanna saw a future need and decided to fill it now.

The idea came to me of a 2suit...

which was a suit that you can hook up with your partner...

and then you don't have to work at staying close or hanging out.

And it's not just for sexual activity...

but intimacy, the feeling of intimacy and closeness...

of physical proximity, cuddling, cozy, hanging out.

A pair of 2suit prototypes have been manufactured...

and they're about to be thoroughly tested...

38,000 feet above Nevada.

I'm very excited to be testing the 2suit...

and actually creating the future is very exciting...

and very profoundly moving to me right now.

Being married to the creator of the 2suit is a real rocket ride.

Vanna is a brilliantly creative Renaissance woman...

and, besides, she's hot.

To create the effects of zero gravity...

G-Force One takes a parabolic vertical flight path.

As the pilot arcs the aircraft over the peak of the parabola...

the occupants experience about 30 seconds of weightlessness.

It's the same effect you feel on a roller coaster...

when you go over the top of a hill and fly out of your seat.

During the flight, Vanna and Allen's challenge...

is to complete one docking maneuver, kiss, and then undock...

before the aircraft comes out of its parabola and gravity returns.

Vanna created her 2suit...

to be worn on long-duration space flights.

But on G-Force One, she and Allen will have...

less than 30 seconds of weightlessness...

to put the suit through its paces.

During the first two parabolas, Vanna and Allen...

acclimate themselves to weightlessness.

On the third parabola, their docking attempt is interrupted...

by a group of wayward passengers.

During the next several parabolas...

Vanna and Allen struggle against time...

and the whims of weightlessness to achieve docking.

Finally, on the eighth parabola, a successful docking, a kiss...

and a successful undocking.

Well, l would call the mission a success.

I think it's a functional design, and I would like to test it...

in more prolonged zero-gravity conditions...

because l think that really will be the next step.

I was pleased with it and really enjoyed the flight.

Vanna's 2suit is just one small step...

towards humankind colonizing the universe.

The giant leap will occur when we actually begin...

making babies in space.

What little we know about reproductive...

and developmental biology in space...

suggests to us that there are going to be huge problems...

if the species tries to make a single jump...

from a terrestrial civilization to a weightless civilization.

The first problem is zero gravity...

or more accurately, micro-gravity.

When we have a space shuttle or space station orbiting Earth...

we call it micro-gravity because gravity is still present...

and there's still a slight pull towards the Earth.

It's just not very strong.

When you take a human and put them in a micro-g setting...

the bones are losing calcium...

the heart is getting lazy, it's losing mass...

the skeletal muscle is losing mass.

You lose red cell mass, you lose plasma volume.

The second problem is high-energy radiation...

atomic-scale particles that fill the vacuum of space.

There is a possibility of sterility caused by exposure to radiation...

and this has been something...

that we've seen from nuclear power plants...

and people who work around high doses of radiation.

These radiation particles on Earth were shielded...

by a magnetic field in the Earth's atmosphere...

but in space, they can move unimpeded...

until they hit something like human tissue.

And when that happens, they can kill the cell...

or they can just damage it.

And when they damage it, what happens is...

they will take out part of your DNA...

but the cell still lives and replicates, and that cell then mutates.

This is the same thing as we know of as cancer on Earth.

To see how micro-gravity and high-energy radiation...

might affect sexual reproduction...

scientists have conducted animal tests in space.

Animal studies are really the first step...

before we can take a human into space...

and have them become pregnant or give birth.

So you have conception.

You have the development of a placenta.

You have the development of organ systems prenatally.

You have the process of birth.

All of these things are in common...

between small animals and humans.

The first animal to successfully mate in space...

was the medaka fish, which flew on the space shuttle in 1994.

The medaka study, the animals mated in space...

they laid eggs, and the babies hatched in space...

telling us that all of those aspects of reproduction...

are possible in a fish.

But people are mammals, and there are many intricate phases...

involved in mammalian development...

from the start, conception, all the way through birth.

A study with rats aboard a 1995 space shuttle mission...

showed an abnormal behavior in newborns.

For the first week after birth, the young rat pups...

weren't able to turn themselves from their backs to their bellies...

which is a very characteristic response in rats.

We think that rearing them in micro-gravity...

caused that sensory system to be understimulated by gravity...

and, hence, it developed differently in space.

Other experiments have shown even more severe effects.

Studies have shown that male rats that have flown in space...

when you mate them to non-flown female rats after their flight...