内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2026/having-sex-in-space-would-be-tricky-but-having-kids-in-space-is-riskier/

内容总结：

太空生育难题成深空定居“拦路虎”——专家警告：火星殖民或面临代际灭绝风险

近日，在西雅图举办的“深科技周”专题研讨会上，太空医学专家就太空环境下的生殖健康问题发出严厉警告。尽管与会者以幽默开场，讨论零重力环境下的“牛顿第三定律”如何影响太空亲密行为，甚至提及早期设计的特种宇航服，但话题迅速转向严肃核心：人类能否在太空成功繁衍后代。

美国先进太空生命研究所（ASRI）太空医学主任肖娜·潘迪亚指出，太空辐射对孕期的影响已有明确证据。去年研究显示，孕期暴露于太空辐射会“显著增加”新生儿先天缺陷风险。更近期研究表明，零重力环境会破坏哺乳动物的精子游动、卵子受精及胚胎发育。

ASRI创始人亚历克斯·莱恩德克透露一项惊人发现：曾搭载国际空间站的雌性小鼠返回地球交配后，第一代后代未见异常，但“孙辈小鼠”出现了显著的表型改变——体重和行为均产生差异。这一“冒烟手枪”级的证据暗示，太空环境的影响可能潜伏一代以上才显现。

前NASA约翰逊航天中心医疗负责人詹姆斯·洛根直言，火星三分之一重力或月球六分之一重力“很可能不足以支撑多代繁衍”。他认为，这两颗星球最终或只能作为“资源前哨站”，而非科幻作品中描绘的永久定居点。

与会专家警告，若人类无法成为“多行星物种”，单一星球物种终将因地质灾难而灭绝。但马斯克等星际殖民倡导者面临的根本悖论是：即使建立火星基地，若定居者无法生育，“Plan B”将在第一代后自动失效。

为此，ASRI已制定长达30年的“太空生殖生物学路线图”（SHARP计划），并考虑将研究拓展至对生殖科学监管更友好的欧洲。洛根表示，如今在NASA内部谈论太空性话题时，“窃笑的人越来越少”——而在他任职期间，这种“尴尬笑声”曾是阻碍相关研究的最大绊脚石。

中文翻译：

太空中的性爱，是轻松调侃和双关语的最佳话题。在西雅图Thinkspace举办的“深科技周”活动上，座谈嘉宾们从一开始就毫不避讳地拿这个开玩笑。

“我们都能想象，牛顿第三定律决定了，如果不加约束，你往里一顶，自己就会飞到飞船的另一头去了。”位于佛罗里达的先进太空生命研究所（ASRI）太空医学主任肖娜·潘迪亚说道。这一领域的早期先驱甚至设计过一款专为零重力亲密行为定制的太空服，在关键位置配备了翻盖和束带——给“爱的把手”这个词赋予了全新的含义。

不过，周五这场座谈的研究人员并没有过多纠结于太空交欢的力学问题。“操作上，我认为性爱反而是最简单的部分，”美国宇航局约翰逊航天中心前医疗运营主管詹姆斯·洛根表示，“真正的问题在于之后会发生什么。”

正因如此，座谈嘉宾们放下了轻松调侃，转而关注在地球之外的严酷环境中，怀孕和胎儿发育这些严肃课题。

去年，研究人员发现有证据表明，怀孕期间暴露在太空辐射下，胎儿出现先天性缺陷的风险会“显著升高”。更近期，另一组研究人员报告称，零重力条件会损害哺乳动物的精子导航、卵子受精以及胚胎发育。

ASRI创始人兼董事亚历克斯·莱恩德克表示，暴露在太空环境对健康的影响可能要等到一代人之后才会显现。这一推测基于一项研究：将雌性小鼠送上国际空间站，再带回地球与雄性小鼠交配。“第一代小鼠似乎没有太多差异，但当鼠孙代出生时——这是一个非常有力的铁证——它们的表型实际上发生了显著改变。”莱恩德克说，“它们在体重上有差异，行为上也有差异。”

所有这些，都可能成为《为了全人类》等科幻剧里描绘的那种太空定居计划的致命障碍——也严重动摇了SpaceX的亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克将一百万人送上火星的梦想。

“根据我的知识和经验，我认为三分之一重力（火星重力水平）是不够的，而如果三分之一重力不够，六分之一重力（月球重力水平）也同样行不通。”洛根说，“所以，月球和火星最终可能只会成为资源补给站，它们将始终是前哨基地。我并不认为，像人们所设想的那样，会有多代人——男人、女人和孩子——生活在月球上。”

莱恩德克表示，这引发了一个关于人类在地球之外未来的“存在性问题”，或许，也关乎人类的未来本身。“如果你无法让自己成为多行星物种，那么从数学上讲，随着时间的推移，单一行星物种是无法存续的。”他说，“在地球地质史上，距离某种灾难性事件真正终结人类命运的时间，其实并不多了。”

以马斯克为首的太空定居支持者，将火星、月球及其他天体上的定居点视为保障人类物种存续的B计划。但要让这个计划生效，人类必须能够在那里繁衍后代。“我们在这里做个假设。”莱恩德克说，“我们在火星上有一个定居点……地球则彻底毁灭了，所以地球上没有人类了，这颗行星变得无法居住。如果火星上的人无法生育、无法随时间繁衍下去，那么一代人之后，他们就会消亡。”

潘迪亚表示，基因工程或许能提供一条出路。她提到了《麻省理工科技评论》上发表的一篇相关文章。“他们论证说，对宇航员进行基因增强不是道德问题，”她说，“如果你不保护他们，就把他们送入高辐射、高危险的环境，那才更不道德。”

洛根表示，辐射防护措施和重力对抗措施，应该被视为未来太空定居者所需空气、水和食物同等重要的基本要素。然而，迄今为止，这些问题受到的关注却相对较少。

ASRI正试图为此做出改变：该研究所已经制定了一份长达30年的太空研究路线图，聚焦于生殖生物学——这项计划被称为“性健康与生殖规划”。它还计划将其业务拓展到欧洲，那里的监管环境对生殖科学更为友好，或许也会扩展到西雅图。

“我们是一个组织，我希望它能发展成遍布全球的多个组织。”莱恩德克说，“我希望我们不会永远是唯一一个‘太空性爱研究所’，因为要真正开始解决这个问题，需要成百上千、甚至成千上万的研究人员和参与者。”

尽管对太空性爱的严肃研究尚未取得实质性进展，但洛根看到了希望的曙光。“现在当你谈论太空性爱时，几乎没有人会咯咯笑了，因为人们对它的认知已经提高了。”他说，“他们知道，最终目标是让人类离开地球，所以现在很少有人会笑了——而在我为NASA工作期间，这种‘笑声因素’恰恰是进步最大的阻碍。”

英文来源：

Sex in space is the perfect subject for levity and double entendres, and the panelists at a Deep Tech Week session held at Thinkspace Seattle leaned into the humor early on.
“We can all imagine Newton’s Third Law dictates that, unrestrained, you get one thrust in and then you’re at the other end of the spacecraft,” said Shawna Pandya, chief of space medicine at the Florida-based Advanced SpaceLife Research Institute, or ASRI. Early pioneers in the field even designed a spacesuit customized for zero-G intimacy that was equipped with flaps and harnesses in strategic places — giving new meaning to the term “love handles.”
But the researchers at Friday’s session didn’t dwell on the mechanics of in-space intercourse. “I think the sex part will be the easiest part, operationally,” said James Logan, former chief of medical operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “The problems are what comes after that.”
For that reason, the panelists left the levity behind and focused on the serious subjects of pregnancy and fetal development in the challenging environment beyond our home planet.
Last year, researchers found evidence that exposure to space radiation during pregnancy would carry a “significantly higher” risk of producing congenital birth defects. More recently, a different set of researchers reported that zero-G conditions impaired sperm navigation, egg fertilization and embryo development in mammals.
Alex Layendecker, ASRI’s founder and director, said the health effects of exposure to the space environment might not show up until more than a generation later. That conjecture is based on a study of female mice that were flown on the International Space Station, and then brought back to be mated with males on Earth. “The first generation seemed not to have many differences, but when the grandchildren mice were born — and this was a really big smoking gun — the grandchildren mice actually had a significantly altered phenotype,” Layendecker said. “They had differences in mass. They had differences in behavior.”
All this could be a deal-killer for the kinds of space settlements seen in science-fiction shows like “For All Mankind” — and it casts serious doubt on SpaceX trillionaire Elon Musk’s dream of sending a million settlers to Mars.
“Based on my knowledge and experience, I don’t think one-third G (Mars-level gravity) is going to be enough, and if one-third G isn’t enough, one-sixth G (moon-level gravity) isn’t going to cut it, either,” Logan said. “So, it may be eventually that the moon and Mars will be resource depots. They will remain outposts. I don’t really believe that men, women and children of multiple generations are going to be living on the moon the way it is envisioned.”
Layendecker said that raises an “existential question” about humanity’s future beyond its home planet. And maybe about humanity’s future, period. “If you are not able to make yourselves multiplanetary, then mathematically, over the course of time, single-planet species don’t survive,” he said. “There is only so much time in Earth’s geological history before some cataclysmic event happens that eventually puts you out of the game.”
The proponents of off-Earth settlement, led by Musk, regard settlements on Mars, the moon and other celestial bodies as a Plan B guaranteeing the human species’ survival. But in order for that plan to work, humans have to be able to reproduce in those settlements. “Let’s theorize here,” Layendecker said. “We have a settlement on Mars … and Earth is completely wiped out, so no humans here. The planet is uninhabitable. If the people on Mars cannot have children and cannot reproduce over time, they’re going to die out one generation deep.”
Pandya said genetic engineering could provide a way out. She pointed to an article on the subject published by MIT Technology Review. “They make the argument that it’s not an ethical question to genetically enhance your astronauts,” she said. “It’s actually more unethical to send them into this high-radiation, dangerous environment if you’re not protecting them.”
Logan said radiation protection measures and gravity countermeasures should be considered as essential for future space settlers as air, water and food. So far, however, those issues have gotten relatively little attention.
ASRI is trying to do something about that: The institute has drawn up a 30-year roadmap for space research focusing on reproductive biology — an initiative known as Sexual Health and Reproductive Planning, or SHARP. It’s also looking to expand its presence to Europe, where the regulatory environment is friendlier to reproductive science, and perhaps also to Seattle.
“We are one organization that I hope blossoms into multiple organizations around the world,” Layendecker said. “I hope that we don’t remain the only ‘space sex institute’ that is out there, because it is going to take hundreds, probably thousands of researchers, thousands of people to really begin to tackle this problem.”
Even though the serious study of sex in space still hasn’t gotten past first base, Logan sees reason for hope. “When you talk about sex in space, nobody really giggles anymore, because people are more attuned to it,” he said. “They know the ultimate thing is to get humans off the planet, so very few people giggle anymore — and that giggle factor in my time at NASA was the largest impediment to progress.”