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A panel of US researchers suggest that NASA should study the effect of sexuality and romance on the crews of long space missions, warning that such interpersonal relationships may lead to violence, jealousy and other breakdowns in crew cohesiveness. With the prospects of returning to the moon and sending manned missions to Mars, I would agree with the suggestions made in this article in NewScientistSpace.com.

I have often wondered about how relationships could affect crews on naval ships and submarines, the International Space Station and the Federation Star Ship U.S.S. Enterprise. On the one hand, with a large enough group of people, it shouldn’t be any worse than a workplace romance (which isn’t to say those can’t get complicated, either). However, with smaller crews, such as those on the ISS or on any other manned mission with long-term, close quarters confinement, the potential for trouble should increase dramatically.

Looking at science fiction, I would consider relationships within a crew as large as that on the Enterprise akin to dating in high school or in college. If the members of the high school or college community were restricted to dating only within the community, obviously there would develop some tensions and other emotions between members (and interesting patterns of chains). For the most part, this is a bearable situation among the members of the community.

Then I look at Firefly and the various relationships on Serenity. I think the tensions and emotions would run wild for any similarly small and isolated crew, despite the relationships on Serenity being used as plot devices to create conflict. It really is surprising to me that with all the dreamed up space relations that have been written, it is just now on the eve of such major space exploration that a top panel of researchers is urging NASA to investigate the potential for problems.

Something else I have considered, which the article surprisingly did not even mention, was the effect that a pregnancy would have on a long-term mission. The article estimates a mission to Mars could easily take thirty months. The last time I checked, the human gestation period is about nine months (after finding out more during friends’ and acquaintances’ recent pregnancies, I’m not so sure anymore). If a crew member becomes pregnant during a mission, will the crew member keep the pregnancy? How will zero gravity affect the development of the fetus? What if the father wants nothing to do with the baby?

Perhaps I think too much about strange things. Or perhaps it is such thinking that could save a multi-billion dollar mission before it lifts off from Earth.