WASHINGTON – The US space agency is to find out with a series ofexperiments if making space babies is possible, which would be of crucialimportance when the time to colonize planets comes. Elon Musk assists withhis Space X rocket.
The International Space Station crew and researchers on Earth will helpto determine how sperm behaves in microgravity to shed light on the abilityto make babies in space. According to NASAlink>,a set of experiments for the Micro-11 project is to fill the existing gap,as it’s still unclear how long spaceflights influence human reproductivehealth, particularly sperm quality.
The project would hopefully shed light on the viability of conceivingbabies in low gravity conditions. The research team claims that theinability to make space babies would endanger humankind in the likelihoodthat we have to leave our planet one day.
“As we plan to travel beyond the space station with thoughtsof colonization on the moon and Mars and other heavenly bodies, thequestion of whether or not multi-generational survival can occur — not onlyin animals but in humans — is a very fundamental question that needs to beaddressed,” said Joseph Tash, a researcher at the University of KansasMedical Center who is to check the sperm on Earth, cited by USA Today.
The lack of gravity challenges the ability to fuse an egg, although spermcan move more freely in weightlessness. “Delays or problems at this stagecould prevent fertilization from happening in space,” according to NASA’swebsite.