Can We Have Babies in Space?

There are many daunting challenges to sending humans to Mars, from its unfriendly climate to its extremely long commute. Mars is about 140 million miles from Earth (for comparison, the moon is 238,900 miles away) and would require years of commitment from a human crew. The current estimate holds that it would take nine months to reach Mars, and a minimum of three years to go there and come back to Earth. 

If humans ever become a multi-planet species, some would have to spend years in space, sequestered with one another for extended periods or even establishing long-term colonies over decades. And researchers have definitely speculated whether space travel would allow for reproduction.

Can humans procreate in space?

The answer: Possibly, but it’s probably a bad idea.

Human biology presents a few obstacles. The effects of microgravity and radiation exposure have been shown to cause DNA fragmentation in sperm and to lower sperm counts of male astronauts. But there is no reason to think conception is impossible, or even badly impeded, by the conditions of space.

In a 1997 experiment [PDF], astronauts carted sperm, donated by healthy male volunteers, to the Mir space station and released it into a chemical concoction meant to mimic passage through the cervix, uterus, and fallopian tubes. The microgravitational conditions enhanced their swimming ability.

In another experiment, freeze-dried mouse sperm was stored on the International Space Station for six years and then used to produce healthy mice on Earth, demonstrating little damage from prolonged exposure to space radiation. 

It’s much easier to study protential human reproduction in space with rodent stand-ins. Scientific research in actual humans is hampered by the dearth of women in space and by their genetic homogeneity. Varsha Jain, a clinician specializing in gynecology and obstetrics at the University of Edinburgh, has studied the effects of space on women’s health and told the BBC that, “Overall, about 650 people in U.S. and European data have been into space. Only 10 or 11 percent of those are female—so it’s not characteristic of the Earth-based population.”

But the evidence from the few dozen women who have stepped foot on the final frontier suggests that the environment does not significantly alter any function related to reproduction or pregnancy.

Could a baby be delivered in space? 

In 2019, a Dutch startup called SpacebornUnited announced plans to do just that. The company plans to launch a series of missions to develop, essentially, IVF in space, initially using animal cells and then scaling up to potentially include human deliveries in orbit. The company’s efforts may be hampered by the fact that surgery on humans has never been attempted in space, raising questions of how astro-medics would mitigate any pregnancy complications with all parties drifting in microgravity. There’s also the problem of floating bodily fluids, which could contaminate sensitive instruments on board a spacecraft.

The real quandary might come afterwards. Without gravity, a baby’s bones and muscles would not grow normally and blood would float through their body without the usual gravity-aided distribution. After a few years of life in space, such conditions might cause the baby’s face to puff up or other unsightly developments, according to the BBC. The child might not ever be able to live on Earth, either. The science community would need to decide if it would even be ethical to raise babies in space. Adults can consent to spending years away from the planet for which our biology evolved, but a newborn can’t.

If people insist on boldly going to space, for exploration or tourism, it seems inevitable that someday the first space baby will be born. Chris Impey, a University of Arizona professor of astronomy who has written extensively about space exploration, predicts it could happen “sometime around 2040.”

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