Astronaut fertility problem, according to the Times, 25 October 2014. The potential hazards of radiation in space are well known, so much so that NASA now offers to freeze astronauts’ eggs and sperm before they are sent into space. Scientists claim that the weightlessness, or microgravity, of space flight can interfere with the normal function of ovaries and testes. Male rats in simulated weightlessness became unable to produce sperm, and female mice sent into space had significantly smaller ovaries with damage to the corpus luteum, a structure that produced progesterone. At a conference organised by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Joseph Tash, of the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Kansa commented: “We don’t really have the human data to really determine whether what we are seeing in the animals is translatable to humans. But we are seeing big impacts in the animals”.
Editorial Comment: The hazards of weightlessness on the human body are already well-documented, including weakening of muscles and loss of bone density plus accelerated aging of cells. The hazards of radiation to the human are also well known, including astronauts returning with damage to eyes as well as reproductive organs. Astronauts currently only work in low earth orbit for months at a time, but any expeditions to Mars would take astronauts outside the protection of the Van Allen belts that shield the earth from much radiation, and would involve astronauts spending much longer times in microgravity.
Animal and human studies of the effects of space flight are a reminder that God made man of earth and He gave the earth into the hands of men to live in the environment that God provided. His first command was for man to multiply and fill the earth, (Genesis 1:28). and we haven’t even done that.
If microgravity and radiation makes men and women infertile then any dreams of colonising the moon or other planets are strictly science fiction. The moon and planets were put there by God to serve mankind, but not as potential living spaces. Genesis tells us they are there for “signs and seasons and days and years”. (Genesis 1:14) (Ref. reproduction, sterility, space exploration)
Evidence News vol. 14 No. 18
29 October 2013
Creation Research Australia