#metoo in space: we must address the potential for sexual harassment and assault away from earth

A new dawn of space exploration is upon us. NASA aims to land the first woman and person of colour on the moon by the end of 2025, and send a crew on a year-and-a-half long mission to Mars

in the 2030s. To ensure a safe and pleasurable journey to the final frontier, national agencies such as NASA and private companies such as SpaceX must address both the technical and human

factors associated with working and living in space. Yet, the realities of sexuality and intimacy in space are mostly omitted. How will people be able to live for prolonged periods of time

in the isolated, confined and extreme conditions of spacecrafts and other planets? How will people navigate falling in love, having sex and beginning and ending relationships under such

conditions? How will people deal with the stress, limited choice of intimate partners and issues related to consent? And how will sexual harassment or assault be prevented or addressed? On

Oct. 15, 2017, #MeToo ushered in a global movement against sexual harassment and assault. As researchers exploring human factors in space and space sexology — the study of intimacy and

sexuality away from Earth — we argue that it is time to plan for the future of #MeToo in space. ------------------------- _ READ MORE: LOVE AND ROCKETS: WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO HAVE SEX

IN SPACE FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL AND WELL-BEING _ ------------------------- SEXUAL ASSAULT AND SPACE RESEARCH On Dec. 3, 1999, Judith Lapierre, a Canadian nurse and social medicine researcher,

embarked on a 110-day Mars simulation experiment aboard a Mir Space Station replica in Moscow. Lapierre was the only woman in an eight-member crew. One month into the study, the Russian

chief commander discussed running an experiment where Lapierre would be treated as the crew’s sexual object. On New Year’s Eve, he stated it was time to “do the experiment,” and forcibly

grabbed and kissed Lapierre despite her repeated requests to stop. Lapierre notified the Canadian Space Agency and informed her Austrian crew commander, who immediately demanded action from

the local and international management. When interviewed by the media after the experiment, Lapierre opened up about her expectations of a safe, harassment-free and violence-free working

environment. Yet some Russian news outlets blamed and misrepresented her as depressed and the cause of unrelated problems, including a physical altercation between Russian crew members. The

aggression during the simulation experiment were reduced to cultural differences. And since then, Lapierre’s time in the space sector became an uphill battle because she spoke out. As she

describes in Rudolph and Werner Herzog’s 2022 film _Last Exit: Space_: > “When that mission finished, it really influenced my whole career > because I thought this would be the start 

of my research project > with the space agency or the start of my field of work, but I was > just totally pushed out of the system.” OTHER RESEARCH CONTEXTS Lapierre is not alone.

Sexual harassment has also happened in other contexts similar to the extreme conditions of actual and simulated space environments. A 2022 report commissioned by the National Science

Foundation (NSF) showed that out of the 290 female respondents, 72 per cent and 47 per cent agreed that sexual harassment and sexual assault, respectively, are a problem in the United States

Antarctic Program (USAP). As one of the survivors reported: > “I know none of this is news to you, it’s just a known fact > around station. It’s so self-evident that [it’s] barely 

worth > speaking out loud. [Sexual assault and sexual harassment] are a fact > of life [here], just like the fact that Antarctica is cold and the > wind blows.” The NSF report

highlights the lack of adequate prevention, reporting and response systems, as well as the lack of support for victim-survivors and the lack of trust in human resources and USAP leadership.

And only a minority of the leadership agreed that sexual harassment (40 per cent) and sexual assault (23 per cent) are a problem in the USAP. ------------------------- _ READ MORE: ANTARCTIC

STATIONS ARE PLAGUED BY SEXUAL HARASSMENT – IT'S TIME FOR THINGS TO CHANGE _ ------------------------- This is not limited to the USAP. In 2021, employees of the aerospace companies

Blue Origin and SpaceX came forward with an alarming array of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations. In an open essay, a group of 21 current and former employees of Blue Origin

denounced a sexist work culture, inappropriate behaviours toward women and cases of sexual harassment by senior leaders. NO END IN SIGHT? For humankind to safely take its next steps into the

universe, the culture of space exploration must change. These harrowing events call for national agencies and private space companies to adopt a proactive stance against sexual harassment

and assault. NASA and other space organizations must go beyond implementing basic anti-harassment policies. They must devote the necessary resources to put in place proper prevention,

reporting and response infrastructures, including the support and protection of victim-survivors. This may include the creation of separate oversight entities composed of sexologists and

qualified health and psychosocial professionals. This may also include investing in the study of human relationships and sexual health in space. Victim-survivors need to be part of the

conversation and solutions, every step of the way. This is essential to ensure the safety of Earth-based and space environments, and ethically conduct much-needed scientific research on

human spacelife. > “It is time, more than ever, to meet the real challenges of space > exploration, with honesty, transparency, and by recognizing that > Earth’s unacceptable 

behaviors are also Space’s unacceptable > behaviors for a spacefaring civilization.” _Emily Apollonio, CEO of Interstellar Performance Labs, co-authored this article._