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| Image Courtesy of TENGA |
TENGA, a Japanese masturbation aid manufacturer, is going to make space history in a unique way. It will be the first adult corporation to send a sex toy to space while also attempting to retrieve a portion of the payload – a first for a non-US private enterprise.
The project was largely funded through the Campfire website,
which raised $1,833,680. (16,642.13 US dollars). Interstellar Technologies
(IST), a civilian spaceflight business, is working on the project. Its goal is
to make space more accessible by cutting the cost of getting stuff into orbit.
Depending on meteorological circumstances, the launch is planned to take place
between July and August from Hokkaido Spaceport.
The mission will be launched by IST's own MOMO rocket, which
is designed to lift payloads to a height of 100 kilometres (62 miles), which is
the arbitrary altitude at which space is thought to begin.
There are three goals for the TENGA Rocket Project. The first is to send 1,000 letters to space from supporters. Then, in space, it will issue a TENGA Robo action figure with his buddy Egg Dog. They'll eventually return to Earth, where TENGA will try to reclaim them. Finally, the company created a unique version of their TENGA Cup to collect information about space conditions.
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The TENGA Robo and its partner Egg dog will be the
"passengers". on the TENGA rocket. Image Courtesy of TENGA |
The company has a lofty ambition: to be the first to develop
a masturbation tool that can be used in space. The prospective equipment could
have a vacuum mechanism that can remove lubricant and semen from the device,
similar to how the space toilet can extract and store solid excrements before
being disposed of back on Earth.
TENGA President Koichi Matsumoto stated that the TENGA
Rocket will convey messages to space from our followers and supporters of the
project; messages of 'love' and 'freedom' from people all around the world,
regardless of country, religion, age, gender, or sexuality.
Furthermore, I've been convinced that there will be a
significant need for TENGA in space from the company's inception. Because
sexuality and its requirements are always a part of us, I'd like to use this
chance meeting with [IST founder] Mr. Horie as our first foray into
space-product creation. Perhaps one day, we'll be able to design something that
NASA and other space agencies will want to use in their missions.
The relationship between space and sex is fascinating and
complicated. Western space organisations have made relatively little mention of
sexual health in space, which is problematic. It is critical to acknowledge
that sexual health is a component of overall human health, and that
disregarding sexual health is not only foolish, but also dangerous.
The efforts of Dr. Eleanor Armstrong and Akvile Terminaite
to cross the cosmic gap between sex and space are not unheard of. For example,
Soviet space masturbation aids, such as the experimental 2suit, have been
developed to assist humans having sex in space.
Pornhub, for example, led a (unsuccessful) Indiegogo effort
to make a porn tape in orbit in 2015, and this latest crowdfunding venture
falls into a larger tradition of financing for sex in space. While state space
agencies may be hesitant to fund'sex' content, the two experts suggested that
public crowdfunding that supports private space missions (and so avoids the
billionaire space race) such as this one could be a way to get this on the
table.
When so much of the sex-tech sector here on Earth is
concentrated on the vibrators for vaginas and clitorises, we're struck by the
fact that this is a fleshlight – or a sex toy for penises. This could be
because space is generally believed to be ‘masculine' and militarised (mapped
onto cis-men with penises) – therefore it would be interesting if this was the
first successful sex toy particularly made for space, according to Terminaite
and Dr Armstrong.
It will be fascinating to see if and how this expedition
alters the gender-space relationship. We may soon find out if the sky truly is
the limit when it comes to sex toys.
Originally published by IFL science.
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