The Swedish Association for Sexuality Education is urging NASA to send a condom into space as an artifact for intelligent alien life to find and ponder — and perhaps use themselves.
“We know that you guys sometimes send stuff up into space so that whatever life is out there will get an idea of what goes on here on Earth,” the group says in a video released Sunday. “However, from what we can tell, you forgot to inform the little green people about one super-important object: the condom.”
It’s true that many strange items have made it into space, including LEGO figurines and a map of Earth’s position of the solar system, complete with anatomical drawings of a human male and female.
It’s equally true the condom is a telling artifact of human life. Very few Earthbound species are known to have sex strictly for pleasure, and sexuality is incredibly central to human existence, even if we sometimes shy away from talking about it openly.
It should be no big surprise, then, that while alien erotica is common, very little actual research has been done into the possibility of sex and reproduction in space. That’s a big oversight, for the many groups with ambitions to establish permanent extraterrestrial settlements. It wouldn’t be surprising at all to learn that NASA missions have already equipped their astronauts with condoms, though no one is telling.
The Swedish group contends that, though we may not know what alien genitalia will look like when we meet it, condoms will help our new friends out if they decide to visit and seek a human mate. Whether aliens will be vulnerable to human STDs remains to be seen, but of course, the group’s real mission is clear: Getting a condom into space would figuratively and literally elevate its earthly status, and hopefully encourage humans of all ages, shapes, and sizes to protect their junk.