Do Women Make Better Astronauts?

If you're ever dreamt of traversing the moon, today might be your lucky day: females may be better suited for space travel than men, for both physiological and emotional reasons. Australia Science Channel RiAus TV has released a video on YouTube outlining the many reasons women's bodies and mentalities combine to create a more apt space traveler. Research has suggested that women tend to have stronger hearts than their male counterparts, which makes their bodies more ideal for this very unique environment, and perhaps less susceptible to stress or failure during long-term missions such as those conducted on spacecrafts.

RiAus TV also draws attention to the fact that in multiple studies, women demonstrated a higher tolerance for isolation and sensory deprivation. The explanation doesn't cease there, though, as the female tendency to bond with a group, creating a more "cohesive" unit, was also illuminated as a potentially beneficial factor; after all, when you're stuck on a ship with the same people for years at a time, you're going to need to bond. Perhaps most convincing, though, is the economic argument: as women burn less than half the calories than men doing the same small duties that matter most in this context, they require less resources (food, fuel) to accomplish them, which translates to less cold hard cash spent per flight. As it happens, however, of the more than 500 people who have been to space, only 54 have been women.

To take a look at the argument further, here's that video.

The idea that a woman might be better suited for a traditionally male-dominated job isn't new. It's this kind of aggregation of cold, hard science that continues to beg the question even further: why aren't we doing what makes sense?

Images: Getty (1); RiAus TV/YouTube (1)