Not a lot of people knew that in 2008, the song "Across the Universe" was beamed into space that traveled 186 miles per second. And that's not even the weirdest thing to be sent to space. Recently, a Swedish sex education group launched the Swedish Space Condom, a petition to urge NASA to bring condoms to outer space.
Non-governmental organizations (NGO) and various educational groups rely heavily on raising awareness to spread the importance of the causes they support. Recently, NASA has been a subject for a group of sex educators who are urging the agency to bring condoms to space, as they consider it to be one of man's greatest invention.
Requests to send weird stuff to space are nothing new for NASA. In April this year, the Telegraph in the UK published a report entitled '100 Weird Stuff Sent Into Space' and most people won't be able to guess some of the items on the list. The latest of these weird items fortunate enough to go off-Earth are the three Lego mini figurines called "Legonauts" aboard the Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. The legonauts were sent to space to commemorate Roman Gods Jupiter and Juno and the last one for Galileo Galilei.
Usually, despite how weird the objects are, they do represent something deeper. The video petition launched by Riksförbundet För Sexuell Upplysning (RFSU), a Swedish group for sexual enlightenment and education, teases the mind of viewers by stating that aliens should be aware of man's greatest invention, the condom. It may appear funny to some, but RFSU's goal is not to educate the "little green beings" about condoms but to actually educate Earthlings about contraceptives.
RFSU claims that since a lot of things that represent humanity has already been sent to space, it's time for condoms to be recognized because, according to the organization condom saves lives. The petition is in line with the organizations "World Contraceptives Day" campaign.
"A day dedicated to contraceptives that give humans the option to decide if and when to have kids, one of the most important decisions a person can make," an RFSU official said in a press release. "The condom might look simple, but it is the single contraceptive that offers protection against both unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. It is also the only contraceptive available for men," the official added.
So whether or not NASA agrees to the petition, it is important to note the real meaning behind the campaign. Some took the campaign literally and mocked the video that's suggesting aliens must learn about the wonders of condoms when it fact, the real target of the campaign is to educate humankind about contraceptives and women's will power to be able to decide whether or not to have children.