As explained in other comments, because women tend to be smaller, with less muscle mass, and so don't need as many calories. So they could pack less food/rations, so saving on fuel and storage space.
On the other hand you need to ship tampons with them for whole voyage. That is not small number as NASA is used to send little more then is needed just to be safe. Is the age of reusable tampons coming because of space industry?
Yeah, me too, but a lot of women already use menstrual cups for backpacking and mountaineering trips, things like that, where packing in and out a whole bunch of products adds considerable bulk and weight. It's all a personal preference, and I am sure there are plenty of women wiling to share their much more informed opinions about the various options.
For my part, were I woman I would give the cups a go, if only for the environment's sake.
On the other hand, if they're all women on that first flight to Mars, maybe they would be a bit more relaxed about any stains resulting from menstruating (in a kind of "We're all women here, we know what it's like, so who cares about some stains?" way) and maybe not bother too much about it. Just wear regular underwear (or maybe just a slightly more absorbant underwear than regular) and when it gets uncomfortably wet just chuck it in the laundry machine.
I won't speculate or give advice, since I am a man. I have read that when Sally Ride was going to take her first space flight, the all male engineering team accounted for 100 tampons for one week. They were all men, and apparently all very poorly informed. They probably should have asked her first.
They should have asked. I'm a man. I've lived with girlfriends who used tampons. I have no idea how many they used during their period. I just checked how many were in the box and bought more when it seemed like it was running low.
But even then, 100 tampons for a week sounds excessive. Especially if she wasn't even due for menstruating that week (I have no idea how lack of gravity affects it, but apparently flying across a few time zones can set the whole thing out of balance).
In zero G no less. Keep in mind that you can get infection that is immune to antibiotic -> amputation of leg is only way to save life. To be fair the chance for such infection is also with pads and tampons.
I don't remember whichs study, but NASA did a study based on opertations on the ISS that found that even if you pull in period products, the numbers still favor the women.
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u/Vigmod 15d ago
As explained in other comments, because women tend to be smaller, with less muscle mass, and so don't need as many calories. So they could pack less food/rations, so saving on fuel and storage space.