Vanna Bonta
Bonta (left) with her husband Allen Newcomb in 2008
Bonta (left) with her husband Allen Newcomb in 2008
Born(1953-04-03)3 April 1953
Clarksville, Tennessee, U.S.
Died8 July 2014(2014-07-08) (aged 61) [1]
Occupation
  • Writer
  • actor
  • voice artist
LanguageEnglish, Italian
GenreFiction, poetry, essay, philosophical literature, social commentary, teleplay
Literary movementQuantum fiction
Notable worksFlight: a quantum fiction novel[2]
RelativesLuigi Ugolini (grandfather)

Vanna Marie Bonta (April 3, 1953 – July 8, 2014) was an American writer, actress, and inventor. She was of partial Italian descent. She wrote Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel. As an actress, Bonta played "Zed's Queen" in The Beastmaster. She performed primarily as a voice talent on a roster of feature films, such as Disney's Beauty and the Beast, as well as on television. Bonta invented the 2suit, a flight garment designed to facilitate sex in microgravity environments of outerspace. The spacesuit was featured on The Universe television series, which followed Bonta into zero gravity to film an episode titled Sex in Space that aired in 2009 on the History Channel.[3]

On 13 November 2013, a haiku by Bonta was one of 1,100 haiku launched from Cape Canaveral on the NASA spacecraft MAVEN to Mars.[4]

Early life and family

Bonta was born on April 3, 1953 in Clarksville, Tennessee, United States.[5] Her parents were Maria Luisa Ugolini Bonta (née Ugolini), a painter from Florence, Italy, and James Cecil Bonta, a military officer from Kentucky.[5] Her grandfather was Luigi Ugolini, a Florentine knight.[5] Her maternal aunt was Italian children's author Lidia Ugolini.

Literary career

In 1995, Bonta's first novel, Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel was published. Flight has been characterized as "inter-genre" (belonging to more than one genre simultaneously) by the American Library Association, which reviewed it an "auspicious, genre-bending parable".[6] Publishers Weekly described the debut work as running the gamut of particularly moving to quirky and hilarious satire, with "asides about bathtub books, self-doubt tapes and other foibles."[7]

In 2013, a haiku Bonta wrote was one of over 1100 that was launched to Mars on the NASA spacecraft MAVEN.[8] The haiku for the Mars trip were chosen by popular vote from a total 12,530 submissions. Bonta's submission was ranked in the top five.[4][9][10][11]

Inventions

The 2suit

In 2006, Bonta gave talks about an invention she called the 2suit, a flight garment that can be attached to another 2suit to allow two or more people to stay in proximity to one another in low-gravity environments. Although it had several other potential applications, its primary purpose was to enable sex in space. Producers of the History Channel television series The Universe approached Bonta in 2008, offering to manufacture a prototype of the 2suit and send Bonta into zero gravity to test it. She accepted. On the 2suit's segment of the episode, Bonta and her husband demonstrated how the suit works by kissing while wearing it.[12] The documentary concluded that the "2Suit is one small step for humankind colonizing the universe."[13] The 2suit received significant media attention after the episode, titled Sex in Space, aired in 2009.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Lunar Lander Challenge

From 2007-09, she participated in the annual Lunar Lander Challenge, a competition sponsored by NASA and Northrop Grumman to commercially build a lightweight spacecraft for landing on the Moon. Bonta was a team member of BonNovA.[22] As creative director, Bonta designed a pressure-release device for high-combustion engines.[23]

References

  1. ↑ HEaven Bound: Notice of death of Vanna Bonta; accessed 13 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Fiction review – Flight: a quantum fiction novel, by Vanna Bonta". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 2019-01-07. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
  3. ↑ Scaturro, Giorgia (27 April 2009). "Lo spazio, mai stato così sexy". Wired Magazine. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  4. 1 2 "Going to Mars with Maven contest winners". University of Colorado Boulder Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 Who's Who in California. Who's Who Historical Society. 1990. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-9603166-8-7.
  6. ↑ "Flight, by Vanna Bonta". BookList. June 1995. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel". Publishers Weekly. 2 January 1995. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  8. ↑ Steinmetz, Katy (9 August 2013). "NASA is sending these poems to Mars". Time. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  9. ↑ "MAVEN Haiku Selected For Travel to Mars". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 8 August 2013. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  10. ↑ Martin, Rachel (11 August 2013). "Sending Poetry To Mars". National Public Radio. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  11. ↑ "1,100 Haiku Headed To Mars Aboard NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft". Huffington Post. 9 August 2013. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  12. ↑ Friedman, Uri (26 January 2012). "Is Newt's zero-gravity sex idea any good?". ForeignPolicy.com. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "The Universe: Sex in space". History Channel. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  14. ↑ Scaturro, Giorgia (30 April 2009). "A two-seater suit for space-lovers". Wired.com. Archived from the original on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  15. ↑ Boyle, Alan (27 July 2006). "Outer-space sex carries complications". NBC news.com. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  16. ↑ "Haben Astronauten eigentlich Sex im All?". Bild.de. 7 March 2010. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  17. ↑ "Sexo no espaço intriga pesquisadores". Noticias.terra.com. 24 July 2006. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "The Complications of Sex in Space". Futurism. 6 September 2014. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  19. ↑ Ambruš-Kiš, Miroslav (10 October 2009). "Seks u svemiru? Nema prepreke koju čovjek ne bi svladao za seks". Vecernji.hr. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  20. ↑ Život na Marsu—Bestežinski sekshomo sapiensa (life on Mars), by Miroslav Ambruš-Kiš; Technologija magazine. November 17, 2011
  21. ↑ Bowie, Soren (15 November 2010). "7 Real Suits That Will Soon Make the World A Cooler Place". Cracked.com. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  22. ↑ "Lunar lander liftoff". NBCNews.com. 31 Jan 2007. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  23. ↑ Adkins, Jennifer (May 2009). "The 2Suit Adds New Meaning to the Term 'Mother of Invention'". Inventor's Digest. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
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