How can sperm travel without fluid?

Answer 1

Sperm can't travel on it's own without the fluid in semen to facilitate motion.

The predictable swimming sperm featured in health class videos are rather uncharacteristic portraits of the life of these sex cells.

Spermatozoa actually spend most of their time resting up in the male reproductive tract so they can make a dash to the egg once the opportunity arises. It has long been known that the little swimmers get their cue to start moving from a big change in pH levels, but a new study explains just how that shift occurs: a specific molecule in the sperm cells' tails releases protons when the time is right.

"The concentration of protons is extremely high at all times while the sperm are in the male reproductive tract, which makes the intracellular sperm environment acidic and inhibits the activity of the sperm cell," Yuriy Kirichok, of the University of California, San Francisco, said in a prepared statement. So releasing many of those protons from inside of the sperm cells lowers the internal acidity, a cue to the sperm cells to start flipping their flagella.

Answer 2

Sperm cells are typically unable to travel without a fluid medium because they lack the ability to move on their own. The fluid medium, such as semen in humans, provides the necessary environment for sperm to swim and reach the egg for fertilization. Without the fluid medium, sperm cells are generally immobile and cannot travel effectively.