As humans embark on the next great journey into the unknown, there will have to be someone aboard the first spaceship bound to Mars capable of cracking a joke.
To reach the red planet, astronauts will have to experience an unprecedented degree of isolation in space travel, compared to historic journeys such as Christopher Columbus's quest for the New World.
To make sure that the crew embarking on such a mission is perfectly suited, NASA investigated the social constitution required to function in such difficult circumstances.
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It was inspired by teams working in isolated conditions, such as fishing camps in Alaska or expeditions to Antarctica, and one particular role has proved crucial.
"The groups work best when they have someone who assumes the role of class clown," said Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, a researcher at the University of Florida who has immersed himself in such teams.
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1/30 Earth of the ISS
Terry W. Virts, Flight Engineer of Expedition 42 of the International Space Station, took this picture of the Gulf of Mexico and the US Gulf Coast at sunset.
Nasa
2/30 Mars frozen slopes
This image of an area of the surface of Mars, about 1.5 km by 3 km, shows frosted gullies on a slope facing south in a crater. The photo was taken by NASA's HiRISE camera, mounted on its Mars reconnaissance orbiter.
Nasa
3/30 Orion capsule splashes
The Orion capsule flew into space before returning a few hours later – after proving that it could be used someday to transport humans to Mars.
Nasa
4/30 Launch of the Soyuz TMA-15M rocket
The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, November 24, 2014, brings three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the inhabitants of the satellite to celebrate the holidays
Nasa
5/30 Yellowstone from the space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account
Nasa
6/30 Black hole Friday
NASA celebrated Black Friday by exploring space – sharing images of black holes
Nasa
7/30 NuSTAR
The X-rays of the sun in this image show observations made by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopy Telescope System, or NuSTAR, superimposed on a photo taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Nasa
8/30 Saturn
This color image in the near infrared shows specular reflection, or the color of the sun, on a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Titan, the moon of Saturn.
Nasa
9/30 Worlds apart
Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" to lunar norms (50 miles or 81 kilometers in diameter), is elongated and irregularly shaped. Mimas (396 kilometers), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to the inherent gravity imposed by its higher mass
Nasa
10/30 Solar eruption
A solar flare of class X1.6 flashes in the middle of the sun on this image taken on September 10, captured by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
Nasa
11/30 Solar eruption
An image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a solar filament 200,000 km long tearing the solar corona of the sun in September 2013.
Nasa
12/30 Cassiopeia A c
A false color image of Cassiopeia A including data from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and the Chandra X-ray observatory
Nasa
13/30 Great galaxy of magellanic clouds
Image of the galaxy of great magellanic clouds seen in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. Regions of space such as this one are those where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust.
Nasa
14/30 Mars Rover Spirit
Mars Rover Spirit of NASA took the first picture of Spirit since the beginning of the communication problems a week earlier. The picture shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack
Nasa
15/30 Aurora morning of the space station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the aurora green lights from the International Space Station
16/30 Launch of History – Making STS-41G Mission in 1984
The Space Shuttle Challenger starts in Florida at dawn. During this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to participate in a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest crew at that time, and STS-41G was the first to include two female astronauts.
17/30 A new perspective on an extraordinary group of galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerates of galaxies, hot gases and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity.
18/30 Veil Nebula Supernova Remaining
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope unveiled in great detail a small section of the Veil Nebula – the expanding remains of a huge star that exploded about 8,000 years ago
19/30 Hubble sees a galactic sunflower
The arrangement of the spiral arms in the Messier galaxy 63, visible here in an image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recalls the motif located in the center of a sunflower.
20/30 A Hubble Cosmic Couple
The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 – more commonly known as WR 124 – and the nebula M1-67 that surrounds it
21/30 Pluto's picture
Four images of the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with Ralph's instrument color data to create this enhanced overall color view of Pluto.
22/30 Fresh crater near Sirenum Fossae, Mars area
The HiRISE camera aboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft acquired this enlarged image of a "fresh" impact crater (at the geological scale, although relatively old at the time). human scale) in the region of Sirenum Fossae of Mars. This impact crater seems relatively recent because it has a clean border and well preserved ejectas.
23/30 Earth observations of Gemini IV in 1965
This photo of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The crew of the Gemini IV conducted scientific experiments, including photographs of the weather and terrain of the Earth, for the remainder of their four-day mission following the release into space Ed White's history on June 3.
24/30 NASA celebrates 50 years of escape into space
For 50 years, NASA "dresses" for release in space. In this 1984 photo of the first space-free exit in astronomy, NASA's astronaut, Bruce McCandless, is at the heart of the first "field trial" of a bag-in-the-bag device. Nitrogen propelled back called "Maneuvered Dressing Unit (UM)".
25/30 Hubble looks at the busiest place in the Milky Way
This image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope presents the Arches Group, the densest known star group of the Milky Way.
26/30 An astronaut seen from space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo of the International Space Station on September 2, 2014.
27/30 Giant relief on Mars
On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy reliefs formed by the wind, or forms of wind beds: undulations, transverse wind ridges, dunes and what is called "draa".
28/30 Expedition 39 Landing
A sokol combination helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the probe's landing with the Koichi Wakata 39 shipping commander of the Japanese Agency D & D Aerospace Exploration (JAXA), Commander Soyuz Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio. of NASA near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
29/30 The big red spot of Jupiter seen by Voyager I
30/30 The Chandra observatory sees a heart in the darkness
1/30 Earth of the ISS
Terry W. Virts, Flight Engineer of Expedition 42 of the International Space Station, took this picture of the Gulf of Mexico and the US Gulf Coast at sunset.
Nasa
2/30 Mars frozen slopes
This image of an area of the surface of Mars, about 1.5 km by 3 km, shows frosted gullies on a slope facing south in a crater. The photo was taken by NASA's HiRISE camera, mounted on its Mars reconnaissance orbiter.
Nasa
3/30 Orion capsule splashes
The Orion capsule flew into space before returning a few hours later – after proving that it could be used someday to transport humans to Mars.
Nasa
4/30 Launch of the Soyuz TMA-15M rocket
The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket, launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, November 24, 2014, brings three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the inhabitants of the satellite to celebrate the holidays
Nasa
5/30 Yellowstone from the space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account
Nasa
6/30 Black hole Friday
NASA celebrated Black Friday by exploring space – sharing images of black holes
Nasa
7/30 NuSTAR
The X-rays of the sun in this image show observations made by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopy Telescope System, or NuSTAR, superimposed on a photo taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO).
Nasa
8/30 Saturn
This color image in the near infrared shows specular reflection, or the color of the sun, on a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Titan, the moon of Saturn.
Nasa
9/30 Worlds apart
Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" to lunar norms (50 miles or 81 kilometers in diameter), is elongated and irregularly shaped. Mimas (396 kilometers), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to the inherent gravity imposed by its higher mass
Nasa
10/30 Solar eruption
A solar flare of class X1.6 flashes in the middle of the sun on this image taken on September 10, captured by the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory
Nasa
11/30 Solar eruption
An image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a solar filament 200,000 km long tearing the solar corona of the sun in September 2013.
Nasa
12/30 Cassiopeia A c
A false color image of Cassiopeia A including data from the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes and the Chandra X-ray observatory
Nasa
13/30 Great galaxy of magellanic clouds
Image of the galaxy of great magellanic clouds seen in infrared light by the Herschel space observatory. Regions of space such as this one are those where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust.
Nasa
14/30 Mars Rover Spirit
Mars Rover Spirit of NASA took the first picture of Spirit since the beginning of the communication problems a week earlier. The picture shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack
Nasa
15/30 Aurora morning of the space station
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the aurora green lights from the International Space Station
16/30 Launch of History – Making STS-41G Mission in 1984
The Space Shuttle Challenger starts in Florida at dawn. During this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first American woman to participate in a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest crew at that time, and STS-41G was the first to include two female astronauts.
17/30 A new perspective on an extraordinary group of galaxies
Clusters of galaxies are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerates of galaxies, hot gases and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the universe held together by gravity.
18/30 Veil Nebula Supernova Remaining
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope unveiled in great detail a small section of the Veil Nebula – the expanding remains of a huge star that exploded about 8,000 years ago
19/30 Hubble sees a galactic sunflower
The arrangement of the spiral arms in the Messier galaxy 63, visible here in an image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recalls the motif located in the center of a sunflower.
20/30 A Hubble Cosmic Couple
The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 – more commonly known as WR 124 – and the nebula M1-67 that surrounds it
21/30 Pluto's picture
Four images of the New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with Ralph's instrument color data to create this enhanced overall color view of Pluto.
22/30 Fresh crater near Sirenum Fossae, Mars area
The HiRISE camera aboard the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft acquired this enlarged image of a "fresh" impact crater (at the geological scale, although relatively old at the time). human scale) in the region of Sirenum Fossae of Mars. This impact crater seems relatively recent because it has a clean border and well preserved ejectas.
23/30 Earth observations of Gemini IV in 1965
This photo of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The crew of the Gemini IV conducted scientific experiments, including photographs of the weather and terrain of the Earth, for the remainder of their four-day mission following the release into space Ed White's history on June 3.
24/30 NASA celebrates 50 years of escape into space
For 50 years, NASA "dresses" for release in space. In this 1984 photo of the first space-free exit in astronomy, NASA's astronaut, Bruce McCandless, is at the heart of the first "field trial" of a bag-in-the-bag device. Nitrogen propelled back called "Maneuvered Dressing Unit (UM)".
25/30 Hubble looks at the busiest place in the Milky Way
This image of the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope presents the Arches Group, the densest known star group of the Milky Way.
26/30 An astronaut seen from space
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo of the International Space Station on September 2, 2014.
27/30 Giant relief on Mars
On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy reliefs formed by the wind, or forms of wind beds: undulations, transverse wind ridges, dunes and what is called "draa".
28/30 Expedition 39 Landing
A sokol combination helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the probe's landing with the Koichi Wakata 39 shipping commander of the Japanese Agency D & D Aerospace Exploration (JAXA), Commander Soyuz Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio. of NASA near the city of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan
29/30 The big red spot of Jupiter seen by Voyager I
30/30 The Chandra observatory sees a heart in the darkness
"These are people who have the ability to bring everyone together, fill the gaps when tensions arise and really lift morale."
This is a pattern he has observed repeatedly during his four summers with Russian, Polish, Chinese and Indian teams at the South Pole.
Taking an important historical example, the anthropologist refers to Adolf Lindstrom, the cook who accompanied the famous polar explorer Roald Amundsen and who was noted for his good humor.
In his diary, Amundsen himself stated that Lindstrom had "rendered more important and valuable services to the Norwegian polar expedition than any other man".
"A mission on Mars will need a personality similar to Lindstrom, a person who can break the tension can bring people together," said Dr. Johnson, who presented his latest findings on social roles in the world. American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington DC.
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However, he noted that although the clown may have many natural talents, he would need to make every effort to embark on such an important mission.
"Being funny will not be enough to land the job for someone," he said. "They must also be excellent scientists and engineers and be able to successfully complete a rigorous training program."
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