--- title: "NASA Is Studying Whether a Mars Crew Would Need a Class Clown" description: "An anthropologist is making the case that long space missions, like a crewed trip to Mars, would require crew members with senses of humor." date: "2019-02-18" modified: "2019-02-18" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/nasa-studying-mars-class-clown" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "humor" - "mars" - "NASA" - "space" --- # NASA Is Studying Whether a Mars Crew Would Need a Class Clown ![An anthropologist is making the case that long space missions, like a crewed trip to Mars, would require crew members with senses of humor.]() *\Image: Pixabay\* ## Class Clown An anthropologist at the University of Florida is making the case that long space missions, like a crewed trip to Mars, would require crew members with pronounced senses of humor to build social bridges and defuse tension at a perilous distance from Earth. "These are people that have the ability to pull everyone together, bridge gaps when tensions appear and really boost morale," said Jeffrey Johnson, who's working with NASA to study the importance of humor during long spaceflights, in [an interview]() with the *Guardian*. "When you’re living with others in a confined space for a long period of time, such as on a mission to Mars, tensions are likely to fray." ## Far From Home Before he turned his work to astronauts, Johnson spent years studying another isolated group: long term workers in Antarctica, where he found that self-appointed clowns and practical jokers were crucial to forging bonds under tense conditions. "These roles are informal, they emerge within the group," Johnson told the *Guardian*. "But the interesting thing is that if you have the right combination the group does very well. And if you don’t, the group does very badly." ## Mission Critical In a mission to Mars, communication delays could be as long as 20 minutes — and the eight month trip takes astronauts far from health care and other resources back on Earth. "It’s vital you have somebody who can help everyone get along, so they can do their jobs and get there and back safely," Johnson told the *Guardian*. "It’s mission critical." **READ MORE:** [Jokers please: first human Mars mission may need onboard comedians]() \[*The Guardian*\] ***More on humor:*** [*Artificial Intelligence Algorithm Now Capable of Identifying Humor*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()