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If you want to be an astronaut, you may need a good sense of humor: NASA is looking for jokers to join Mars crew

Saturday, June 15, 2019 by: Ethan Huff
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(Natural News) Are you a funny guy or gal who’d love the opportunity to travel to space? If so, then the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) wants to hear from you.
The federal space agency is reportedly looking for a jokester to accompany astronauts on a mission to Mars that’s set to take place sometime in the 2030s, the purpose being to help keep morale high on the planned, two-year journey.

According to an anthropologist from University of Florida, having a “class clown” on long space missions like this one is essential for defusing tension and building social bridges.
“These are people that have the ability to pull everyone together, bridge gaps when tensions appear and really boost morale,” Jeffrey Johnson, who’s working with NASA to find the best candidates for this job, is quoted as saying.
“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.”
Having practical jokers accompany long-term workers in Antarctica has already proven successful
Johnson came up with the idea after studying long-term workers in Antarctica, another isolated group that he found did all-around better when a joker was present to lighten the mood.
“These roles are informal,” Johnson says. “They emerge within the group. 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.”
This is especially true out in space, where communication delays back to earth can be up to 20 minutes long, not to mention the fact that living in space is much different than living on earth – including the fact that there’s little-to-no access to proper health care in space.
“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 contends. “It’s mission critical.”
If you’re a scientist and engineer who believes you’re capable of functioning well in isolation far away from earth for years on end, get in touch with NASA
Johnson made the case for having a class clown on space missions during the recent annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, entitled: “Building a Winning Team for Missions to Mars.”
In Johnson’s view, groups and teams, regardless of whether or not they’re in space, always work better when they have somebody “who takes on the role of class clown.”
“We can all think of the person at work who fulfills this role, who makes us laugh and makes the job more enjoyable,” he says. “People like being around them.”
But it’s not enough to just be funny, Johnson says. The right candidate, at least for NASA’s purposes, will also need to be a proper scientist and engineer, and someone who’s capable of passing a “rigorous training regimen.”
It’s also important for the right candidate to be comfortable living in isolation, far away from earth for years on end with just a few other people. In other words, socialites who can’t live without earthly comforts and who always need to be around other people need not apply.
“There are people who are loving and laughable and jovial and endearing, and therefore bring people together. But others who are cruel,” says Johnson.
“When I worked at the South Pole station there was lots of cruel behaviour. There’s a difference between button pushing and being funny. It’s better to become a mascot – get taken in by the group and loved.”
For more news about what’s going on in space these days, be sure to check out Space.news.
You can also learn more about the future of space tourism at SpaceTourism.news.

Sources for this article include:
DailyMail.co.uk
Futurism.com
NaturalNews.com

https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-06-...umor-nasa.html

Valleys and channels on Mars reveal evidence of ancient groundwater

Saturday, July 13, 2019 by: Edsel Cook
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(Natural News) The deepest parts of the craters that dot the dusty Martian landscape conceal channels and valleys carved out by the passage of liquid water eons ago. European researchers consider them to be signs that Mars possessed a massive groundwater system in its distant past.

Furthermore, the European Space Agency (ESA) research team uncovered evidence of mineral deposits in those craters. On Earth, those same minerals contributed to the appearance of organic life.
In a recent statement, ESA researcher Dmitri Titov stressed the importance of these findings. The formations and minerals mark the regions that had the best chance of harboring evidence of past life on Mars.
The discovery was made by the agency’s Mars Express space probe. Orbiting the Red Planet since 2003, it uncovered geological proof that Mars once hosted a large network of subterranean lakes. Branching channels serve as the connections between these underground bodies of water.
NASA earlier theorized that the Martian underground might contain giant cliffs of ice.
The surface water of ancient Mars moved underground

“Early Mars was a watery world,” said Francesco Salese, a Dutch researcher from Utrecht University. “But as the planet’s climate changed, this water retreated below the surface to form pools and ‘groundwater.’”
Researchers argued over the amount of water present on the surface of Mars. They also disagreed about the role played by the liquid.
Using the sensors of the Mars Express orbiter, Salese and his colleagues tracked the migration of water from the surface to below the red soil of Mars. They announced the first geological evidence that Mars used to have a groundwater system throughout the planet.
Recent studies indicated that Mars used to enjoy warmer temperatures in the past. It seemed that the atmosphere of the planet during that time was thicker and retained more heat. The temperatures appeared to be congenial for the movement of liquid water on the ground.
In the new ESA research effort, Mars Express scanned 24 deep craters in the northern half of the planet. The bottoms of the formations reached depths of 2.5 miles (4 km) beneath the value used as the Martian “sea level.”
Mars currently does not have any sea on its surface. But it used to have one. Instead, researchers calculated an approximate sea level using atmospheric pressure and elevation.
“We think that this ocean may have connected to a system of underground lakes that spread across the entire planet,” remarked D’Annunzio University researcher Gian Gabriele Ori, the co-author of the paper. “These lakes would have existed around 3.5 billion years ago, so [they] may have been contemporaries of a Martian ocean.” (Related: Geological curiosity: Mars “blueberries” reveal what ancient Mars may have looked like.)
Deep Martian craters hold minerals important for basic life

They reported finding evidence of carbonates, silicates, and more than one type of clay in the five deepest craters surveyed by Mars Express. The minerals served as basic ingredients for organic life on Earth, so their presence suggested that ancient Mars also possessed the ingredients to support simple organisms.
Before their latest Mars-related announcement, ESA also released photographs of the southern highlands area of Mars. The rock formations in the region are billions of years old and have undergone considerable erosion over the eons.
Mars Express took snapshots of an area found between the Hellas and Huygens craters. Despite the destructive effects of erosion, several valleys displayed dendritic structures – familiar shapes that resembled trees – and riverbeds on Earth.
The dendritic structures suggested that the Martian surface used to be covered in water. The new ESA study suggests that much of that water went underground and formed subterranean lakes.

Sources include:
Space.com
ESA.int


https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-07-...oundwater.html