ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Crews headed for the International Space Station might want to add one more bit of training to prepare for long-term stays in space: Learn to be funny.
That's the recommendation from John Wedergren, who has helped train flight crews aboard the space shuttle for nearly a decade. Among other things, Wedergren developed protocols to help astronauts, their families, and mission support personnel deal with stress.
Now a consultant in League City, Texas, Wedergren is looking to create a medical program for NASA designed to promote the health, rejuvenation and emotional well-being of International Space Station flight crews.
"You begin to see life from a different perspective through the techniques you learn as a stand-up comic."
His top recommendation to astronauts is no joking matter: Become a space comedian and use humor to get through lengthy space missions. As he sees it, astronauts today just aren't funny enough.
"Laughter in and of itself is not an attitude," he told SPACE.com. "Some of the mediating benefits for not only the health of the flight crew, but the recovery from being sick has to do with humor and comedy."
Wedergren presented his research work Wednesday in Albuquerque at the Space 2000 Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations and Business in Space, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
A sense of humor in space, he said, gives astronauts a healthy "tool" to cope with the physical, psychological and spiritual stresses of long-duration spaceflight.
Wedergren has interviewed and worked with stand-up comedians as part of his research. He has even jumped onto a stage -- microphone in hand -- to see what makes people laugh.
"You start to interpret life events differently," Wedergren said. "You begin to see life from a different perspective through the techniques you learn as a stand-up comic."
He pointed to comedian Jay Lenos approach to observational comedy, such as why a typical convenience store has $10,000 worth of video equipment watching 20 cents' worth of cupcakes.
Would Jerry Seinfeld make it as a space station mission specialist in charge of the humor department? Wedergren thinks so. Having the ability to do a set-up followed by a punch line can enhance the mental well-being of a space crew.
"Those comedians see life in terms other than the obvious. You are rendering life differently. My understanding is that you can train people to open up this resident power. Stand-up comedy training involves taking those things that are even tragic and putting a spin on them. Everybodys got this ability, but it needs to be fed and liberated," Wedergren said.
In space, there is a great need to relieve stress, he said, citing as examples an astronaut learning during a mission of a death in the family.
Even the most traumatic incidents, like the crash of an un-piloted Progress cargo ship into the Russian Mir space station a few years ago, can be eased somewhat with a dose of humor.
The use of comedy as a tension breaker is part of a total space medicine program, Wedergren believes.
"What is missing today is a paradigm to thrive in space versus survive," he said. And that is becoming more important as humans of all cultures and backgrounds take up a permanent presence in space.
Wedergren plans to brief NASAs astronaut office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston about his ideas. He envisions an astronaut comedy training course lasting six to eight weeks. Graduation would involve performing in front of fellow astronauts, family and friends. Then every three months, the astronauts would need to take a three-week refresher course.
Whether hell be laughed out of the room remains to be seen. But even that, to his way of thinking, would be a step in the right direction.
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