Offshore sailing as training for astronauts

 

The full Mars Ocean Analog crew suited up. Credit: Reid Stowe

I remember someone mentioning that there are spots in the ocean where we are closer to the ISS than to any land station on earth. And with this week's excitement about the Artemis II crew slingshot around the moon in a tiny capsule, ten days aboard seemed like crossing an ocean in a small boat. Except that everything was controlled remotely from Earth, which is pretty amazing in itself. 

Then came an article in Cruising World about how offshore sailing is great training for becoming an astronaut. Author Reid Stowe studied space psychology and assembled a crew to sail a gaff-rigged schooner across the Atlantic to the space center in Florida to prove a point: that distance sailing is better training for being an astronaut than being a fighter pilot. 

The idea first came to him when President George H.W. Bush called for a crewed mission to Mars. The description read—eight people, multinational, isolated in a life-or-death environment, living aboard a moving vessel for three years—and recognized it immediately as the same as being at sea. 

In 2007, Reid and his partner Soanya Ahmad set off from New York City on the 70-foot schooner Anne with the goal of spending 1000 days at sea. Soanya sailed 306 consecutive days—longer than any woman in recorded history—before becoming pregnant. She was transferred at sea off Perth, Australia, to a vessel skippered by record-breaking circumnavigator and OCC member Jon Sanders. She gave birth to their son, Darshen while Reid kept sailing. 

On Day 658, Reid Stowe broke the world record for the longest non-stop ocean voyage, previously held by Jon Sanders. He actually went 846 days without seeing land or another person. When he finally returned to New York, Anne was in great shape, so he kept going and spent another year offshore. Total time at sea: 1,152 days. The longest nonstop, unsupported sea voyage in history.

Reid, an artist, continued drawing and painting during the voyage. The ocean wasn’t a subject. It was the environment. Isolation, endurance, horizon lines that never end, his work reflects that scale.

Reid Stowe today argues that an experienced offshore sailor makes a better candidate for a Mars mission than a jet-fighter pilot. Stowe spent a decade studying long-duration space psychology and argued that the psychological profile of an experienced offshore sailor matched what a Mars mission would demand far better than a jet-fighter pilot's profile ever could. He published his case in Ad Astra, the National Space Society magazine, in an article titled "Seafarers of Today Provide a Role Model for Spacefarers of Tomorrow." The Mars Ocean Analog voyage put that theory to the test— they had to genuinely work together to survive.

I cannot say that I disagree. Cramped quarters, things breaking, weather madness, underwater fixes--offshore sailing takes ingenuity, tenacity, calm under pressure, stoicism, and lateral thinking. It also takes someone who is comfortable in their own skin but knows how to get along with and work with others to achieve common goals. Yes, sailing is good training for space exploration. 

Artist and designer Maxine Hoover and Stowe along with various team members of the Mars Analog mission had tables at the Intrepid Kidsweek. They presented The Longest Sea Voyage in History and how it led to training Mars-aspiring analog astronauts at sea. They showed how lessons at sea can help prepare astronauts for space travel.