Alan Stern Looks Back At His Downward Spaceflight

Alan Stern: “Exploration like this, and exploration of all kinds – from the arctic to the Antarctic, from deep sea to the highest mountains, from our Earth to the Moon and planets – is something uniquely human. No other species on Earth explores — exploration is truly a defining trait of our species.”

More: How my exploration of the Titanic led to a realization about the future of spaceflight, The Hill

Earlier posts

Its Deep Diving Away Team Week, earlier post

Alan Stern’s Titanic Away Team Journal: Was That a Dream?
‘Yesterday our mother ship ship Horizon Arctic finished the journey to carry us and our OceanGate Expeditions submersible Titan along the Grand Banks to port in St. John’s Newfoundland after exploring the RMS Titanic. As the ship pulled into port my fellow Titanic explorers watched from railings above the ship’s bridge. I said to one of my colleagues, Dylan Taylor, “Did we really just explore the Titanic? It feels like a dream.” He instantly replied, “Funny, I feel exactly the same way.”

Alan Stern’s Titanic Away Team Journal: Tally Ho Titanic!, ALan Stern
“As the sole scientist in the crew, I felt a bit the designated geek, but I soon realized I was just one geek of five. I could not have asked for a more engaging, accomplished, talented, and driven Titan crew compliment than those four gentlemen. The journey ended all too soon, and by 1315 we dropped weights and were on ascent. My role collecting scientific images and other observations, and even a little piloting of the sub was then over, though I continued to help with sub to surface comm throughout ascent and recovery ops.”

Alan Stern’s Titanic Away Team Journal: T-1 Day, Reflections on Risk and Reward
“As least for me, it’s always a little sobering to take deliberate risks. But I’ll do that tomorrow, as I have in the past, because the risks are so well worth the rewards. From my up-close exploration of Titanic and the deep ocean bottom there, I expect to contribute to science, to bring back experiences to share and to be able to inspire others to greater accomplishments of their own.”

Alan Stern’s Titanic Away Team Journal: Frontiers That Beckon And Bind
“Today is a bit of a slow day here on the North Atlantic, with overcast skies, steady winds, occasional rain, and churning seas. There are so many kinds of exploration, so many kinds of frontiers. From the arctic to the deep ocean, from the upper atmosphere to space, from mountains to medical research, and from AI to astrophysics, I’ve named just a few. For me, New Horizons though is special, it was the only chance in my generation of planetary scientists to be a part of a mission to a new kind of planet, to explore new worlds still farther than legendary Voyager had, and to barnstorm the deep outer solar system with 21st century technology. For these reasons, of all the 29 space missions I have participated in myself, and of the 14 I have led, New Horizons is my favorite.”

Alan Stern’s Titanic Away Team Journal: Of Exploration, Moonlight, and July 19th.
“Today our expedition’s A dive to Titanic took place here at OceanGate Expeditions. I was up for it before 3 a.m. and on deck by 4 a.m. to observe and learn from the pre-dive preps. The actual dive commenced with deployment of the sub, Titan, into the ocean about 7:15 a.m., and submerging the craft roughly 25 min later. The dive ended after almost 10 hours, with a successful 3-hour exploration around the Titanic, 4000 meters beneath us here on the surface. My own team’s dive, called B dive, will be Friday, after two days of expected bad seas in between, not suitable for sub operations.”

Alan Stern’s Titanic Away Team Journal 18 July 2022
“At the urging of Keith Cowing I’ve been reflecting on the Titanic dive I’ll be making this week with OceanGate Expeditions and I’ll be sharing some of those reflections with you here. Feel free to share! these posts. The first reflection I want to write about is the connection I feel between my involvement in this deep ocean exploration and the coming exploration of Ocean world Europa by NASA”s Europa Clipper Science Team, of which I am also a part.”