From the Intelligence Community to the Exploration Community

I'm a storyteller; that's what exploration really is all about. Going to places where others haven't been and returning to tell a story they haven't heard before.
-James Cameron

As an up and coming explorer with Blue Marble Exploration, I am honored to be invited into such a prestigious group of astronauts, entrepreneurs, divers and well… explorers. My story is a bit different from other new explorers. I’ve been working for the intelligence community since the age of 19. Due to my test scores, I was recruited by the Army into a program that no longer exists. I was trained as a Counterintelligence Special Agent in the art of tradecraft, source operations, and interrogation. For those of you who are not familiar with the term counterintelligence, it simply means that I keep our nation’s enemies from stealing our secrets.

After the Army, I pursued my intelligence career in private industry, and now I work for the Department of Defense as a Counterintelligence Special Agent. During my travels, I’ve been fortunate to meet many beautiful minds to include fellow explorers. I’ve always admired these men and women above all others. My experiences of global travel, extreme environments, and war zones gave me the qualifications to prosper within my field, but never in the name of science or exploration.

This is not the first time the intelligence and exploration communities have crossed paths. In 1985, Bob Ballard set out to lead an expedition with the hopes of discovering the Titanic. Ballard, a former Naval Officer himself, was able to fund the expedition through U.S. Naval Intelligence in secret. The Navy was not interested in financing the search for the Titanic. However, the Navy was desperately interested in discovering the location of two of their sunken nuclear-powered attack submarines from the 1960s. Stories like Ballard’s inspired me and gave me hope for being accepted into the exploration community.

When I began working with Blue Marble Exploration and The Explorers Club, I was amazed but very cautious. For every similarity between these two worlds, there were several differences. Who pays for this stuff? I’ve been accustomed to Uncle Sam picking up the tab, and had no idea where the funding for these expeditions came from. I recognized very quickly there was no right answer for this question. Corporate sponsors, wealthy donors, crowdfunding, grants, and yes, in some cases the intelligence community has funded many of the amazing expeditions that have awed and educated us over the years.

In order to be accepted into the exploration community, I needed to embrace social networking. This has been the hardest change for me. Having active Twitter and Instagram accounts is considered a general faux pas within the intelligence community, especially for those in non-overt positions. Having a significant cyber footprint on the internet opens oneself up to possible cyber-attacks and visibility from the enemy. However, it also brings public interest to important causes, helps with crowdfunding opportunities, sponsorship for expeditions, and is a medium for educating the public.

Finally, I now have the ability to pursue expeditions with my particular interests. Having the freedom to decide where I want to travel and write on topics I’m personally interested in is a new concept for me. Being a certified scuba diver, I’ve always enjoyed exploring the world’s oceans. In 2016, I’ll be joining Blue Marble Exploration to be part of the first manned submersible expedition to the bottom of Dean’s Blue Hole located in Long Island, Bahamas. The goal will be to pilot a small sub 663 feet to the bottom and broadcast the event live!

I live for these adventures and take this stewardship seriously. I now understand the bond between exploration and storytelling, and more importantly doing it in ways that impacts the human experience and deepens our connection to this planet. These stories are not only meant to entertain but to educate and remind us that the age of exploration is just beginning, not ending.

---

Contributed by Justin Shanken Emerging Explorer Blue Marble Exploration Atlanta, GA, USA

Primal Instinct to Explore

One of the most common questions explorers face is: "Why?"

WHY do you explore?

WHY is exploration important?

WHY do human beings have a history of exploration?

Perhaps it is simply in our nature to do so. Perhaps we have a deeply ingrained survival instinct that our animal brains cannot shake despite thousands of years of evolution. Or perhaps we are simply following our destiny as "wanderers".

Carl Sagan was one of the biggest proponents of our sense of exploration. Now Swedish digital artist Erik Wernquist has created a powerful video to try capturing that wanderlust. Regardless of whether you believe the viability of humanity ever existing beyond Planet Earth, Wanderers is still a visually compelling piece of art. Enjoy!

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.

Becoming The Youngest Person in Space

I am 17 years old and will start my senior year of high school in the fall. Like most kids, space has always been something that excited and amazed me. Even as a young child, I would stare up at the stars, wondering what was out there and how I could find it.

Unfortunately, growing up in my generation I began to face the reality that being an astronaut was not exactly a realistic career choice. People told me that it was almost impossible to work for NASA and that the space program had almost no budget so what was the point in trying anyways. This was really hard for me to take in, but I moved on and began to accept the reality that I would just have to become a doctor or lawyer when I grew up.

However, after an incredibly unexpected turn of events last year, my dream of going to space was reignited, when I was able to create a position for myself at XCOR Aerospace, a commercial space company based out of Mojave, California.

The biggest perk of working for XCOR is that every employee gets a free trip into suborbital space aboard our spacecraft, Lynx. When I found this out, I could not have been more excited: since Lynx is set to start flying within the year, that would mean that I would become the youngest person ever to visit space!

As XCOR’s Communication and Youth Outreach Associate, I have taken this excitement with me and spoken to over a thousand students and teachers about the possibilities of commercial space exploration and how they all can get involved. I have developed a presentation and classroom materials, and I have seen how inspired kids are by space and all that it holds.

Through all of this, I have thought a lot about what exploration really means to me.

Some people dismiss XCOR because we are only going to suborbital space, and that is somehow unimportant in the grand scheme of exploration since we have already gone to the Moon as a species. However, what that notion fails to take into account is that each flight will be a new experience and chance to explore for each individual. Not only will we be conducting research that has never done before, but we will also be bringing space, the most extreme environment we know of, and its beauty to thousands of people, while inspiring millions more. The commercial space market as a whole is pushing the limits of how we explore and making our universe more accessible to everyone in the process.

I want to go to space not because it will be a first for humanity but because I will get to expand the boundaries of what I have experienced and share that knowledge with as many students as I can. I truly hope that my record of being the youngest person in space does not stand for long and that space becomes something accessible for everybody on the planet, especially kids. The future of exploration relies on the youth of today. We have as a whole become more interested in looking at our phones than looking up at the sky or down into the ocean, but this can be changed. It is our job as individuals, as communities, and as a society to reignite a passion for exploration and make it exciting for future generations once again.

---

Contributed by Zach Oschin Student Explorer Blue Marble Exploration Los Angeles, CA, USA

Exploring the World with Luminox

We are truly excited to welcome Luminox as the official watch of our Plunge Into The Abyss expedition!

From the first time we dove in a deep submersible beyond depths where sunlight could penetrate, we knew that we would have to find a watch that could operate in those rigorous conditions. After all, precise timing of underwater operations can mean the difference between life and death, but in the darkness of the deep ocean we needed to preserve our night vision. We experimented with several different time-keeping devices before our friend and fellow explorer Scott Cassell introduced us to Luminox in 2010. One dive wearing a Luminox watch, and we were hooked!

Luminox combines the best of two worlds: traditional Swiss watch-making craftsmanship and practical operational excellence for field work in extreme environments. Their “Always On” self-powered illumination system makes watches more visible and easier to read in low or no light situations. This is perfect for military and law enforcement uses. Of course, it also makes their watches “Essential Gear” for exploring extreme environments … like the oceans and space.

We greatly appreciate the support that the entire Luminox team has shown us in the past, and we look forward to working with them on many expeditions!

Adventures of an Aquanaut:Exploration to Inspire STEM Learning

It has been exactly 10 years since I fulfilled a childhood dream of visiting Antarctica.

As an Antarctic Studies student at the University of Canterbury, I was given the opportunity to spend two weeks at New Zealand’s Scott Base on Ross Island. This internationally competitive postgraduate course provided first-hand experience of living and working in the extreme polar environment.

It was a life-changing event that ignited my passion to inspire the public, particularly young people, to live more sustainably and harmoniously. Rather than pursue a Research Higher Degree, I returned home to Australia with the idea of using unusual exploration initiatives to inspire STEM learning.

---

BioSUB

Funding for my first initiative, the BioSUB Project, was provided through a $50,000 sponsorship prize I won in the Australian Geographic 'Live your dream' Wildest Adventure Competition. My idea was to spend two weeks living in an underwater capsule at the bottom of a lake in a one-of-a-kind science adventure. Making headlines around the world, the BioSUB was a great success and a real labor of love for which I received the coveted Australian Geographic Adventurer of the Year award.


The BioSUB was designed as a partly regenerative system and evolved into a virtual underwater classroom. Some of the oxygen I needed to survive underwater was generated by a photosynthetic bioreactor designed and built by students from a high school Advanced Biology class. I also built a pedal powered generator that produced enough electricity to power my laptop. I used cameras, the Internet and a telecom system to communicate with people from all over the world from the depths of the lake. Thousands of people worldwide followed my progress over the Internet.

---

Life Amphibious

My projects are a way of raising awareness of critical environmental issues around the globe in a fun, provocative and scientific way. My next project, Life Amphibious, was an adventurous human-powered submarine expedition through the Greek islands. In partnership with the Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles, I promoted their “Small Garbage” campaign in island schools. The Ecole de Technologie Superieure in Montreal, Canada, supported me by sending an assistant professor, four young engineers and their pioneering Omer 6 submarine to Greece for the expedition.


The submarine featured a biology-inspired design, resembling a penguin, as the means of propulsion. The aim of the Life Amphibious project was threefold: to get young people excited about science and engineering; to inspire environmental awareness; to provide university students with an educational experience that translated their theoretical knowledge into reality.

---

LEGOLAND ATLANTIS

In 2010, I completed a project with LEGOLAND Deutschland® as Project Manager and “Edutainer”. My role was to launch the LEGOLAND Year of Records by living in an underwater house in the LEGOLAND ATLANTIS by SEA LIFE aquarium. I entered on 30 March and surfaced again two weeks later having achieved a new Guinness World Record for the most electricity generated by pedaling underwater (2,502 watt hours).


It was a globally unique experiment with over 100,000 children and parents visiting me on location in LEGOLAND Deutschland® and via the Web site. The project featured on National Geographic Channel’s Naked Science ‘City Under the Sea’ documentary and with over 100 million viewers globally, the project was awarded a silver medal at the Econ Awards in Germany in the category “PR-Activity”.

---

Tik and Bubbles Underwater Headquarters

Most recently, I started developing a new educational initiative called Tik and Bubbles with the intention of designing community-based science projects that are creative, collaborative, challenging and fun. Tik, an underwater superhero, will encourage young people to pursue STEM studies and careers, promote and protect Australia’s marine biodiversity and lead an active and healthy lifestyle.


I have just completed a successful peerfunding campaign with StartSomeGood to create the ultimate underwater superhero headquarters to be located off the coast of Australia. I raised over $33,000 and set a new Australian record using their peerfunding platform. Let the challenge begin!

I invite you to follow my new project as it unfolds and encourage you to get in touch with any ideas or questions you may have. If you’d like to get involved in some way please let me know, as I am sure we can find a way.

Follow Lloyd's exploration adventure initiatives on Twitter @Lloyd_Godson or visit his website!

---

Contributed by Lloyd Godson Marine Edutainer and Aquanaut New South Wales, Australia

Expedition Photography:Recording the Journey

Storytelling and the ability to share one’s expeditions and discoveries are key elements to exploration. During the expeditions of early explorers, like Columbus and James Cook, paintings and drawings captured moments of discovery and hardships. An expedition artist was always brought along to document the journey. Once photography was invented, expedition photographers were brought to photograph these moments of discovery along with the daily life during the journey.


When I think of the seminal work of an expedition photographer, I recall Frank Hurley’s images from Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition in 1914. Through his images, one can get a sense of the desolation of being trapped in the ice and feel the cramped living quarters of the ship during the day-to-day operation. Once trapped in the ice, the images become more compelling as he continued to photograph the ship being crushed by the ice and life on the ice once the ship went down. These images bring the story to life and allow for a deeper connection than words alone. Photographs, like the early paintings, capture the intangible while bringing you into the moment.


Photography has come a long way and is now accessible to everyone and, for that reason, plays an even more important role in our expeditions and storytelling. As an explorer and expedition photographer, I am acutely aware that followers of my expeditions expect to see compelling images.

We now have the ability to bring people sitting on their couches along on the journey in real time. Through blogging and social media, viewers can experience expeditions in the most remote corners of the world through both still images and video, getting a sense of place as exploration happens. Because of this technology, we end up with an unedited version that captures moments and raw emotions rather than, as the explorer and photographer, we remember it once we are home. I think this is extremely powerful.


As a photographer, my camera is always with me on an expedition to catch that unexpected moment, but also to capture the everyday. Moments from an icicle hanging from a ship railing, to the first glimpse of sea ice when steaming north in the Arctic Ocean, or the science being conducted on board. All are documented in an effort to record the journey and share these precious moments from remote corners of the world.

More of Gaelin's photography may be found at Global Ocean Exploration's website, and follow along with her expeditions on Twitter @GaelinGOExplore!

Photo credits: Gaelin Rosenwaks' Arctic acidification expedition (all color photos), Frank Hurley's Antarctic expedition (black and white photos)

---

Contributed by Gaelin Rosenwaks Founder/CEO Global Ocean Exploration New York, NY USA

Student Explorer: Rebecca Ziegler

As a Blue Marble Exploration Student Explorer, Rebecca combines her lifelong enthusiasm for “the big blue” with the formal study of the world beneath the surface.

Currently a student at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, Rebecca is working towards degrees in Marine Science and Communications. A PADI-certified Divemaster and AAUS Scientific Diver, Rebecca works as a research assistant and field-lab technician in the Marine Science department. Most recently she participated in a shark tagging field course and became a responder for stranded sea turtles on the Big Island. While not in the water, Rebecca leads fellow students on outdoor adventures around the island through her university’s student recreation program.

While in high school, Rebecca served as a Youth Ambassador for Scott Cassell’s Undersea Voyager Project, participating in a submersible pilot training program and learning new ways to explore the ocean. In 2011 her underwater footage of a baby Gray Whale taken while SCUBA diving in Laguna Beach, CA quickly went viral and was shown on media outlets around the country, launching Rebecca into the world of underwater filming and photography. This experience inspired her to start an online campaign to save the Aquarius Reef Base, resulting in a chance to dive to the base in person! Rebecca continues to use her passion for exploration to inspire her peers to get excited and take action to conserve the ocean.

Follow Rebecca's adventures on Twitter @BectheDiver or visit her website!


Getting to Know Rebecca Ziegler

1. Why do you explore? How are you continually inspired to explore?
   
   Ever since I was young my imagination has run rampant with adventures in unknown places, always wanting to see new things and experience the world. Besides watching shows or movies about far-off places, listening to the stories from people I meet from other countries keeps me driven to explore beyond my backyard. I have always loved being around the ocean, when it came time to pick a career, it seemed like a no brainer! The ocean is so vast, with so little of it explored and so much still to learn, I have jumped at any chance to get my feet wet.
   
   
2. Is there one expedition in your future towards which you are continuously striving?
   
   South Africa is currently on the top of my radar for future expeditions. I am hoping to do both a wildlife filmmaking program and a great white shark research internship there this coming summer. This will be the first time I will be in a new country, across the world by myself, and I can’t wait!
   
   
3. Do you have one piece of advice for other students who dream of exploring the ocean?
   
   My advice would be to challenge yourself to try something new whenever you can. Whether it be a new sport, hobby or even going on a club event, you never know who you will meet along the way, or what you will learn! I have learned the only things I have ever regretted are things I didn’t do. Get involved with any local dive clubs, aquariums, or beach cleanups. Stay updated on the latest in the underwater world and if your ocean hero is making a stop near your hometown for a conference- go see them! Introduce yourself, shake their hand, and don’t be shy. Step out of your comfort zone, dare to dream, and you might discover something new.
   
   
4. Who are your role models in exploration and why do they inspire you?
   
   My role models in exploration range from Her Deepness, Sylvia Earle, to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his family’s legacy of ocean exploration. Their pioneering feats in the underwater world feed my hunger for pursuing my own adventures. But more personally my family, friends, and colleagues inspire me to dream, discover and explore the world around me.

Explorer-In-Residence: Scott Parazynski

Astronaut.
Physician.
Mountaineer.
Pilot.
Diver.

All of these titles apply to Scott Parazynski. As a Blue Marble Exploration Explorer-in-Residence, Scott keeps us thinking about the diverse challenges humans face in exploring extreme environments.

Over his 17-year career as a NASA Astronaut, Scott completed 5 Space Shuttle Missions and conducted 7 spacewalks. Mission highlights included participating in the first US-Russian spacewalk and serving as Senator John Glenn’s crewmate and personal physician. During Scott’s last mission in 2007, he ventured farther from the airlock than any other astronaut to perform a risky repair, a challenging spacewalk that was likened to an “Apollo 13 moment.”

In addition to exploring the extreme limits of space, Scott is an accomplished mountaineer, summiting Mt. Everest in 2009, as well as a lifelong SCUBA diver, conducting a NASA-sponsored expedition to the world’s highest lake in the Andes in 2005. With academic training at Stanford and Harvard, Scott’s expertise- perhaps unsurprisingly- focuses on human performance in stressful environments. Currently, Scott serves as Chief Medical Officer and Director of University of Texas Medical Branch Health Center for Polar Medical Operations focused on the US Antarctic Program, and as Chairman of the Board of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.

Follow Scott's expeditions on Twitter @AstroDocScott or visit his website!


Getting to Know Scott Parazynski

1. Why do you explore? How are you continually inspired to explore?
   
   As the son of a rocket scientist – my Dad helped design the Saturn V boosters that first took men to the moon in the late 60’s and early 70’s – I was fascinated by everything to do with exploration as a kid. All the books I read had something to do with pressing the boundaries of human experience, from Lewis and Clark to Cousteau, Sir Roger Bannister to Yuri Gagarin, Mallory and Irvine to John Glenn and the Mercury 7. I wanted to be the first man to set bootprints down on Mars, and was bound and determined to make it come true.
   
   Although the space program took some different paths in the subsequent years and I didn’t get a chance to visit the Red Planet, I certainly have no regrets at the way things transpired! There’s so much more to discover, on, over and under our planet’s surface – and even within the human body itself.


2. Is there one expedition in the past or future that you consider to be the culmination of your career?
   
   My best day on the job – ever – was supporting the repair of a live solar array during Space Shuttle mission STS-120, while docked to the International Space Station. It’s a lengthy but exciting story to tell some other time, but being a part of a team that took on such a difficult task and succeeded, it just doesn’t get any better than that.
   
   In terms of future goals, I’d certainly love to visit Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of our oceans. The technical and operational challenge of getting there is enormous. While 12 men walked on the moon, only two expeditions have successfully visited, and we have so much more to learn about our own oceans as we develop the technologies to repeatedly visit and characterize our uncharted ocean depths.


3. Most people think explorers are daredevils and risk-takers- how do you perceive risk?
   
   I approach risk with great respect. Although many would look at my life’s endeavors and conclude I’m a daredevil of sorts, nothing could be further from the truth. I recognize and prepare for risk in earnest. I do my best to understand the environment I’ll be working in, the technology I’ll need to rely upon, and then mentally and physically prepare myself to handle whatever might possibly go wrong when there. There’s an old adage that there are bold pilots and old pilots, but no old, bold pilots. The same can be said for astronauts, mountaineers and other high risk pursuits. Those with longevity probably took similar approaches, else were extremely lucky!


4. What are the greatest personal or professional challenges you face as an explorer?
   
   I’m naturally inquisitive and creative, and seek challenge in new and exciting environments like those found in space travel, the high mountains, the polar regions, in exotic lands and deep beneath our oceans. The greatest challenges are sometimes calming the nerves of one’s family and friends when heading off to the next big adventure…


5. Do you have one piece of advice for anyone of any age who dreams of exploring space or land or sea?
   
   Read all you can about those that came before you, and then set out on your own path. I’d certainly avoid the naysayers who’d imply that the path is too tough, or that there’s nothing left to explore or discover. Those without vision will hold you back, and they are just plain wrong… Finally, don’t get overly fixated on the summit, whether that summit is a true summit or just a lofty goal of yours, instead focusing on a series of steps that will eventually lead you to where you want to go. Any lofty goal can be intimidating and daunting when you first set out, but taking it one day at a time, one figurative rope length at a time, even a footstep at a time, makes it possible to achieve with tenacity and preparation.

Why Extreme Environments?

Since Blue Marble Exploration focuses exclusively on "extreme environments", we are often asked "why?".

There are many answers, but the bottom line is that putting humans in environments that are hostile to our very existence forces us to solve immensely complex problems. In order to accomplish our exploration objectives for each mission, we have to push the limits of technology, science, and human endurance. This in turn promotes innovation and creativity, which help us move humanity forward.

These types of expeditions also have a unique capacity to inspire millions of people around the world. They have a special combination of powerful visuals and dramatic storylines that capture imaginations across cultures, languages, and generations. This can be used to promote education, innovation, and conservation, as well as collaboration among countries, industries, and organizations.

Within the past 12 months, we have been fortunate to witness three very different expeditions to extreme environments. Below (in chronological order) is a brief summary of each one and some of its major contributions.

---

OCEANS - DeepSea Challenge [March 2012]

On March 26, 2012, James Cameron broke the world solo dive record by becoming only the third person ever to see the deepest point in the ocean. Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, plunges to nearly 11,000 meters (~37,000 feet), which is much deeper than Mt. Everest is tall. Prior to Cameron's dive, the only humans to ever successfully complete this dive were Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, who made the trip in the U.S. Navy-sponsored bathyscaphe Trieste on January 23, 1960.

In order to accomplish his mission objectives, Cameron had to develop a whole slate of new technologies, including his submersible, DeepSea Challenger. Besides his core team, the project relied on a diverse international group of small industry specialists, large corporate partners, and university departments. The expedition will be the subject of a documentary and a 3D film.

---

ALTITUDE - Red Bull Stratos [October 2012]

On October 14, 2012, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke several world records, including the highest altitude jump (39 km / 24 mi) and the fastest freefall (1357 kmh / 844 mph). He also became the first human to break the sound barrier without a vehicle. Several of these records were previously held by Joe Kittinger, who made his jump on August 16, 1960, as part of experiments conducted by the U.S. Air Force. He worked as an advisor and Capsule Communicator for Red Bull Stratos, watching Baumgartner break all but one of his records (longest freefall of 4 minutes 36 seconds).

[Even though it was dubbed "Mission to the Edge of Space", Baumgartner never even came close to approaching the internationally accepted boundary of 100 km (62 mi).]

To successfully complete the mission, Baumgartner's international team had to develop multiple new technologies, including the suit, helmet, capsule, balloon, parachute, and life support systems. Because of the extreme pressures on his body, the medical team collected immensely valuable physiological data.

Perhaps the greatest impact was on mass media. The project was sponsored by Red Bull, which not only provided financing but also used its marketing muscle to make the skydive one of the most popular current events in recent history. The jump's YouTube livestream drew a record 8 million concurrent views across 56 countries, and its Facebook posts reached over 50 million users. The resulting [inaccurately named] documentary, Space Dive, was produced by the BBC in partnership with National Geographic and Red Bull Media House.

---

POLAR - The Coldest Journey [March 2013]

This is an ongoing expedition to make the first crossing of Antarctica during the winter. Starting in March 2013, the 3,200 km (2,000 mi) traverse will take six months and will be done mostly in complete darkness and in temperatures as low as -90C (-130F). This project has been led for the five years of planning and preparation by Sir Ranulph Fiennes, one of the world's greatest explorers. Unfortunately, he developed a severe case of frostbite during the preposition phase, and on February 25, 2013, he announced that he would be leaving the expedition team. The remaining 5 members are set to continue the expedition without him, expecting to complete their journey in September 2013.

For this expedition, the team is relying on technological advances in land transportation, fuel, clothing, and communications. In addition to accomplishing its mission objectives, the project hopes to raise US$10 million for its partner charity, Seeing is Believing.

---