1,000-day ‘space mission’ will sail the sea

By Tariq Malik

updated 8:47 p.m. ET Dec. 30, 2005

An extended voyage being likened to long-term space travel is about to set sail right here on planet Earth.

Two sailors are preparing to shove off in a custom-built ship from a New York City pier on 1,000-day trek across the southern Atlantic Ocean. The journey, set to begin in early January, is one part personal challenge and one part mock Mars mission for its captain — New York artist Reid Stowe.

"I’ve been working on this expedition for years," said Stowe, an accomplished sailor since his youth, in an interview. "Right now I’m in ‘go’ mode."

Stowe and his first mate Alejandro Molina plan to sail their ship — the 60-ton, 70-foot (21-meter) Schooner Anne, which Stowe built by hand and named after his mother — continuously around the southern Atlantic Ocean beyond the sight of land with only a satellite phone to link them to the mainland. A donated satellite beacon is expected to verify the trip’s course, which Stowe hopes will set a record for the longest sailing voyage.

"I’ve always wanted to feel like a spaceman," Stowe said, adding that he realized the parallels between his upcoming trip and a mission to Mars after reading a scientific paper on space psychology. "I realized that a lot of the things [astronauts] would be subjected to, I’ve experienced, such as what it is to live with a small group of people in a dangerous and high-performance environment for an extended amount of time."

Stowe said he welcomes the isolation that he has come to expect from long sea voyages, and hopes the experience will demonstrate to students the long lag times astronauts may experience on a Mars trip.

A space mission at sea
Stowe’s planned mission is twice as long as a 500-day mock Mars expedition planned by Russian space officials, and it carries many analogs with long-duration spaceflight.

Much like missions to the international space station, Stowe’s expedition is limited to a two-person crew. Stowe plans to use a satellite phone to discuss the trip with students in New York City, a service similar to one space station astronauts perform with schoolchildren during their six-month terms in Earth orbit. Stowe and Molina have trained together for the past year to make sure they are compatible to work together within the confines of the Schooner Anne’s rooms and deck.

"When crews train together, they certainly learn to work out their differences early and determine what each other’s strengths are," said Walter Sipes, a psychologist with NASA’s Space Medicine and Health Care office at Johnson Space Center, adding that long training flows are routinely used for space shuttle and station missions. "You find out that, like many combat crews, they learn to depend on each other."

Stowe has also built a garden into the bow of the Schooner Anne to grow sprouts and other greens during the 1,000 days at sea.

Space station astronauts have grown soybeans, radishes and other plants aboard the orbital outpost and heralded the welcome smells of fresh vegetables and fruits that accompany supply ships from Earth.

"One of the most pleasing colors to the eye is green, and fortunately we have a lot of plants that color," said Sipes, adding that a small garden on long expeditions like Stowe’s or even a Mars mission would have several payoffs. "Largely there’s the ability to nurture something and see it grow to fruition."

On long space missions, plants could offer fresh aromas and textures that soften the stark sterility of a spacecraft, Sipes said.

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