Swan Hellenic: “Exploring Space at Sea” Lecturers
Swan Hellenic has announced the first SETI experts who will accompany the cultural cruises of 2023, after forming a partnership with the Institute itself last December to take its cruise explorations deeper and deeper, even into the outer reaches of space.
The collaboration with the SETI Institute, a space and Earth exploration organisation that supports NASA and NSF programmes, aims to provide guests with cultural insights into the history and latest discoveries in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology and planetary science, and the search for other life forms within and beyond our solar system.
Antarctica
Under this partnership, SETI Institute researchers will travel to the remotest corners of the planet, including Antarctica, where Swan Hellenic‘s fleet is present for several months of the year, engaging Swan Hellenic’s many travellers who enjoy exploring the Earth and beyond.
Dr. David Grinspoon, Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, member of the SETI Institute’s Science Advisory Board, astrobiologist, award-winning science communicator, award-winning author, and scientist on several interplanetary space missions, will be aboard SH Vega with the itinerary “Unspoiled Wilds of Southwest Africa” from April 3-16, 2023.
Dr. Simon Steel, Associate Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute, a Ph.D. astronomer and astrophysicist specializing in the study of galaxies, will be aboard SH Vega with the “Lands of the Celts” itinerary from May 23 to June 3, 2023.
David Grinspoon
Simon Steel
Bill Diamond, President & CEO of the SETI Institute, with more than 20 years of experience in photonics and optical communications, will be aboard SH Vega on the “Arctic Islands & Fjords” itinerary from June 2 to July 6, 2023.
Dr. Margaret Turnbull, a SETI Institute Research Scientist who is leading two NASA-funded teams to study the nearest star systems and their prospects for hosting habitable planets, will be aboard the SH Diana, with the “Historic Ports of the Western Seaboard” itinerary, August 8-17, 2023.
Bill Diamond
Margaret Turnbull
Dr. Pablo Sobron, a SETI Institute Research Scientist with a Ph.D. in physics and materials engineering who worked at the European Space Agency, the Spanish Space Agency, and the Universities of Oslo and Valladolid before focusing on new technology development at Washington University, McGill University, the Canadian Space Agency, the SETI Institute, and NASA, will be aboard SH Vega with the “Greenland in Depth” itinerary from August 26 to September 5, 2023.
Dr. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer and SETI Institute staff member, will be aboard SH Vega on the Journey to the “Northwest Passage” from September 5-21, 2023.
Pablo Sobron
Seth Shostak
Finally, Dr. Dava Newman, former Deputy Administrator of NASA, Director of the MIT Media Lab, Professor of Astronautics of the Apollo Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Faculty of Health, Science and Technology at Harvard-MIT, Board Member of the SETI Institute, will be aboard SH Vega with the itinerary “Discovery of the Weddell Sea” from December 23, 2023 to January 3, 2024.
DavaNewman
SH Vega
Andrea Zito, CEO of Swan Hellenic, commented, “We are extremely proud of this new partnership. The presence of the SETI Institute’s eminent scientists aboard our cultural expedition cruises, sharing their expertise in astrobiology, geology, physics, chemistry and astronomy, completes another aspect of the quest to take our guests to see what others do not see”.
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