As some of you might know, in my day job I work as
Captain of Small Research Vessels; e.g.; for Aqua Survey, Inc.

Some of
you might also remember that when I took off from seafaring to work with NASA
and SETI in an expedition diving into Volcano Crater Lakes in the Bolivian Andes
to study the origins of Life in extreme environments, it seemed like I was
abandoning the sea and my commitment to oceanic exploration, even if it was just
for a couple of months in 2006.

But now that the principal investigator
of the NASA/SETI High Lakes Expedition, Dr. Nathalie Cabrol, is preparing to
launch a (very) small Research Vessel into space, to splash down on a
"Lake" on Saturn’s largest moon, I can’t help
but be excited about the convergence of these 2 passions.

 Seriously, a Research Vessel, on an Ocean, (lets not
quibble about technicalities just yet) in OUTER SPACE. It doesn’t get any better
than that....