Packing for Mars

Let’s see if I remember how to do this.

OK, I’m not really going to Mars. I have no interest in the Red Planet, actually. Our humble blue marble holds enough fascination to last several lifetimes. And it’s the “blue” part of it that is perhaps the most fascinating, but it requires the most specialized equipment to visit. I’m borrowing my title from a book by Mary Roach, in which the author details the quirks, oddities, and challenges (e.g., pooping in zero gravity) of space travel, including the gear that is required, and how it’s evolved since humans first slipped the surly bonds of Earth. I think a scuba diving expedition, like the one I’ll be on next week, has some similarities to space travel, in terms of life support kit needed to survive an environment where humans were never meant to be.

I’d intended to write this sort of article months ago, at the suggestion of my friend and colleague, James Stacey, who thought readers might be interested in seeing how I pack for a dive trip involving underwater photography. At the time, in February, I was preparing for a trip to the Philippines, a tropical diving paradise. I snapped some photos of my kit laid out on the floor, and planned to details my choices and how I made my packing decisions and how I used it all. But the travel gods had other ideas for me, and a delayed flight and nearly missed connection meant my baggage never did arrive at my final destination, a tiny, remote island off of Palawan. I managed to do some diving there, with borrowed gear and no camera. One adapts to adversity, if one can call a press trip with Blancpain adversity. So this is a second chance, but it’s a very different sort of trip.