Swan Hellenic Details 2027 Explore Space at Sea Series With SETI

Swan Hellenic will carry a SETI Institute scientist on each of six cultural expedition cruises in 2027, giving travel advisors a set of science-led sailings from the South Pacific and West Africa to Antarctica and the Arctic for clients seeking adventure that’s “literally” out of this world.

The 2027 Explore Space at Sea Series is the fifth year of the line’s partnership with the SETI Institute, which grew out of NASA’s High Resolution Microwave Survey and has searched for extraterrestrial intelligence for more than 40 years. Lectures cover astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology and planetary science.

“Each voyage connects remarkable destinations with some of the most fascinating questions in science, offering our guests the opportunity to see what others don’t, both on Earth and far beyond it,” said Mario Bounas, Chief Commercial Officer, Swan Hellenic, in a press statement.

Swan Hellenic: To Infinity and Beyond

For clients who want lectures tied to what they see ashore, four of the sailings match the scientist’s research to the region. Ross Beyer, a co-investigator on NASA’s HiRISE, New Horizons and VIPER missions, will compare the volcanic and tectonic features of the Pacific Ring of Fire with similar processes on other planets. Megan Seritan, whose work centers on the Moon’s ancient magnetic field, will connect the magnetic record held in Iceland’s lava to planetary data in NASA’s archives, while Janice Bishop will draw parallels between Antarctica’s cold desert and Mars, including the search for minerals and biosignatures. On the Patagonia and Falklands route, Uma Gorti, who models how stars and planets form, will cover the southern sky, astronomy and navigation, and cosmic rays detected beneath Antarctic ice.

The other two voyages take a wider view. Derek Kozel, principal investigator of the open-source GNU Radio project, will explain how researchers use radio signals to study the universe, and SETI Institute President and CEO Bill Diamond, a Silicon Valley technology veteran, will outline the institute’s work and the technical hurdles in looking for life elsewhere.

All six departures use the line’s three Polar Code ice-class ships, which carry 152 to 192 guests; SH Vega hosts half of the series. Its two May voyages meet in Reykjavik on May 31, with one ending and the next departing that day. Many Swan Hellenic cruises also offer Citizen Science programs, such as reporting cloud data to NASA and logging whale sightings with Happywhale.

The 2027 voyages:

• Cruising the Pacific Islands: New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, Auckland to Honiara, March 21-April 3, SH Minerva, with Ross Beyer
• Patagonia and the Wild Atlantic: Cruise to the Falkland Islands, Ushuaia to Montevideo, March 25-April 8, SH Vega, with Uma Gorti
• West Africa Coast and Atlantic Islands, Dakar to Lisbon, May 5-14, SH Diana, with Derek Kozel
• From Canada to Iceland Along the Viking Routes, Halifax to Reykjavik, May 20-31, SH Vega, with Bill Diamond
• From Iceland to Svalbard, Reykjavik to Longyearbyen, May 31-June 10, SH Vega, with Megan Seritan
• South Atlantic Cruise: from South Africa to Antarctica, Cape Town to Ushuaia, Oct. 29-Nov. 18, SH Diana, with Janice Bishop

Why it Matters

Dark sky travel is heavily trending, and the series also fits the Growth Getaways trend in Hilton’s 2027 Trends Report, which centers on trips that send travelers home with new interests. In the Morning Consult survey of 14,744 travelers in 14 countries, 42 percent said travel helped them discover new interests or passions, and Gen Z travelers were nearly twice as likely as baby boomers to want to return with a hobby they can keep pursuing. You can lead a client conversation with each scientist’s subject, whether Mars geology, star formation or radio technology, to suggest a specific voyage and ask Swan Hellenic about pairing the back-to-back SH Vega sailings for clients who want a longer North Atlantic and Arctic trip with two speakers.

For more information, visit swanhellenic.com.