Months from help: what it takes to command the Odyssey

On my second expedition aboard the Odyssey Deep Explorer, somewhere between Uranus and Neptune, our water reclamation system failed. The nearest port was eleven weeks away. There was no one to call for advice who could reply in less than several hours, and no one who could help in less than months. Every decision about rationing, repair and route was mine.

That is the reality of deep-space command, and it is why Deep Explorer Command is our longest course at 30 weeks. The Odyssey is a superb ship: 196 metres long, a crew of 18, 1,200 tonnes of stores and a range of 1,800 AU on helium-3 pellets at just 0.85 tonnes per 100 AU. It can cruise at 920 km/s. But a ship is only as good as the person making the decisions aboard it.

The technical modules cover navigation without beacons, long-coast reactor management and improvised repairs. They are demanding, but our candidates are already experienced pilots with at least 2,500 hours of multi-crew time. The modules that challenge them most are the human ones: crew psychology on multi-year voyages, conflict between people who cannot get away from each other, isolation fatigue, and making irreversible decisions with incomplete information.

The centrepiece is a continuous 21-day isolation simulation at our Titan training annex. Candidates command a simulated Odyssey with a full crew, cut off from outside contact, while we introduce technical failures, medical emergencies and interpersonal tensions. Many candidates say it is the hardest three weeks of their careers.

After 240 simulator hours, candidates fly 210 hours aboard Odyssey vessels and finish with a real deployment as deputy commander on an outer-system leg. Our first-time pass rate is 81 per cent, and the course is nearly always waitlisted because places are sponsored by expedition companies and cartographic societies.

Many of our best candidates come from Tempest Ice Runner crews, whose outer-system flight time counts towards the entry requirement. If you are flying ice and dreaming of Neptune, come to our selection day on Titan.