HOW TO DIVE TO THE DEEPEST PLACE ON EARTH

Sullivan, a geologist, oceanographer, and former astronaut, brings unique perspective to this account of a really deep sea dive.

Inviting along readers who are willing to plunge (in imagination) over six miles into crushing ocean depths to “perhaps encounter species no human has ever seen,” Sullivan recalls her 2019 dive aboard the privately owned, two-person submersible Limiting Factor into the Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, located in the Mariana Trench. Along the way, she draws comparisons to her three space shuttle missions. Though the plunge had the ostensible purpose of refining depth measurements at the Deep’s bottom, what comes through most clearly is not what she actually did or saw, but her heady excitement to be going where (she notes) only seven others had gone before. Co-author and illustrator Rosen’s cartoon images and schematics combine with a selection of expedition and stock photographs of sea life and scuba divers, plus depth charts, to fill in most of the gaps. Along with a personal career summary from Sullivan (who narrates) and acute comments about design differences between shuttles and submersibles in terms of the environments in which each is designed to work, the authors add background introductions to the submersible, its attendant ship, and undersea exploration in general. Better yet, they enticingly point out to the budding explorers in the audience how much of the ocean and what’s in it even now remains to be discovered. So: “Dive in!”

Vivid memories of flights both up and down.