[balls187]

What makes them tourists and not explorers? I get the 19 year went along to spend time with his dad, but the others had some affiliation.

His father had apparent been fascinated with the Titanic since he was young.

The pilot and founder of Oceangate had built his own submersible.

One of the men was nick named “Mr Titanic” due his studying of the Titanic.

[PepperdineG]

>What makes them tourists and not explorers?

Paying $250K for a ticket. If I buy Carnival cruise trip, does that make me an explorer?

[mwbajor]

What makes an explorer an explorer? To me, and to most people, I would think it means to find something previously undiscovered.

Nobody was calling the passengers on the MIR submersibles that have been visiting the titanic since the 90's "explorers" because it was already discovered and heavily documented.

At some point it ceases to be considered "exploration". Also, most explorers have been paid to do the exploration, not the other way around.