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Technical Details
The Research Icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS will be the most advanced polar research vessel in the world. The year-round operational capacity will allow for expeditions staged outside the optimal weather windows, independent of the limitations of drifting pack ice or severe weather conditions, even in completely ice-covered waters. With flexible arrangement of laboratories and supply containers, variability of other infrastructure (winches, cranes, etc.) and free deck-space areas, the ship will be able to cover the needs of most disciplines in marine research. It can be deployed as a research icebreaker in polar seas because it will meet the specifications of the highest ice-class for polar icebreakers. The vessel will be a powerful research icebreaker with about 65,000 tons displacement, a length of 199 m and with 81 Megawatt diesel-electric propulsion power. It will have high ice performance to penetrate autonomously (single ship operation) into the central Arctic Ocean during all seasons of the year and the capacity to continuously advance through more than 2.5 meters thick ice. The construction of AURORA BOREALIS requires several new technical solutions and will provide an extended technical potential and knowledge for marine technologies and the ship building industry. The new technological features include dynamic positioning in closed sea-ice cover, advanced ice-forecasting with autonomous, multiple helicopter support and a platform for deployment and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) giving direct access to the sea bellow the ship’s hull (moon pool). |
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Drilling platform
The drilling platform is a unique feature of the vessel. The deep-sea drilling rig will enable sampling of the ocean floor and sub-sea between 100 m and 5000 metres water with more than 1000 m penetration beneath sea-floor at the most inhospitable places on Earth. The drilling capability will potentially be deployed in both polar regions as AURORA BOREALIS will be the only vessel worldwide that could undertake this type of scientific investigation.
Due to huge logistical difficulties, so far only one drilling expedition has ever been staged in the central Arctic Ocean. Three ships had to be used, one to drill and the two other circling around the drilling vessel to keep the drilling site free from the ice. AURORA BOREALIS will allow the scientists to drill the Arctic sea floor without further assistance, even in closed sea ice cover (more than 2.5 metres thick).
Dynamic positioning
With the drill pipe down through 5000 metres of sea, coring 1000 metres into the ocean floor, the vessel has to stay precisely above its drilling station. This is especially difficult in ice infested waters, as the drifting pack ice slowly moves the ship away. The vessel thus requires a specific hull shape that can withstand the pressure of pack ice pushing against it, and a positioning system capable of manoeuvring in ice.
AURORA BOREALIS will be equipped with six powerful and robust transverse thrusters so it can always turn against the main flow of pack ice even in rapidly changing conditions. Together with the three main propelers at the stern of the vessel, the system will keep the vessel on position to an accuracy of about 5 - 10 % of the water depth.
The new hull of the research ship will have strong sloped side walls and a heeling tank system designed for sidewards icebreaking during dynamic positioning; its propeller system will be strehghtened to break the ice going beneath the ship. AURORA BOREALIS will therefore be able to break the ice lateraly as well as backwars and forwards.
Extensive model tests in the ice tanks of the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSVA) and Aker Arctic Helsinki have proven that AURORA BOREALIS would be able to dynamically position in ice of two metres and more and even break through ice ridges of more than 10 metres.
Moon pools
The moon pools are continuous vertical funnels in the midst of the hull into the water below the vessel allowing scientists to deploy equipment into the ocean without being subject to wind, waves and ice. The aft moon pool is mainly dedicated to drilling operations, while the forward one is reserved for other scientific works. It will be used for the deployment of very sensitive and expensive sampling devices, namely Remotely Operated or Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (ROVs and AOVs), within closed sea ice cover.
Scientific laboratories are located on several decks around the forward moon pool, which is designed in an atrium-like shape with circular walkways and preparation areas.
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