It’s an ocean-going vessel for the Internet Age. It’s being funded in part by an Internet crowd-sourcing campaign. It will look like a joystick strapped to the back of a manta ray. And as it sails the oceans, it’ll beam its travels to the world from an onboard multimedia studio. SeaOrbiter is the creation of a French marine architect, and it’s being built by a foundation headed by the architect, an oceanographer, and a former astronaut. It will include laboratories for marine scientists and a fleet of submersibles for studying the deep ocean. It’ll also include an underwater chamber that can be used by marine scientists or by astronauts simulating space flight.
SeaOrbiter will look like no other ship – it’ll sail through the water vertically instead of horizontally.
The upper half – the part that looks like a joystick – will extend about eight stories above the water. Wind turbines and solar panels on that part of the vessel will provide power.
The manta-ray part will extend even farther below the ocean. That’s where most of the crew members will live and work. They’ll have big windows for observing the ocean environment. And they’ll have wet and dry laboratories, plus chambers for both shallow and deep divers.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2014. SeaOrbiter’s first voyage is expected to follow a couple of years later – a shakedown cruise around the Mediterranean. After that, it’ll head into the Atlantic Ocean – keeping the world informed through the Internet all the way.
