''Aurora Borealis'' is a proposed European research

icebreaker An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to sma ...

, comparable to the world's strongest icebreakers,Data Sheet for Overview
. planned jointly by a consortium of fifteen participant organizations and companies from ten European nations. If built, she would be the largest icebreaker ever built as well as the first icebreaker built to the highest IACS

ice class Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have r ...

, Polar Class 1. The unique feature of the proposed vessel is its ability to perform scientific

deep sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...

drilling in a

sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's o ...

covered ocean. The ship is proposed to have an operational lifetime of 35 to 40 years, with the main area of operations being the inner

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

History and background

The planning for the vessel started in 2002. The project is coordinated by the

European Polar Board European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...

, an expert board of the

European Science Foundation The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 11 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 8 European countries. ESF is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that promotes the highest quality science ...

. In March 2007 the

BMBF The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (german: link=no, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, ), abbreviated BMBF, is a cabinet-level ministry of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn, with an office in Berlin. The Ministry provi ...

(the German Federal Ministry for Science and Education) funded the preparations for ''Aurora Borealis'', the

Helmholtz Association The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (german: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren) is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. ...

center

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (German: ''Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung'') is located in Bremerhaven, Germany, and a member of the Helmholtz Association o ...

hosted this project. In 2010, the

German Council of Science and Humanities The ''Wissenschaftsrat'' (''WR''; German Science and Humanities Council) is an advisory body to the German Federal Government and the state (''Länder'') governments. It makes recommendations on the development of science, research, and the univers ...

stopped to support the planning which made the future of the 800-million-euro ship, designed by Schiffko (nowadays Wärtsilä Ship Design), uncertain. The project has been delayed, and a slightly smaller and cheaper (less than 500-million-euro) version, ''Aurora Slim'', has been suggested by the Finnish engineering company

Aker Arctic Aker Arctic Technology Oy (often shortened to Aker Arctic) is a Finnish engineering company that operates an ice model test basin in Helsinki. In addition to ship model testing, the company offers various design, engineering and consulting ser ...

.Finnish ship designers blaze trail to Arctic maritime routes
Helsingin Sanomat, 8 January 2012.

Aurora Slim

The most prominent change from ''Aurora Borealis'' to ''Aurora Slim'' is that the insulated

drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construction purposes, into the earth's subsurface. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to ...

is no longer present. The scientist have to rely on a mobile system and shallower boreholes of a few hundred metres instead of more than . She will also have only a single

moon pool A moon pool is a feature of marine drilling platforms, drillships and diving support vessels, some marine research and underwater exploration or research vessels, and underwater habitats, in which it is also known as a wet porch. It is an op ...

instead of two as in the original concept.ERICON-AB Aurora Slim
. Mikko Niini, 1 March 2012. Like the original concept, the vessel is designed to break level ice up to in thickness. However, the dynamical positioning system of the smaller vessel consists of three 15MW

azimuth thruster An azimuth thruster is a configuration of marine propellers placed in pods that can be rotated to any horizontal angle (azimuth), making a rudder unnecessary. These give ships better maneuverability than a fixed propeller and rudder system. Ty ...

s and two 3.5MW

bow thruster Manoeuvering thruster (bow thruster or stern thruster) is a transversal propulsion device built into, or mounted to, either the bow or stern, of a ship or boat to make it more manoeuvrable. Bow thrusters make docking easier, since they allow th ...

s instead of three fixed propeller shafts with 27MW propulsion motors and six 4.5MW rectractable transverse thrusters. The number and output of generating sets has also been reduced.

Participants

The participants in the ''Aurora Borealis'' project are listed in the following table.

References

External links

Focus On AURORA BOREALIS, ESF website

AURORA BOREALIS, AWI presentation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aurora Borealis Proposed ships Icebreakers Research vessels