There’s the net drum being manufactured in Norway, then you can see that it’s been installed on the ship and there’s a hatch where the net will be stowed.

The ship has been designed to house the anchor within the external anchor pockets  and the hawse pipes the anchor chain will travel through, extends from the external anchor pocket into the windlass or mooring deck.

All the machinery for the anchor is enclosed in the windlass deck. The anchor chains are stored in the chain locker just below the windlass. Spurling pipes carry the anchor chain from the windlass deck down into the chain locker.

Students Isabella Rosso (left) and Kate Snow set up a scientific instrument, the CTD, for deployment on RV Southern Surveyor voyage ss2012_v05.

Do you remember block 206, the one with the big brown square that was lifted into place last year in November?

Well that’s the block that will house the CTD room onboard RV Investigator.

Some of the equipment that will deploy the CTDs onboard RV Investigator has now been installed.

One of the latest additions are the booms that will sit on the back deck, next to the A-frame.

Here’s a diagram to show you where they’ll be placed and some photos from the ship!

Here are some of the latest photos, showing everything from insulation being installed, to panelling being fitted and windows now in place!

The Marine National Facility Steering Committee has concluded its selection process for sea time onboard Investigator, for both the Commissioning Year September 2013 to August 2014 and for voyages from September 2014 to June 2015. Commissioning year and research voyages have been offered and accepted within the necessary constraints of the new vessel’s build schedule, commissioning schedule and future operating model.

Investigator’s new research schedules can be found on the MNF website. The 2014-2015 schedule voyage dates are currently subject to the supplementary applications process and will be confirmed later.

The Marine National Facility supports Australian researchers and their international collaborators in carrying out research in Australia’s regional seas and oceans, with access granted on the basis of proposals that are internationally peer reviewed, and independently assessed for science quality and contribution to the national interest.

The MNF operates Australia’s only dedicated blue-water research vessel available to the marine science community, which is capable of operating in Australia’s vast ocean territories. Under the direction of an independent Steering Committee, the Marine National Facility is owned and operated by CSIRO on behalf of Australia.

It’s recently had a cement floor laid and it looks fabulous!

Seriously cool!

Air will be drawn into the laboratories via an aerosol sampling tube, which is inside the foremast and the inlet is about 24 metres above the sea surface.

To give you an idea of what’s being built, here are some drawings and a photo to help to explain.

The first diagram from the Draft General Arrangement, is a cross section indicating the location of the mast and laboratory.

This second image is a bird’s eye view of the laboratory beneath the deck level, with the dots indicating the tie down sockets.

And this is the actual laboratory under construction. You’re looking facing forward in the ship, the very tip of the bow, and the silver dots on the floor are the tie down sockets.

Supplementary applications for sea time to utilise unused capacity on research voyages and transit voyages on Investigator during 2014-2015 are now being requested.

RV Investigator

The MNF’s new, state of the art research facility is currently under construction. Following a commissioning year in 2013-2014, Investigator will be available for research in 2014-2015. Investigator is a highly advanced research vessel with a broad range of scientific equipment to support marine scientists in the following disciplines:

• oceanography and climatology
• fisheries and marine ecosystems
• marine environmental research
• marine geosciences

Supplementary application process

Supplementary applications are designed to utilise unused capacity on research and transit voyage and need to work within the constraints stated for those voyages or transits.

Supplementary call for applications for the financial Year 2014 2015 Australian marine researchers are invited to submit a supplementary application for use of Investigator during the period July 2014 to June 2015.

Area of Operations 2014 2015

The existing research and transit voyages will determine the geographic areas available for supplementary applications.

Closing Data for Applications

A supplementary application for sea time must be submitted by 12 midnight Eastern Standard Time, Thursday, 9 May 2013.

Further details on applying for use of Investigator and application forms are available through the MNF website: http://www.marine.csiro.au/nationalfacility/application/secondcall.htm

Investigator is a 93.9 metre purpose-built ship research vessel currently under construction and due for delivery in late 2013 as the flagship of Australia’s Marine National Facility.

The Executive Director for the Future Research Vessel Project, Toni Moate, said the 1.75 tonne weather research radar will be installed on the highest point of Investigator and will be able to collect cloud and weather data anytime, anywhere in the world’s oceans.

“Data will be gathered from clouds towering 20 kilometres over the tropical ocean to cold ice storms in the Antarctic, in a 150 kilometre radius from the ship, and will have a broad range of research applications,” Ms Moate said.

The dual-polarisation weather radar is part of a new generation of weather technology that is being compared to the difference in television between black and white to colour technology. The greater detail provided by the state-of-the-art device will allow meteorologists to gather more information about the atmosphere than ever before, including clearly seeing the difference between rain and snow.

Australia’s scientific community has been advising on the fit out and design of Investigator since the inception of the project, providing recommendations on specialist equipment, like the weather radar, via a Technical Advisory Group.

Dr Peter May from the Bureau of Meteorology and the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, together with his colleague Dr Alain Protat, are part of the Technical Advisory Group and it’s their expertise that has been central to the selection and installation of the weather research radar on the ship.

“With Investigator we will be able to source weather data from places we have previously not been able to access, such as the deep Southern, Indian, and Pacific Oceans,” said Dr May.

“This advanced radar will tell us not only how much it is raining but also the size of the drops, what mixtures of water and ice are present in the clouds, and what types of ice crystals are present.

“It will be a keystone for the study of cloud formations and contribute to improvements in numerical weather forecasting and climate prediction models over the vast areas of ocean surrounding Australia,” said Dr May

This kind of data is important to study cloud systems that represent key processes for weather and climate models. The high quality data collected from the radar will be an asset to the global weather and climate research community, from better understanding of tropical monsoons to polar cloud systems. There is a wide range of applications for the data that will be captured by this cutting edge technology.

The successful tenderer to supply the radar is Environmental Systems & Services (ES&S), which is an Australian advanced technology company specialising in solutions in environmental and allied fields such as meteorology.

The state-of-the-art research vessel Investigator will be owned and operated by CSIRO, which runs Australia’s Marine National Facility. It will replace the Facility’s 66 metre research vessel Southern Surveyor. All Australian scientists and their international collaborators can apply for time onboard the Facility to conduct marine and atmospheric research.

The Federal Government in 2009 committed A$120 million to the purchase of a new research vessel for Australia’s Marine National Facility. The project is an initiative of the Federal Government’s Super Science Initiative and financed from the Education Investment Fund.

It’s great to see it going into place!

Check out the amazing progress!

Here are the photos showing work underway and the mast fitted to Investigator.

This photo had me a little puzzled. It’s actually of the seismic seating on RV Investigator.

This is the frame the seismic compressors sit on, and will be bolted to. There’s a frame or seat on each side of the container hold, one for each compressor.