RV Investigator looking switched on!
Posted: March 13, 2013 Filed under: Home, Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project | Tags: Australia's Marine National Facility, engines, power supply, RV Investigator, Switchboard room Leave a commentA lot of work has been going on inside RV Investigator and you won’t believe the changes. Check out these photos of the switchboard room, which is looking pretty switched on!
This is the room where the electricity generated by the diesel engines and their alternators gets distributed around the ship to power absolutely everything.
On Investigator each engine can theoretically generate 2.88 megawatts of power so with all three running we can theoretically generate about 9 megawatts of power.
To give this some perspective, the average Australian household consumes 18 kilowatt (kW) hours each day.
Using this as a basis, let’s say each house consumes 18kW at any instant, therefore 9MW divided by 18kW means we could power 500 average Australian homes comfortably.
So we could power a small suburb or a country town!
Take a bow… block 201 is lifted into place!
Posted: March 11, 2013 Filed under: Home, Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project | Tags: Australia's Marine National Facility, bow of the ship, Future Research Vessel Project, gondola, LEGO Investigator, RV Investigator 4 CommentsRV Investigator’s block 201, the bow of the ship at the deck level, has been completed and lifted into place.
This is an enormous block, which had to be constructed in smaller sections, assembled on the wharf, and then lifted into place.
Only the gondola is yet to be fitted to the hull of the ship.
How incredible does Investigator look now!
RV Investigator’s gondola nears completion
Posted: March 8, 2013 Filed under: Home, Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project | Tags: Australia's Marine National Facility, Future Reserach Vessel Project, gondola, RV Investigator, seafloor, sub bottom profiler, swath map Leave a commentRV Investigator’s gondola is nearing completion and so too is the section in the hull of the ship where it will be attached.
The gondola will house several important acoustic instruments, including two swath mappers, to map the seafloor. One operates to a depth of about 500 metres and will be used on the shelf and the upper slope for very high-resolution maps. The other is a full ocean-depth mapper, which is able to map at depths of 7 kilometres and about 15 kilometres either side of the ship.
The gondola will also contain a sub-bottom profiler that can determine the make-up of the seafloor. A signal coming from this equipment can penetrate to around 25 metres into sand and about 100 metres in loose sediments.
Here are the latest photos showing the gondola in the fabrication shed and the part of the hull of the ship, where the gondola will be attached. 
RV Investigator’s bridge transported and lifted!
Posted: March 5, 2013 Filed under: Home, Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project | Tags: Australia's Marine National Facility, bridge, Future Research Vessel Project, RV Investigator, ship construction Leave a commentThe bridge of RV Investigator has been blasted, painted and transported to the wharf area, and lifted into place.
The block is very long and thin, and it just fits down the streets of the shipyard!
Sections of the steel have been painted brown and this area will eventually be cut away and fitted with windows.
This is block 401 and now that it’s in place, this leaves just one block left to lift!
More LEGO® Investigator competitions!
Posted: February 25, 2013 Filed under: Home, Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project | Tags: LEGO Investigator, RV Investigator, Scientriffic, The Helix Leave a commentOur limited edition LEGO® Investigators are proving very popular!
Recently CSIRO Education ran a competition in each of their magazines, The Helix and Scientriffic, to give away two of the fabulous LEGO models.
Here are some of the very impressive entries!
The budding scientists were asked what scientific research they would investigate if they were the captain of Investigator.
Winners will be announced on 1 March for Scientriffic and 1 April for The Helix.
Is it the space shuttle taking off? No, it’s our fabulous gondola!
Posted: February 20, 2013 Filed under: Home, Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentWork on the gondola has been progressing and it’s looking rather fabulous. Here’s the latest photo from the shipyard, of RV Investigator’s gondola being turned.
It looks just like a space shuttle, taking off!
To the pinnacle of the ship – the main mast!
Posted: February 18, 2013 Filed under: Investigator, The Future Research Vessel Project Leave a commentAt the very pinnacle of the ship is the main mast, which will house a weather research radar.
You can see it highlighted here in the graphic of RV Investigator – the dome at the top indicates the radar. Work has begun on the main mast as you’ll see in the photos below.
