Research ship has tech to unveil ocean’s deep secrets

November 25, 2020 by Alastair Sloane

Blockbuster movie maker, ocean explorer, and New Zealand resident James Cameron had a hand in turning what was a survey ship for oil companies into the most advanced marine research and multi-media production vessel on the planet.

It’s called the OceanXplorer, an 87-metre vessel gutted and retrofitted by Netherlands outfit Damen Shiprepair. It will explore the world’s oceans and bring its research to audiences via a special National Geographic television series titled Mission OceanX. The documentary is being produced in association with the BBC.

The ship’s media studio has been developed by Cameron (above) and production designer N.C. Page Buckner (One Night in Miami, The Amazing Spiderman, Iron Man 2). The on-board studio will also live stream scientific news at the moment of discovery.

Canadian-born Cameron, 66, an environmentalist who owns properties in the Wairarapa, is National Geographic’s Explorer at Large. He will follow the vessel and a team of ocean storytellers and leading scientists.

The OceanXplorer features:

a resident Airbus H125 helicopter housed in a climate-controlled hangar
onboard molecular biology, and imaging laboratories, onsite DNA sequencing capabilities,
two manned Triton submersibles that can reach depths of more than 1000m
a remotely operated underwater vehicle that can dive to 6000m
a 40-tonne crane for launching and recovering the submersibles
the vessel is also the only ship in the world capable of utilizing 8K RED cameras at a depth of 6000m.

Mission OceanX will premiere in 171 countries and 43 languages. The first season will focus on the North Atlantic Ocean and thereafter on the world’s other oceans.

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

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The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.