The facility
AURORA BOREALIS will be a powerful research icebreaker vessel (65,000 tons displacement, 199 meters long, 49 m width) with 81 Megawatt diesel-electric propulsion power and deep-sea drilling capability for use in extreme conditions in excess of 5,000 m water depth. It will have high ice performance to penetrate autonomously (single ship operation) into the central Arctic Ocean with more than 2.5 meters of ice cover, during all seasons of the year. The drilling capability will on the long run be deployed in both Polar Regions and AURORA BOREALIS will be the only vessel worldwide that could undertake this type of scientific investigation.

Background
Polar research and the properties of northern and southern high latitude oceans are subjects of intense scientific and environmental attention, since they underlie rapid and dramatic change. The Polar Regions react more rapidly and intensely to global changes than other regions of the Earth. News about the shrinking Arctic sea-ice cover, potentially leading to an opening of sea passages to the north of North America and Eurasia, and of the calving of giant table icebergs from the Antarctic ice shelves are the latest examples of these changes. Many of the necessary data can only be collected by dedicated research vessels, from permanently manned stations or during multidisciplinary expeditions with substantial logistical demands. Therefore complex interdisciplinary experiments can only be conducted under close international co-operation. AURORA BOREALIS could act as a base to support such research efforts and fulfill the scientific needs.

What’s new? Impact foreseen?
The AURORA BOREALIS will be the most modern and innovative research vessel in the world and will open new horizons for polar and marine research. The research icebreaker AURORA BOREALIS is planned as a multipurpose vessel. During the times when it is not employed for drilling in the Arctic, it can operate worldwide as a research vessel. The possibility to flexibly equip the ship with laboratory and supply containers, and the variable arrangement of other modular infrastructure, free deck-space and separate protected deck areas, will allow it to cover the needs of most disciplines in marine research. The ship can be deployed as a research icebreaker in polar seas because it will meet the specifications of the highest ice-class for polar icebreakers. The facility, when built and in operation, will provide the world’s first international drilling and all season research icebreaker.

The consortium
AURORA BOREALIS is one of the proposed pan-European new Research Infrastructures listed in the Environmental Sciences Section on the “European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures” (ESFRI) roadmap of the European Commission. Since March 2008 the „European Research Icebreaker Consortium (ERICON) – AURORA BOREALIS“ comprises fifteen partners from ten European nations and associated countries, that currently receive funding by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme to establish strategic, legal, financial and organizational frameworks for national governments and the EC to commit financial resources to the construction and operation of AURORA BOREALIS. The vessel will be jointly owned and operated as a large-scale research initiative by European nations and other interested partners. Consortium Partners will develop the frameworks for joint ownership and operation of this multi-country research facility.

Timeline and estimated costs
Start of construction: 2012 (planned)
Commissioning: 2014 (planned)
Operational lifetime: 35 – 40 years
Estimated construction costs: 650 Mill. €
Estimated operational costs: 36 Mill. € p.a.