Cruise News - Maritime News

OceanX unveiled its new one-of-a-kind scientific research, media production, and exploration vessel, the R/V OceanXplorer.

Designed and built to be the most advanced combined marine research and media vessel in existence, OceanXplorer is both a floating, integrated marine research platform and a Hollywood-caliber media production studio.

Formerly named Alucia 2, the ship builds on the legacy of OceanX's first research vessel, the M/V Alucia, and will become the centerpiece of OceanX's mission to explore the ocean and bring it back to the world. With its advanced, media-optimized scientific exploration vehicles, its chemical, biological, and geophysical sampling tools, and its centralized data integration system and onboard media center, OceanXplorer is a futuristic marvel that will make it possible to explore and document parts of the ocean humans have never before experienced.

A one-time petroleum support and survey ship that has been completely retrofitted at Damen Shiprepair in the Netherlands, the ship spans nearly 286 feet and will bring the same boundary-pushing excitement to ocean exploration that audiences have grown accustomed to seeing on space expeditions. 

OceanXplorer's features include a 40-ton man-rated A-frame crane strong enough to launch submersibles, towed sonar arrays, and other heavy equipment; a resident helicopter and climate-controlled hangar; dedicated deployment systems that will allow for independent launch and recovery of piloted and autonomous underwater drones; and oceanographic sensor platforms.

The ship also features two manned Triton submersibles, each of which can dive to depths greater than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) for up to eight hours, and a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) and an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) that can explore depths up to 6,000 meters (19,685 feet) – exploring locations in a way no human has before. OceanXplorer's underwater optical modem allows never-before-seen livestreaming video and data from untethered submersibles in the depths of the ocean seafloor to social media feeds and classrooms in real time; the custom lighting rigs and housings make the ship the only vessel in existence that can image using 8K RED cameras 6,000 meters deep.

0New discoveries will be made onboard using state-of-the-art molecular biology and imaging laboratories that allow onboard DNA sequencing, and the ship's media studio and filmmaking capabilities—developed in partnership with renowned filmmaker and ocean explorer James Cameron and the Avatar Alliance Foundation and in consultation with production designer N.C. Page Buckner (One Night in Miami, The Amazing Spiderman, Iron Man 2)—will stream its findings to audiences worldwide, delivering groundbreaking scientific news at the moment of discovery.

Building on OceanX's legacy of partnering with the most iconic natural history documentary filmmakers in the world, OceanXplorer will be chronicled in the previously announced upcoming National Geographic series Mission OceanX (working title).

The six-part global event, which is co-produced by OceanX Media, BBC Studios, and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large James Cameron, will follow the iconic research vessel and a dream team of the world's greatest ocean storytellers and leading scientists to explore the farthest frontiers of the world's oceans. 

Mission OceanX will premiere in 171 countries and 43 languages on National Geographic; the first season will focus on the North Atlantic Ocean with the aim that it will become a recurring series that will focus on a different ocean each season. The ship is currently in the Red Sea, where it will host scientists from leading institutions around the world to study global-warming-resistant super corals.