Next Antarctic Ship to Continue a Fine Tradition

The

Published by the Peter Underwood Centre September 14, 2020

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NEW ICE AGE AUSTRALIA’s new icebreaker, the RSV Nuyina’s amazing design and technology Nuyina, is expected to be delivered to its is included with today’s edition of The owners, the Australian Antarctic Division Wonder Weekly. (AAD), in Hobart in mid-2021. You will see why the Nuyina has been It will be an exciting day for scientists, described as three ships in one - a world- because the ship has been designed to class scientific research platform, an provide for the needs of AAD and Antarctic icebreaker and a resupply vessel. and Southern Ocean research for the next Your challenge is to produce a fact sheet 30 years. about the new icebreaker. You might have seen or even visited Make a list of all the things you find another large orange ship, the RSV Aurora interesting about the ship, and present Australis. your findings in a creative way. The Aurora Australis was retired from Children’s University Tasmania members Australia’s Antarctic program in March, can earn stamps in their passports for this after 31 years of service. challenge at the discretion of their school NEARLY READY: The RSV Nuyina arrives in the Netherlands, where it is A double-sided poster displaying the coordinators. undergoing the final stages of testing and commissioning. Picture: © Damen. Next Antarctic ship to continue a fine tradition `nuyina’ is the palawa kani word which causes these gases to Australian Antarctic ship, Sir The ship had a solid wood bow trapped in sea ice for close to a for the atmospheric phenomenon emit light. Douglas Mawson’s SY Aurora which was reinforced with steel- year. formed over Antarctica that lights nuyina is pronounced noy-yee- was named after the same plate armour, to withstand heavy The Aurora Australis is an up Tasmanian skies. nah. phenomenon. seas and ice. Australian-designed and built You might know this You can listen to an audio The RSV Nuyina, continues this It was purchased for Australian icebreaker and was launched in phenomenon as the southern recording of the pronunciation tradition and was named by Antarctic expeditions in 1910, 1989. lights or the aurora australis. here: www.antarctica.gov.au/ Australian school children and made five trips to Antarctica After 31-years or service to the This spectacular atmospheric antarctic-operations/travel-and- through the AAD’s Name Our between 1911 and 1917. Antarctic program, the Aurora lightshow occurs when logistics/ships/icebreaker/naming Icebreaker competition. The SY Aurora’s involvement in Australis also has a proud and electrically-charged solar -australias-icebreaker/ SY Aurora was a steam yacht the amazing history of Antarctic interesting history. particles and atoms in the The new icebreaker’s built in Scotland in 1876, for use exploration includes emergency These are stories which may be Earth’s atmosphere collide with predecessor was the Aurora as a whaling vessel in the rescues of stranded revisited in a future edition of gases like oxygen and nitrogen, Australis, while the first Northern Hemisphere. expeditioners and the ship being The Wonder Weekly. “Education perhaps more than anything else is a passport to a better life.” - Peter Underwood AC September 14, 2020 The Wonder Weekly P2

Picture: © Marine Traffic Our ship’s

journey Artwork: to Hobart www.johnpollyfarmer.com.au/ THE RSV Nuyina has been an 1,900,000 litres of bulk liquid cargo. international effort. It can handle waves over 14m, and Guided by AAD’s Icebreaker Project hurricane-strength winds. Team, many people around the world The ship’s other features include: have been involved in the ship’s design. • A moon pool to deploy It is being constructed by Dutch company autonomous vehicles and Damen, and much of this work has been oceanographic equipment.

completed at shipyards in Romania.

• A retractable boom for instruments The ship recently arrived in the to measure snow and ice Netherlands for the final stages of its thickness. testing and commissioning. It was towed 6,800km through the Black • A multi-beam echosounder to map Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the the seafloor. Strait of Gibraltar (the map above shows • A wet well to process seawater how far it has travelled already). containing krill. The 160.3m icebreaker, has a top speed • Cranes, support craft and of 16 knots in open water, and can helicopters. maintain a speed of 3 knots while AAD has chartered an interim vessel, the breaking through ice 1.65m thick. MPV Everest, to resupply Australia’s It can accommodate 117 people, and three Antarctic stations and Macquarie transport 1200 tonnes of solid cargo and Island this summer. Picture: Animate Your Science/ AAD Picture: Animate Your Science/ AAD