The Sea Orbiter is intended to be a semi-submerged mobile oceanic habitat and laboratory. While only a scale model has been built to date, plans to fully expand this design to a full-blown vessel are underway. The Sea orbiter measure 52 meters from top to bottom and 15 meters at its widest. It is designed to drift along major ocean currents, taking two years or more to circumnavigate ("orbit") the globe. Its aerodynamic (or in this case, aquadynamic) airplane wing-like shape allows it decent maneuverability in both ocean currents and wind, plus it will also have electric back-up motors ("thrusters") to allow powered movement when needed. However, these motors would be used sparingly, to avoid scaring whales and other hard-to-observe sea life away.
「海洋空間站」（SeaOrbiter）雛形出爐。一旦成功建造，這個空間站將為海洋勘探寫下新的一頁，它可以更方便地幫助科學家了解這個知之甚少的海洋世界。
Watch the project on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8qvE8zkEeQ
從「海洋空間站」的設計圖可見，側面看，空間站貌似一艘巨型帆船，但太空船外形的中端構造，可使它在海中平穩航行。據設計師魯熱裏構想「海洋空間站」的高度達51米，但當中僅三分一外露水面，其餘船身浸處於水下。當中設有多個水底窗戶，以便科學家可近距離觀察水底生物。
另外為照顧船員需求，船內還設有健身房、影視播放器等娛樂設備，「海洋空間站」的首次航行會載18人，當中包括6名船員，6名科學家，及6名隨行市民。當初之所以設計「海洋空間站」，皆因注意到海洋在地球生態平衡中的重要地位，預計第一艘船隻將耗資3500萬歐元，現時已籌集到一半資金，因此對船隻的建造充滿心。
"it is of the ocean that will be born the destiny of civilization to come"
by Jacques Rougerie
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