Floating Instrument Platform - GIF

[Altair]

The Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) is a 355-foot (108 m) long open ocean research platform owned by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) and operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The platform is capable of transitioning from horizontal to vertical position by filling its ballast tanks. In the vertical position, 300 out of 355 feet of the platform is submerged.




More:

https://ocean.si.edu/human-connectio...ument-platform


Previously:

Uncapsizable boat - GIF
Pulling a boat through locks GIF
Boat that pulls itself ashore
Heavy-lift ship transporting USS Fitzgerald - video and photo
Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) - video

[mklotz]

Designing such a device is a fascinating problem. I did a bit of internet searching and below are some quotes from various sources as well as two videos that show details of the ship's interior...

The ship has specially designed interiors. Some fixtures, such as the toilet seats, can flip 90°. The lights are on the ceiling and also on a wall that becomes the ceiling after the flip. Also, the shower heads are curved 90°.

Most rooms on FLIP have two doors: one to use when horizontal and the other for when FLIP is vertical. Bunk beds, toilets and stoves are built on swivels and gimbals, so they turn with the buoy, but things that would not rotate so well, like sinks, are built both horizontally and vertically in each room.

The steel hull platform of FLIP provides accommodation for 11 researchers and five crew members for up to 30 days. During the flip, everyone has to stand on deck while the deck below gradually becomes a bulkhead, before stepping onto a deck that was the bulkhead just minutes before.

There are two heads (bathrooms) on-board, two showers, but only one that can be used in the vertical and one that can be used in the horizontal position.

[mklotz]

The more I think about it the less I understand the way its interior is configured. Is it really necessary for the crew to live in it when it's in horizontal mode? Why not design the interior for vertical operation and tow it unmanned to its destination while the crew rides along in the tow ship; then, once in vertical position, have the crew board and operate the ship?

[Frank S]

Marv the only thing I can think of for having the crew on board while under transport was to remove the dangers of at sea transfer once on station if the seas were rough

[skibo]

I agree, it's probably not needed for the crew to spend time aboard the "FLIP", besides I think it's just a cool club house for them, at tax payers expense and I didn't see to many instruments for their scientific research!