We recently traveled to San Diego to tour the RP FLIP vessel. FLIP is an innovative seacraft – essentially a long tube designed to be tugged to its destination horizontally, then to be flooded at one end to re-orient it vertically. When configured vertically, minimal surface area is exposed to waves, so this provides a very stable environment.
Joining us was Robert Ballard, famed discoverer of the Titanic and the Bismarck (check out his fascinating TED Talk), and promoter of ocean colonization. The Institute is in talks with him on plans for single-family aquaculture seasteads, perhaps farming with the techniques pioneered by the Valella Project.
The images below depict a possible redesign of the FLIP, known as the Ocean Ranger.
