Australia’s new Marine National Facility research vessel, Investigator, has a system onboard which permits us to add up to 13 container laboratories.

It doesn’t sound exciting does it? But you are so wrong!

This is a fantastic design feature, which is like being able to take an extra suitcase onboard, but instead of shoes and clothes, it will have specialist equipment and scientific capabilities!

This means that scientists from around Australia, and their international collaborators, can pack their container, ship it to the departure port, and then load it onto Investigator without having to unpack.

See, it’s seriously cool!

There are places on the deck and in the hold under the main deck (aft), for these container laboratories.

Here are some photos of the fabulous design for the containers, the seafloor coring system container laboratory, and the transfer trolley onboard RV Investigator that will allow us to move containers into the hold.