Akademik Mstislav Keldysh
| Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in the Baltic Sea. R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh | |
| Career (Russia) | Template:RUS |
|---|---|
| Namesake: | Mstislav Keldysh |
| Owner: |
P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology. |
| Operator: | Russian Academy of Science |
| Port of registry: | Russia |
| Ordered: | Unknown |
| Builder: |
Hollming OY, Rauma Template:FIN |
| Laid down: | Unknown |
| Launched: | December 28 1980 |
| In service: | March 15, 1981 |
| Refit: | 1987 |
| Homeport: |
Kaliningrad Template:RUS |
| Fate: | Active |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 6,240 tons |
| Length: | 122.2 meters (400 ft 11 in) |
| Beam: | 17.82 meters (58 ft 5.6 in) |
| Height: | 10.4 meters (34 ft 1.4 in) |
| Draft: | 5.89 meters (19 ft 3.9 in) |
| Installed power: | (4) diesel engines, 5,840 HP each |
| Speed: | 12.5 knots max, 10.5 cruise |
| Range: | 20,000 kilometers (12,427 mi) |
| Endurance: | 303 days |
| Boats and landing craft carried: | Mir DSVs |
| Complement: | ~90 |
The R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh (Russian: Академик Мстислав Келдыш) is a 6,240 ton Russian scientific research vessel. It is best known as the support vessel of the Mir submersibles. The vessel has made over 50 voyages, is owned by the Moscow-based Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Science and is homeported in Kaliningrad. Named after the Soviet mathematician Mstislav Keldysh, it usually has 90 people on board (45 crew members, 20 or more pilots, engineers and technicians, 10 to 12 scientists and about 12 passengers). Among its facilities are 17 laboratories and a library.
The ship was built in Rauma, Finland by Hollming OY for the USSR Academy of Sciences (now the Russian Academy of Science). Construction of the vessel was completed on 28 December 1980.[1]
It started operations on 15 March 1981 for the Soviet Union.[1] The Mir submersibles were added to her equipment in 1987.
Keldysh was involved in the search for Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets, lost off the southeastern coast of Norway in 1989 after fire broke out on board. In addition to its nuclear reactor's core material, the submarine was carrying two nuclear torpedoes. Concern over the potential effects of the high-energy nuclear material on the rich fishing areas in which it lay prompted an effort to locate the sub's wreckage and ascertain its condition. Two months after the sinking, Keldysh located the wreckage of K-278 in June 1989 and Soviet governmental representatives labeled the risk of leaks to be "insignificant." Nevertheless, Keldysh mounted two expeditions to the wreck of K-278 (1994 and 1996) to seal fractures in the sub's hull.
Among recent voyages, the Keldysh has made expeditions to two famous wrecks, the British liner Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck. Filmmaker James Cameron led two of those expeditions: to the Titanic in 1996, leaving Kaliningrad in August, (reported in his television special Ghosts of the Abyss) then to the Bismarck in 2002 (reported in Expedition: Bismarck). In 1996 Cameron filmed the modern-day scenes for his film Titanic using the Keldysh. About ten years later, in 2005 Cameron used the Keldysh to film the movie Aliens of the Deep.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Information on RV Akademik Mstislav Keldysh" (in Russian). Federal Target Program World Ocean. http://data.oceaninfo.ru/resource/objects/vessels/vesselDetails.jsp?id=3208.
- ↑ James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep (2005)
External links
- Deep Ocean Expeditions
- KBismarck.com - The Wreck of the Bismarck
- NOAA Ocean Explorer Keldysh
- Technical data
- Photographs of the ship
| Akademik Mstislav Keldysh
]]de:Akademik Mstislaw Keldysch es:Akadémik Mstislav Kéldysh fr:Akademik Mstislav Keldych lt:Akademikas Mstislavas Keldyšas (laivas) ru:Академик Мстислав Келдыш (судно)
