The Octonauts biggest cost savings come in the form of their Spartan crew. It’s almost certainly much *much* higher. For annual operating costs, we might as well assume the upper end of Reef Base at $3 million to start. As the military is not often known for bringing projects in under budget, that seems like a reasonable baseline. Unfortunately, NR-1 was a strictly off-book asset for most of its life, so we don’t really know what it cost, but the initial build estimate was $58.3 million. The NR-1 was equipped with a wheeled base, allowing it to roll across the sea floor. With room for 16 crew and scientists and a multi-month endurance, Nerwin could hand both covert and scientific missions. NR-1 was the USA’s only nuclear-powered, deep-diving research submarine. Not much is known about where the Octopod gets its seemingly limitless power, but if the Octonauts are anything like the US Navy, there’s a nuclear reactor in the, somewhere. The central command bay is both the core of the Octopod and its power supply. The Octopod, on the other hand, has four Octo… Pods? each of which is similar in function to Reef Base (though the whole structure more closely resembles the extremely French Galathée Underwater Laboratory). Reef Base itself has a wildly variable annual budget, with a baseline around $1 million per year. I can’t find the initial budget to build and install Reef Base, but a modern (albeit unrealized) aquatic residential habitat comes with a $10 million startup costs. Aquarius Reef Base is currently the only working undersea research laboratory. There’s nothing in the marine research world the even comes close. With 4 housing/laboratory units and a central command bay, the Octopod would be the largest and most sophisticated underwater research station ever operated. So how much does this operation actually cost? Are they backed by the federal government? The UN? Is Professor Inkling financing this venture by selling genetically engineered vegetable-fish hybrids? Is a billionaire film-maker backing the venture? One thing’s for certain, an Octonaut-level research program does not come cheap. While ocean grants are a struggle… their source of funding, it really is a puzzle!Įxplore! Rescue! Protect! The Octonauts have an ambitious undersea mission and an equally ambitious fleet of marine vehicles.
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