NextWorld (2008) s01e06 Episode Script
Future Ships
NARRATOR : l n the future, you'll climb inside a high-powered dolphin.
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ships will fly.
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and you could sail your own private island.
Technology is pushing from every direction, getting faster with each passing second.
Prepare yourself.
The future is closer than you think.
Water is the enemy of speed, and speed is what the future demands.
The drag of the sea slows travelers down, and so we choose fast cars and jets instead.
But future ships will move with stunning speed.
And once again, the ocean will take us where we want to go.
lt begins with the SeaPhantom, a radical new vehicle that brings the speed of air travel to the seas.
BOR MAN : lt's something in between.
Something in between a boat and an airplane.
NARRATOR : l magine going from Seattle to L.
A.
by high-speed commuter boat.
No airport, no traffic jams, just the wide-open ocean at 1 00 miles per hour, in comfort.
There exists a transport technology gap between 50 and 1 50 miles an hour on the water.
NARRATOR : The gap exists today because big ships that can carry lots of passengers can't move fast enough to satisfy the average traveler.
BOR MAN : There are slow but cheap ships and fast but expensive aircraft.
NARRATOR : Could a fast ferry fill the gap? And if a ferry could move fast enough, would it be able to withstand the impact of the waves? BOR MAN : Hit an eight-foot wave at 1 00 miles an hour, hit a three-foot wave at 1 00 miles an hour, you're gonna generate a momentary impact load of somewhere between 20 and 40 G's.
That's about five times the force of the space shuttle on launch.
NARRATOR : But when SeaPhantom hits waves at 1 00 miles per hour, it won't experience the same G-forces that ordinary boats will.
l nstead, a revolutionary hull design moves the center of gravity to the front of the boat.
And then airfoils raise the boat out of the water, neutralizing the shock of the waves, essentially turning SeaPhantom into a plane.
BOR MAN : Part of the function of the foils is to make the transition from high-drag waterborne to low-drag airborne operation.
You can literally feel yourself floating across the wave crests.
NARRATOR : Once it hits 35 miles per hour, SeaPhantom lowers its foils six feet into the water and lifts into the air out of the water's drag.
BOR MAN : Air is 800 times less dense than water, and you can operate on a tiny fraction of the horsepower.
NARRATOR : lf the boat hits a small wave, the foils make a small correction.
A bigger wave will cause a bigger correction.
But passengers never feel the impact.
Oh, it's really cool to ride in the SeaPhantom.
NARRATOR : SeaPhantom uses only 1 l5 the gas of other high-speed boats, putting future ocean commuting within everyone's reach.
l envision the SeaPhantom technology as a coastal transport system city center to city center.
NARRATOR : Borman's idea is to make triple-digit speed on the water practical.
The principles of Borman's design can be scaled up to a 90-foot vessel so that, one day, you will choose to travel by water.
BOR MAN : We're only on this Earth for a short time.
The faster we can travel from point ''A'' to point ''B, '' the more life we're gonna live.
NARRATOR : The SeaPhantom could someday be your best high-speed choice to get from New York to M iami.
But if you want to get from New York to London, you'll still take a plane, right? Maybe not.
You might take the Earthrace.
BETHUNE: This is the coolest looking boat in the world.
And l have yet to have someone show me a cooler boat.
NARRATOR : lt's not just cool -- it's fast, so fast that it recently shattered the record for going around the world in a powerboat, sustaining speeds of up to 40 knots in the roughest waters.
We've gone 'round the globe in just under 61 days.
Your ability to handle big seas is the key to it.
NARRATOR : Earthrace's wave-piercing design is what allows it to cross the open ocean at record-breaking speed.
While the SeaPhantom lifts itself over the waves, Earthrace's three hulls cut right through them.
This efficiency accounts for its dramatic design.
BETHUNE: The reaction to the boat, it's universal.
Wherever we go, people are like, '' Man, what the hell is that?'' NARRATOR : But the most surprising thing about this ship is not its looks and not its speed, but its power source.
We fuel the boat on biodiesel.
NARRATOR : Earthrace can go halfway around the globe on a single tank of biofuel made from soybeans, coconuts, or any of 350 different crops, which means it treads lightly as it crosses the planet.
BETHUNE: Biodiesel made from soybean oil has around 7 5 % less CO2 emissions than normal diesel.
NARRATOR : And in the future, entire fleets of ocean vessels will be even more ecofriendly as they draw fuel from ocean organisms like algae.
So imagine canceling your flight and traveling to Europe in a high-speed biopowered superboat.
lt may happen sooner than you think.
BETHUNE: At the moment, l believe we live in the golden era for transport.
NARRATOR : lt's one thing to move small boats at dizzying speeds, but it's another challenge altogether to accelerate a massive cargo ship full of merchandise.
G l LES: Time in port is time wasted.
And however nice this looks and however efficient it is, this is today's technology.
We're talking about tomorrow.
NARRATOR : David Giles and Roland Bullard have an idea that will turbocharge shipping, transforming the sea-lanes into superhighways to your door.
lt's called FastShip l ncorporated.
l nventory sitting around doesn't do anybody any good.
They got to get it to market.
So that's where we come in.
NARRATOR : A specially designed FastShip freighter will race across the Atlantic in just five days at almost twice the speed of other cargo ships.
BULLARD: lt's a large yacht with all kinds of special attributes.
The design allows us to maintain speed through severe sea states.
G l LES: Ours is not a fully planing hull.
lt doesn't skidder across the top of the water.
lt just lifts significantly.
And as it lifts, then it reduces its displacement, or induced drag.
NARRATOR : But in the world of cargo, speed isn't just about going fast across the water.
lt's about how fast you load the boats.
G l LES: This is the old way of doing things.
These cranes will unload maybe 20, maybe 30 containers an hour.
NARRATOR : But the terminals FastShip is building in the U.
S.
and France won't need cranes, because they're designed to put the boat's cargo hold at dock level.
BULLARD: We'll be unloading from the stern in a roll-on, roll-off basis.
NARRATOR : Robotic rolling platforms and a link span that works like a ramp will allow FastShip to load and unload cargo at lightning speed.
G l LES: We do not have to sit around for two days unloading and reloading.
We do the whole thing in six hours.
And we'll be in and unload, reload, and out.
NARRATOR : You probably think you know what a boat looks like.
Well, think again.
Visionary designers are reimagining the entire concept of what boats are and how they will change our lives.
l'm not a futurist.
l'm an experimental engineer.
This is really the most revolutionary thing that l have invented.
NARRATOR : ls this the love child of a water bug and a space alien, or is it maybe the boat of the future? CONTl : Most people cannot imagine something like that 'cause they've never seen anything like that on the water.
NARRATOR : lt's called Proteus.
CONTl : They have all sorts of comments.
They think it's a Klingon bird of prey or an insect or a spider.
NARRATOR : lt may look peculiar, but Proteus is a serious multifaceted vessel.
By shifting its shape, it will switch from pleasure craft to surveillance vehicle to science lab in the blink of an eye.
Proteus was a mythological sea god capable of assuming many forms.
Conti's modular construction plan allows his boat to do the same.
The payload, which is suspended in the middle of the ship, is the key.
lt might contain a research lab, scuba-diving platform, or even another boat.
The modules can be quickly swapped out, changing Proteus into completely new vessels like a giant transformer.
One of the characteristics of this kind of technology is that it allows you to change its use very quickly.
And for some user that needs different kinds of operations, this is perfect.
GUNDERSEN : lf it fits in that area, it can go there, anything that the customer wants.
And that's one of the beauties of this design is the fact that it has so many different applications.
NARRATOR : For centuries, regular boats have battled the waves, but this experimental ship is built to ride them.
Proteus plays with the waves.
That's one way of describing.
At the beginning when l had this idea, l was actually thinking of dancing with the waves.
NARRATOR : Proteus is a WAM-V -- wave-adaptive modular vessel.
And its alien shape is what makes it rock instead of roll.
GUNDERSEN : lt's like riding on a New York subway.
lt's kind of, you know, this motion like this, where you're kind of rocking in more of a horizontal plane than you are pitching or rolling that you typically experience in a monohull vessel.
CONTl : And so this boat, this produce, this concept has suspensions, has shock absorbers, and has the flexibility to adapt to the surface of the ocean instead of transmitting that kind of motion directly to the cabin or the payload.
This is such a novelty for a boat.
No boats have ever had springs before.
NARRATOR : Proteus has the suspension of a colossal off-road truck, a ball-joint system, and massive twin hulls that move independently.
lt looks intimidating, but don't let that stop you from climbing aboard.
GUNDERSEN : Proteus is very easy to operate.
We've had a number of people on board that don't really even have any boating experience, and they're able to pick up the concept very quickly.
NARRATOR : lts 5, 000-mile range will let you cross vast oceans, and its inflatable hulls will allow you to enter shallow waters and fragile ecosystems where a traditional ship could never go.
Proteus can even land on a beach, a trick that would spell disaster for most boats its size.
GUNDERSEN : A very shallow draft vessel like Proteus, where a foot and a half in the stern and six inches in the bow allows us to go almost anywhere.
lt's basically what helicopters are to airplanes in the sense of the boating world.
NARRATOR : Versatile future seacraft will lead to a total rethink and let us experience the ocean in brand-new ways.
What is it? What's it do? ls it an airplane? ls it a boat or a submarine? lNNES: We want to jump higher than anything else.
We want to try and do bigger tricks.
l mean, we're trying to replicate what a lot of, you know, aquatic animals can do.
NARRATOR : What if you could cross a dolphin with a Jet Ski, exploring the heights and depths of the ocean in ways never before seen? Rob l nnes sees a future where you can push the limits of water sports to new extremes.
lNNES: lt's just a blast.
lt's something that's just pure enjoyment.
Just create something that's totally fun, totally awesome to drive.
NARRATOR : lf it looks like a dolphin and acts like a dolphin, then it's a Seabreacher.
Part powerboat, part submarine, Seabreacher is more than just a pleasure craft.
lt's about the experience of swimming like a dolphin in the sea.
Like an airplane in reverse, the Seabreacher is able to dive beneath the surface by creating a negative lift with its wings and forcing the craft down.
lNNES: You're in a totally three-dimensional environment.
You really feel like part of the water.
lt's a strange experience.
But when you go underwater and you're in an entire bubble of air underwater, it makes the water more alive.
NARRATOR : Powered by a supercharged rotary engine coupled to a ''V''-drive transmission, Seabreacher flies at 40 miles an hour across the water's surface.
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20 miles an hour underneath -- five times faster than a regular recreational submersible.
l n the future, for less than the price of a new BMW, you can choose instead to dive into the water and swim with the dolphins.
l magine, you know, what the potential will be when you can dive with them, swim with them.
NARRATOR : And even learn some tricks from them.
lNNES: That median between the two environments is something that dolphins have been exploring for a long time.
You know, you might be able to go down with them to, you know, 20, 30 feet and beyond.
For now, we're limited in terms of depth and duration.
But with what dolphins are able to do, l think, you know, staying with a pod of dolphins, how can you beat that? Sometimes when you do, like, two or three barrel rolls in a row, it's a neat thing to see your entire world turn upside down.
l mean, you're half underwater and you're half in the air.
You jump as high as you can, then you dive as deep as you can.
You're at the mercy of the elements when you do this.
NARRATOR : Ultimately, a boat this athletic is born to compete.
l magine scores of Seabreachers racing in huge ocean-sports arenas.
Think motocross in the sea.
lNNES: l think that racing is gonna be a sport where thousands of spectators will actually be able to watch these vessels compete in a 3-D environment of air and water, jumping over obstacles, diving under things, trying to hit targets.
Obviously, there would be wrecks that would entertain the crowd.
But we see it as just a huge, mass sporting appeal.
Obviously, there will be other applications.
People can use them to get out to their islands and yachts.
The sky will be the limit.
NARRATOR : When we think of the ocean, we usually think of great voyages or fun in the sun.
But the sea can be a rough place, too.
Violent weather and violent people can take us by surprise.
But what if we could send out boats into dangerous waters by themselves? WORK: Unmanned systems, l think, can make a huge impact on homeland security primarily because we have long, long borders.
They're very porous, and we have very broad maritime approaches to the United States.
NARRATOR : We can't successfully monitor our vast and confusing coastlines with manpower alone.
The job is too big.
The time is coming when the Coast Guard will get reenforcements from robotic guard boats.
Man : Halt, this is the U.
S.
Coast Guard.
WORK: Unmanned systems can help you sort out the mess -- who are truly the bad guys, who are truly the good guys.
NARRATOR : SeaRobotics Corporation has developed the experimental Night Cat.
You may never know it.
But the next time you're out fishing, Night Cat could be watching you.
The Night Cat will be operated remotely by pilots using a joystick and computer, like a kind of high-stakes video game.
l nfrared imaging systems and on-board software will analyze suspicious activity.
ls this boat crew behaving like normal fishermen or maybe more like drug dealers or terrorists? lf Night Cat senses a problem, it will move in for a closer look.
DARLl NG : This type of boat can be used to get in close proximity to an intruder, interrogate that intruder, without putting anyone in harm's way.
NARRATOR : Mounted cameras, microphones, and speakers let the remote pilot interrogate the crew from the safety of the shore.
MAN : ldentify yourself.
NARRATOR : And if needed, the boat can be armed with a 30-caliber weapon or small missile system.
And if the bad guys try to get away, good luck.
DARLl NG : The top speed of this boat is going to be in the area of 60 to 7 0 miles an hour.
The turning rate is in excess of 40 to 45 degrees per second, and that can be accomplished at very high speed.
l would not want to be a bad guy in an area trying to get away from it.
NARRATOR : Dealing with criminals and furtive threats along the coastline is one thing, but sometimes the danger lies below the surface.
BRANDES: l magine if you could hunt mines without having to send human beings into the minefield.
What if you could not only hunt them, you could identify them and destroy them? NARRATOR : This is Lockheed Martin's remote multi-mission vehicle.
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a small, stealthy ocean robot that helps protect U.
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battleships and submarines by identifying threats beneath the waves.
BRANDES: They would load a mission into the vehicle that basically sends it to the area of concern.
NARRATOR : Once set loose in the ocean, the R M MV systematically sweeps the water for mines or hostile submarines and alerts the mother ship to any threats.
The craft is 23-feet long and weighs 1 2, 000 pounds, but its propeller is virtually silent and doesn't produce any acoustic signature.
BRANDES: l've seen it going through the water at 1 2 knots on a dead-calm day and leaving hardly any scar on the surface of the water.
lt's unbelievable.
And it just cuts through the water like a knife going through butter.
DARLl NG : l n the future, these vehicles will be working in coordination with unmanned air vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles.
NARRATOR : The possibilities for the R M MV are already taking shape, and the potential benefits are obvious.
BRANDES: The most telling thing for me was when we had the M ine Countermeasures Forces folks here.
They were the first group to come for training.
And the one kid turned to the other and said, ''You know what the best part of the whole day was?'' And the other kid said, ''No, what was that?'' He says, ''We weren't in the minefield.
'' NARRATOR : Human operators are still in control of the R M MV and the Night Cat, but it's inevitable that advances in artificial intelligence will enable these autonomous ships to make decisions on their own.
lt's scary to consider it, but it's also exciting to say, ''What will happen to warfare or our society when robots are making independent decisions?'' NARRATOR : A robotic navy fleet could change the seas forever.
And unmanned ships could also help us change something else -- the weather.
Forecasting the path and intensity of hurricanes is critical, but forecasting hurricanes means measuring them.
That's not a job for people.
The kind of data that the hurricane researchers need is at the ocean-air interface, the temperature of the water at the surface, slightly below the surface, and the kind of data that you just can't get from aircraft or satellites.
lt's the kind of data you'd like to put a ship in a hurricane to do, but you'll a hard time finding people willing to do that for obvious reasons.
But an unmanned vehicle could, of course, support that.
NARRATOR : Payne Kilbourne is the director of Unmanned Ocean Vehicles l ncorporated.
His ship will sail itself straight into the heart of a hurricane.
Kl LBOURNE: The boat is a completely unmanned, autonomous vehicle that deploys itself and stays at sea for an extended period of time.
When people first see the boat, they're reaction is, one, it's small, and, two, it's just a sailboat.
l like to say, ''Well, the Mars rover is just a jeep, but it's a really high-tech jeep.
'' And this is a really high-tech sailboat.
NARRATOR : With its watertight hull, rigid vertical wing, which is sturdier than any traditional sail, and its self-righting design, this is the ultimate storm boat.
Kl LBOURNE: Our prime design concern is survivability and ruggedness of the vehicle.
Because if it's gonna operate for one to two years at sea, it's gonna have to be able to survive many, many things.
NARRATOR : The Vie Bonne Mer is an energy scavenger which means it gets all the power it needs from wind, solar, and wave energy.
l n theory, it could stay out on a mission forever.
Kl LBOURNE: We forget that until 1 00 years ago, mankind used the ocean's energy, predominantly wind, to conduct global commerce, to fight its wars.
And we've kind of forgotten that.
But the wind is still blowing.
NARRATOR : But it's not just wind power that drives this boat.
The deck and rigid wing sail are covered in solar cells, and it can recharge its batteries without ever coming home.
l magine the wealth of scientific data a fleet of these storm boats could gather, going where no one has ever been.
They will sail out to wander the expanses of the ocean, sending new data to the scientists back home.
Kl LBOURNE: l think once we really explore the oceans and get to be as intimate with them as we are with the landmasses of this world, we'll start to understand things in a much deeper way, in a way that will help all mankind.
NARRATOR : Robotic ships may one day patrol our shores, but some of the greatest threats we face could actually come from the ships themselves.
Titanic cargo ships are spewing out over 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, heating the planet and speeding the melting of the polar ice caps.
NARRATOR : But what if someone began to rethink the entire question of power? What if the largest ships on Earth left no footprint at all? After all, isn't that the way ships used to be? Arild lversen believes that oil and internal-combustion engines have actually sent the shipping industry down the wrong path.
This is the ElS Orcelle -- a radical new concept for a zero-emission cargo ship.
To build something so utterly unconventional, the leaders of the Norwegian shipping company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, went back to the drawing board.
Naval architects, environmental experts, and industrial designers all had a hand in imagining the Orcelle, and the result is a ship that draws its power from just about everything around it.
The Orcelle's sails can be positioned to use drag force and get power from the wind.
They will also be covered with photovoltaic cells to soak up energy from the sun.
This massive ship will also tap into the strength of the sea itself.
The Orcelle's 1 2 underwater fins will turn the kinetic power of the churning waves into mechanical energy for the journey.
And the inspiration for this long-distance sea vessel comes from one of the most efficient long-distance fliers in the sky.
Just as an albatross draws most of its flying power from the wind, the Orcelle will exploit the environment around it to minimize its energy needs, but it will still be able to carry a massive load.
The completed ship will have the capacity to carry 1 0, 000 cars in a cargo-deck stowage area as big as 1 4 football fields.
For the $9 billion shipping industry, this kind of big thinking may be the wave of the future.
lf the Orcelle could cleanly move tons of cargo across oceans, will the future also bring commuters cleanly across town? Could Christoph Behling transform rush hour? He believes he can and that the future of urban mobility lies in sun power.
l got some of the solar cells.
The raw material for solar cells, l thought, was the most magic material ever seen.
Not only is it absolutely beautiful.
lt looks like something from outer space.
lt also makes energy out of nothing which, still, to this day, l find absolutely fascinating.
NARRATOR : Behling's award-winning ship, the Solar Shuttle, is testing his ideas on the waters of London's Hyde Park.
lt's fueled entirely by light.
The way it works is very simple.
We have the solar cells on the top.
They collect the energy from the sun, and that gets fed into an energy management system which is down here which then feeds the batteries.
NARRATOR : Despite England's famously overcast skies, the solar cells still collect energy from light, even if the sun is not shining.
The result -- zero-emissions transport.
See -- no sound, no fumes.
lt's all clean.
NARRATOR : Solar technology is not new.
But high-capacity solar ferries didn't exist until the Solar Shuttle.
When you step on board, you'll be riding on a brand-new mode of transport, but what Behling wants you to notice is the light.
We thought, ''This is a solar boat.
lt's not a sailing boat.
lt's not a motorboat.
lt's a new typology.
lt has to look different.
'' NARRATOR : Behling's obsession with sunlight drove him to design even the shadows that fall on the deck of the boat.
BEHLlNG : Light is the soul of this whole product.
NARRATOR : The Shuttle may look like a charming green experiment, but Christoph Behling sees solar sailing as a smart new way to get around urban centers like London.
BEHLlNG : You see how the city developed totally parallel to the River Thames.
So if you're on land transport, you can jump into a cab and try to wiggle yourself through all these small Victorian streets, which will roughly take you an hour to go from here to here, or you can do the obvious thing, which you can see from space -- you can just use this massive highway which runs straight through the city, and you can just run about, going out here.
NARRATOR : And London is signing up for the idea.
The city plans to have five huge Solar Shuttles on the River Thames in time for the 201 2 Olympics.
Each ship will carry 250 people and will have top speeds of almost 60 miles per hour.
The ships will gather enough extra solar energy to feed back into the grid, lighting street lamps and city buildings with power from the sun every time they dock.
BEHLlNG : This whole thing doesn't need any kind of ground change of infrastructure.
You don't have to change the whole energy concept of the city.
You could just put them on the river tomorrow.
And this doesn't only work in London.
This would work anywhere.
NARRATOR : l magine a transportation transformation -- fleets of solar vessels moving millions of commuters around the world's cities every day, helping power those cities and stopping tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
lt's an elegant solution to one of our oldest problems.
BEHLlNG : The steam train, the car -- they're sort of mankind's brutal approaches to transport.
But l can see a future where water will be absolutely key.
NARRATOR : l n the future, you'll spend a lot more time on the water.
And if you've got the cash, you'll even be able to live on the water.
And no supercar, no private jet will ever rival the level of luxury that you could have with your future yacht.
But it will take the kind of crazy vision that only a few people possess.
Luca Bassani is one of them.
And even amongst those who think big, Bassani thinks even bigger.
l love the life a lot.
l'm trying to organize my life around this, around the technology, around innovation.
l love to live by passion.
As president of premier luxury boat company Wally Yachts, Bassani intends to take luxury boating to the next level.
He understands that the person who has everything still wants more.
For Bassani, it begins with power.
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WallyPower.
WallyPower is the first step to the future.
NARRATOR : The WallyPower 1 1 8 has the shape of a stealth fighter and the seafaring qualities of a Coast Guard cutter.
lt's clean lines are uninterrupted by visible cleats or winches, and it has some serious power under the hood.
Three high-performance gas turbines like those on a Chinook helicopter rocket the boat like nothing else on the water.
BASSAN l : You see the look of the boat is quite aggressive, because you want to have a very seaworthy hull.
You want to have a boat that never needs to go back into a marina.
NARRATOR : ls there another 1 1 8-foot yacht on the ocean with a cruising speed of 60 knots? lt's not easy to get very high technological results with very high performances, but at the same time creating a product that could really bring a new style, a new look, a new aesthetic.
NARRATOR : Bassani is after sophistication, and he knows exactly how to get it.
Just ask him.
Sophistication means to get more by less.
This is much more sophisticated than getting more by more.
lt's very easy.
Let's say to get the most speed, just adding horsepowers.
You should get more speed reducing horsepowers.
l think this is a real sophistication.
NARRATOR : But for Bassani, less will never mean sacrificing luxury.
As it speeds along the French Riviera, at the flip of a switch, the WallyPower morphs into a mansion.
BASSAN l : When you sail with a boat, it's closed, because you need protection.
You need the hull to be closed.
But then you can open it when you're at the anchor, not only giving you more view but also expanding the deck area.
NARRATOR : Once inside the yacht, the sleek exterior gives way to hidden luxury.
Teak floors and spacious open cabins create the feeling of a penthouse loft.
When you are inside the superstructure, you don't feel inside.
You feel outside, only protected and sheltered by the wind or by the sun.
NARRATOR : But ultra-luxury comes at a price.
Depending on what features you want, the WallyPower costs around $2 4 million.
With his latest vision, Bassani intends to push the boundaries of the outrageous.
We believe that today, already, the majority of the customers are using their boats as a floating island, but these boats are not conceived to be used as an island, so this is our new path.
NARRATOR : l magine Wally lsland, a customizable ultra-yacht that will let you design your own tropical island, right down to the number of palm trees and the flow of the waterfalls.
BASSAN l : You won't need anymore the land.
You won't miss anymore the land.
lt's another dream -- a floating island.
lt is a provocation.
NARRATOR : Why let the people on the ocean surface have all the fun.
Graham Hawkes, explorer and CEO of Ocean Technologies, wants to take you where no one has gone before -- down, all the way down.
HAWKES: lt's been said there are more footprints on the moon than the deep ocean, and that is literally true.
There are more spacecraft than there are submersible craft by a long, long way.
And yet the whole future of mankind, in terms of resources, living space, is down in that aquatic part of the planet.
NARRATOR : For 40 years, Graham Hawkes has been one of the world's leading designers of submersible vehicles.
He holds the world record for deepest solo dive at 3, 000 feet.
To the scientists and engineers that have spent billions of dollars trying to reach outer space, Graham Hawkes has a little advice.
Gentlemen, your rockets are pointing in the wrong direction.
Turn them 1 80 degrees.
Up there, you have a sterile vacuum.
Down here, we have everything.
What do we know about the oceans? Almost nothing.
Seriously.
You look back a few centuries to people where they thought that the Earth was the center of the universe, and we laugh at them.
How could they have been so silly? l tell you, future generations are gonna laugh at us 'cause we have no clue about the planet we're actually living on.
NARRATOR : Why don't we have a clue? l n part, because we don't have the tools to explore the ocean with ease.
But thanks to Graham Hawkes, that's about to change.
HAWKES: Well, behind me is the Deep Flight Super Falcon.
lt's the culmination of everything we've worked for for 1 5 years.
lt has all of the technology that we've got to go to full ocean depth in this exquisitely pure underwater flying machine.
And it's been built purely to do that.
You can say, ''Well, okay, but submarines have existed before.
'' Yeah, but they were heavy.
They were nasty.
They needed big mother ships, and they were frightfully expensive.
NARRATOR : Unlike the clunky deep-sea vessels of the past, the elegant design of the Super Falcon submersible will allow it to operate independently and affordably.
Once you climb inside, you'll be able to easily launch from shallow waters to take your solo flight into the deep.
By embracing the principles of flight underwater, Hawkes hopes to open up new worlds to all of us.
HAWKES: l had a ball test-flying this baby, just flying for the first time underwater, pure flight.
lt was just exquisite.
So now we can bring that to other people.
NARRATOR : The next incarnation of Hawkes' Deep Flight submersible, Deep Flight l l , will be a triumph of advanced engineering that will take us even farther into the abyss.
This vessel is designed to survive a flight through the most mysterious and inaccessible place on Earth.
lf you dare to join him, prepare to visit the Mariana Trench.
HAWKES: The deepest part of the planet is Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.
lt's 3 7, 000 feet.
That's almost twice as deep as anything else on the planet.
NARRATOR : Seven miles straight down is the deepest location on the surface of the Earth's crust with water pressure that could easily crush a truck.
HAWKES: The ambient pressure that we built that submersible to is 20, 000 pounds a square inch.
NARRATOR : You wouldn't want to go there with someone who doesn't know what he's doing.
HAWKES: There's no navy with that capability.
There's nothing.
l'm an engineer, and this is just the biggest challenge there is.
We've been out to get the shape dead right.
lt's been built for human comfort, human safety, and to be the highest performance in underwater flight.
lt's a pure underwater flying machine.
NARRATOR : Having been there himself, Hawkes looks forward to a time when regular people will have access to the underwater world that is now only open to a select few.
The magic is to take somebody down, have them look at the underside of waves, and go, ''Oh, my gosh, '' and look around, and just sense this exquisite, wild wilderness.
You don't need to be in the Navy to have one of these things in the future.
They're actually much easier to fly than aircraft for the very simple reason that if you mess up, you don't crash and die.
lf you stall one of these things, you come rocketing to the surface.
You fall smashed back on your back.
The craft rights itself up, and you go, ''Wow, that was exciting.
Let's do that again.
'' This is probably the 56th submersible l built.
With this one, we had the imagination, we had the technology.
lt's gonna be very hard to improve it from here on out.
l magine a future where you can purchase a craft for about the same as a light aircraft and go and find your own shipwrecks.
Then l think you can imagine a world where it begins to seep into the public consciousness that this is actually an ocean planet.
And maybe that's what we can achieve here in our lifetime.
l think she's beautiful.
l think it's absolutely exquisite.
l don't know anyone who can stand it.
l want to jump in there and go fly right now.
NARRATOR : Hawkes' plans for the Super Falcon go far beyond mere adventure.
He believes his supersubs might even be a tool for the survival of the human race.
HAWKES: We've expanded.
We're hard up against borders.
But 2l3 of this planet is unexplored.
Clearly, in the future, instead of colonizing Mars, we're going to be moving into the oceans.
We're going to have to find our energy, food, and ultimately kind of living space.
Once we connect with the oceans, it's all going to change.
lt's gonna be a very different world in the future.
NARRATOR : We will travel the sea in ways that Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus could not have imagined.
We will fly across the surface and share the waterways with robots.
We will dance with the waves, power our journeys from nature itself, and dive below to explore new territories.
These are future ships.
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ships will fly.
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and you could sail your own private island.
Technology is pushing from every direction, getting faster with each passing second.
Prepare yourself.
The future is closer than you think.
Water is the enemy of speed, and speed is what the future demands.
The drag of the sea slows travelers down, and so we choose fast cars and jets instead.
But future ships will move with stunning speed.
And once again, the ocean will take us where we want to go.
lt begins with the SeaPhantom, a radical new vehicle that brings the speed of air travel to the seas.
BOR MAN : lt's something in between.
Something in between a boat and an airplane.
NARRATOR : l magine going from Seattle to L.
A.
by high-speed commuter boat.
No airport, no traffic jams, just the wide-open ocean at 1 00 miles per hour, in comfort.
There exists a transport technology gap between 50 and 1 50 miles an hour on the water.
NARRATOR : The gap exists today because big ships that can carry lots of passengers can't move fast enough to satisfy the average traveler.
BOR MAN : There are slow but cheap ships and fast but expensive aircraft.
NARRATOR : Could a fast ferry fill the gap? And if a ferry could move fast enough, would it be able to withstand the impact of the waves? BOR MAN : Hit an eight-foot wave at 1 00 miles an hour, hit a three-foot wave at 1 00 miles an hour, you're gonna generate a momentary impact load of somewhere between 20 and 40 G's.
That's about five times the force of the space shuttle on launch.
NARRATOR : But when SeaPhantom hits waves at 1 00 miles per hour, it won't experience the same G-forces that ordinary boats will.
l nstead, a revolutionary hull design moves the center of gravity to the front of the boat.
And then airfoils raise the boat out of the water, neutralizing the shock of the waves, essentially turning SeaPhantom into a plane.
BOR MAN : Part of the function of the foils is to make the transition from high-drag waterborne to low-drag airborne operation.
You can literally feel yourself floating across the wave crests.
NARRATOR : Once it hits 35 miles per hour, SeaPhantom lowers its foils six feet into the water and lifts into the air out of the water's drag.
BOR MAN : Air is 800 times less dense than water, and you can operate on a tiny fraction of the horsepower.
NARRATOR : lf the boat hits a small wave, the foils make a small correction.
A bigger wave will cause a bigger correction.
But passengers never feel the impact.
Oh, it's really cool to ride in the SeaPhantom.
NARRATOR : SeaPhantom uses only 1 l5 the gas of other high-speed boats, putting future ocean commuting within everyone's reach.
l envision the SeaPhantom technology as a coastal transport system city center to city center.
NARRATOR : Borman's idea is to make triple-digit speed on the water practical.
The principles of Borman's design can be scaled up to a 90-foot vessel so that, one day, you will choose to travel by water.
BOR MAN : We're only on this Earth for a short time.
The faster we can travel from point ''A'' to point ''B, '' the more life we're gonna live.
NARRATOR : The SeaPhantom could someday be your best high-speed choice to get from New York to M iami.
But if you want to get from New York to London, you'll still take a plane, right? Maybe not.
You might take the Earthrace.
BETHUNE: This is the coolest looking boat in the world.
And l have yet to have someone show me a cooler boat.
NARRATOR : lt's not just cool -- it's fast, so fast that it recently shattered the record for going around the world in a powerboat, sustaining speeds of up to 40 knots in the roughest waters.
We've gone 'round the globe in just under 61 days.
Your ability to handle big seas is the key to it.
NARRATOR : Earthrace's wave-piercing design is what allows it to cross the open ocean at record-breaking speed.
While the SeaPhantom lifts itself over the waves, Earthrace's three hulls cut right through them.
This efficiency accounts for its dramatic design.
BETHUNE: The reaction to the boat, it's universal.
Wherever we go, people are like, '' Man, what the hell is that?'' NARRATOR : But the most surprising thing about this ship is not its looks and not its speed, but its power source.
We fuel the boat on biodiesel.
NARRATOR : Earthrace can go halfway around the globe on a single tank of biofuel made from soybeans, coconuts, or any of 350 different crops, which means it treads lightly as it crosses the planet.
BETHUNE: Biodiesel made from soybean oil has around 7 5 % less CO2 emissions than normal diesel.
NARRATOR : And in the future, entire fleets of ocean vessels will be even more ecofriendly as they draw fuel from ocean organisms like algae.
So imagine canceling your flight and traveling to Europe in a high-speed biopowered superboat.
lt may happen sooner than you think.
BETHUNE: At the moment, l believe we live in the golden era for transport.
NARRATOR : lt's one thing to move small boats at dizzying speeds, but it's another challenge altogether to accelerate a massive cargo ship full of merchandise.
G l LES: Time in port is time wasted.
And however nice this looks and however efficient it is, this is today's technology.
We're talking about tomorrow.
NARRATOR : David Giles and Roland Bullard have an idea that will turbocharge shipping, transforming the sea-lanes into superhighways to your door.
lt's called FastShip l ncorporated.
l nventory sitting around doesn't do anybody any good.
They got to get it to market.
So that's where we come in.
NARRATOR : A specially designed FastShip freighter will race across the Atlantic in just five days at almost twice the speed of other cargo ships.
BULLARD: lt's a large yacht with all kinds of special attributes.
The design allows us to maintain speed through severe sea states.
G l LES: Ours is not a fully planing hull.
lt doesn't skidder across the top of the water.
lt just lifts significantly.
And as it lifts, then it reduces its displacement, or induced drag.
NARRATOR : But in the world of cargo, speed isn't just about going fast across the water.
lt's about how fast you load the boats.
G l LES: This is the old way of doing things.
These cranes will unload maybe 20, maybe 30 containers an hour.
NARRATOR : But the terminals FastShip is building in the U.
S.
and France won't need cranes, because they're designed to put the boat's cargo hold at dock level.
BULLARD: We'll be unloading from the stern in a roll-on, roll-off basis.
NARRATOR : Robotic rolling platforms and a link span that works like a ramp will allow FastShip to load and unload cargo at lightning speed.
G l LES: We do not have to sit around for two days unloading and reloading.
We do the whole thing in six hours.
And we'll be in and unload, reload, and out.
NARRATOR : You probably think you know what a boat looks like.
Well, think again.
Visionary designers are reimagining the entire concept of what boats are and how they will change our lives.
l'm not a futurist.
l'm an experimental engineer.
This is really the most revolutionary thing that l have invented.
NARRATOR : ls this the love child of a water bug and a space alien, or is it maybe the boat of the future? CONTl : Most people cannot imagine something like that 'cause they've never seen anything like that on the water.
NARRATOR : lt's called Proteus.
CONTl : They have all sorts of comments.
They think it's a Klingon bird of prey or an insect or a spider.
NARRATOR : lt may look peculiar, but Proteus is a serious multifaceted vessel.
By shifting its shape, it will switch from pleasure craft to surveillance vehicle to science lab in the blink of an eye.
Proteus was a mythological sea god capable of assuming many forms.
Conti's modular construction plan allows his boat to do the same.
The payload, which is suspended in the middle of the ship, is the key.
lt might contain a research lab, scuba-diving platform, or even another boat.
The modules can be quickly swapped out, changing Proteus into completely new vessels like a giant transformer.
One of the characteristics of this kind of technology is that it allows you to change its use very quickly.
And for some user that needs different kinds of operations, this is perfect.
GUNDERSEN : lf it fits in that area, it can go there, anything that the customer wants.
And that's one of the beauties of this design is the fact that it has so many different applications.
NARRATOR : For centuries, regular boats have battled the waves, but this experimental ship is built to ride them.
Proteus plays with the waves.
That's one way of describing.
At the beginning when l had this idea, l was actually thinking of dancing with the waves.
NARRATOR : Proteus is a WAM-V -- wave-adaptive modular vessel.
And its alien shape is what makes it rock instead of roll.
GUNDERSEN : lt's like riding on a New York subway.
lt's kind of, you know, this motion like this, where you're kind of rocking in more of a horizontal plane than you are pitching or rolling that you typically experience in a monohull vessel.
CONTl : And so this boat, this produce, this concept has suspensions, has shock absorbers, and has the flexibility to adapt to the surface of the ocean instead of transmitting that kind of motion directly to the cabin or the payload.
This is such a novelty for a boat.
No boats have ever had springs before.
NARRATOR : Proteus has the suspension of a colossal off-road truck, a ball-joint system, and massive twin hulls that move independently.
lt looks intimidating, but don't let that stop you from climbing aboard.
GUNDERSEN : Proteus is very easy to operate.
We've had a number of people on board that don't really even have any boating experience, and they're able to pick up the concept very quickly.
NARRATOR : lts 5, 000-mile range will let you cross vast oceans, and its inflatable hulls will allow you to enter shallow waters and fragile ecosystems where a traditional ship could never go.
Proteus can even land on a beach, a trick that would spell disaster for most boats its size.
GUNDERSEN : A very shallow draft vessel like Proteus, where a foot and a half in the stern and six inches in the bow allows us to go almost anywhere.
lt's basically what helicopters are to airplanes in the sense of the boating world.
NARRATOR : Versatile future seacraft will lead to a total rethink and let us experience the ocean in brand-new ways.
What is it? What's it do? ls it an airplane? ls it a boat or a submarine? lNNES: We want to jump higher than anything else.
We want to try and do bigger tricks.
l mean, we're trying to replicate what a lot of, you know, aquatic animals can do.
NARRATOR : What if you could cross a dolphin with a Jet Ski, exploring the heights and depths of the ocean in ways never before seen? Rob l nnes sees a future where you can push the limits of water sports to new extremes.
lNNES: lt's just a blast.
lt's something that's just pure enjoyment.
Just create something that's totally fun, totally awesome to drive.
NARRATOR : lf it looks like a dolphin and acts like a dolphin, then it's a Seabreacher.
Part powerboat, part submarine, Seabreacher is more than just a pleasure craft.
lt's about the experience of swimming like a dolphin in the sea.
Like an airplane in reverse, the Seabreacher is able to dive beneath the surface by creating a negative lift with its wings and forcing the craft down.
lNNES: You're in a totally three-dimensional environment.
You really feel like part of the water.
lt's a strange experience.
But when you go underwater and you're in an entire bubble of air underwater, it makes the water more alive.
NARRATOR : Powered by a supercharged rotary engine coupled to a ''V''-drive transmission, Seabreacher flies at 40 miles an hour across the water's surface.
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20 miles an hour underneath -- five times faster than a regular recreational submersible.
l n the future, for less than the price of a new BMW, you can choose instead to dive into the water and swim with the dolphins.
l magine, you know, what the potential will be when you can dive with them, swim with them.
NARRATOR : And even learn some tricks from them.
lNNES: That median between the two environments is something that dolphins have been exploring for a long time.
You know, you might be able to go down with them to, you know, 20, 30 feet and beyond.
For now, we're limited in terms of depth and duration.
But with what dolphins are able to do, l think, you know, staying with a pod of dolphins, how can you beat that? Sometimes when you do, like, two or three barrel rolls in a row, it's a neat thing to see your entire world turn upside down.
l mean, you're half underwater and you're half in the air.
You jump as high as you can, then you dive as deep as you can.
You're at the mercy of the elements when you do this.
NARRATOR : Ultimately, a boat this athletic is born to compete.
l magine scores of Seabreachers racing in huge ocean-sports arenas.
Think motocross in the sea.
lNNES: l think that racing is gonna be a sport where thousands of spectators will actually be able to watch these vessels compete in a 3-D environment of air and water, jumping over obstacles, diving under things, trying to hit targets.
Obviously, there would be wrecks that would entertain the crowd.
But we see it as just a huge, mass sporting appeal.
Obviously, there will be other applications.
People can use them to get out to their islands and yachts.
The sky will be the limit.
NARRATOR : When we think of the ocean, we usually think of great voyages or fun in the sun.
But the sea can be a rough place, too.
Violent weather and violent people can take us by surprise.
But what if we could send out boats into dangerous waters by themselves? WORK: Unmanned systems, l think, can make a huge impact on homeland security primarily because we have long, long borders.
They're very porous, and we have very broad maritime approaches to the United States.
NARRATOR : We can't successfully monitor our vast and confusing coastlines with manpower alone.
The job is too big.
The time is coming when the Coast Guard will get reenforcements from robotic guard boats.
Man : Halt, this is the U.
S.
Coast Guard.
WORK: Unmanned systems can help you sort out the mess -- who are truly the bad guys, who are truly the good guys.
NARRATOR : SeaRobotics Corporation has developed the experimental Night Cat.
You may never know it.
But the next time you're out fishing, Night Cat could be watching you.
The Night Cat will be operated remotely by pilots using a joystick and computer, like a kind of high-stakes video game.
l nfrared imaging systems and on-board software will analyze suspicious activity.
ls this boat crew behaving like normal fishermen or maybe more like drug dealers or terrorists? lf Night Cat senses a problem, it will move in for a closer look.
DARLl NG : This type of boat can be used to get in close proximity to an intruder, interrogate that intruder, without putting anyone in harm's way.
NARRATOR : Mounted cameras, microphones, and speakers let the remote pilot interrogate the crew from the safety of the shore.
MAN : ldentify yourself.
NARRATOR : And if needed, the boat can be armed with a 30-caliber weapon or small missile system.
And if the bad guys try to get away, good luck.
DARLl NG : The top speed of this boat is going to be in the area of 60 to 7 0 miles an hour.
The turning rate is in excess of 40 to 45 degrees per second, and that can be accomplished at very high speed.
l would not want to be a bad guy in an area trying to get away from it.
NARRATOR : Dealing with criminals and furtive threats along the coastline is one thing, but sometimes the danger lies below the surface.
BRANDES: l magine if you could hunt mines without having to send human beings into the minefield.
What if you could not only hunt them, you could identify them and destroy them? NARRATOR : This is Lockheed Martin's remote multi-mission vehicle.
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a small, stealthy ocean robot that helps protect U.
S.
battleships and submarines by identifying threats beneath the waves.
BRANDES: They would load a mission into the vehicle that basically sends it to the area of concern.
NARRATOR : Once set loose in the ocean, the R M MV systematically sweeps the water for mines or hostile submarines and alerts the mother ship to any threats.
The craft is 23-feet long and weighs 1 2, 000 pounds, but its propeller is virtually silent and doesn't produce any acoustic signature.
BRANDES: l've seen it going through the water at 1 2 knots on a dead-calm day and leaving hardly any scar on the surface of the water.
lt's unbelievable.
And it just cuts through the water like a knife going through butter.
DARLl NG : l n the future, these vehicles will be working in coordination with unmanned air vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles.
NARRATOR : The possibilities for the R M MV are already taking shape, and the potential benefits are obvious.
BRANDES: The most telling thing for me was when we had the M ine Countermeasures Forces folks here.
They were the first group to come for training.
And the one kid turned to the other and said, ''You know what the best part of the whole day was?'' And the other kid said, ''No, what was that?'' He says, ''We weren't in the minefield.
'' NARRATOR : Human operators are still in control of the R M MV and the Night Cat, but it's inevitable that advances in artificial intelligence will enable these autonomous ships to make decisions on their own.
lt's scary to consider it, but it's also exciting to say, ''What will happen to warfare or our society when robots are making independent decisions?'' NARRATOR : A robotic navy fleet could change the seas forever.
And unmanned ships could also help us change something else -- the weather.
Forecasting the path and intensity of hurricanes is critical, but forecasting hurricanes means measuring them.
That's not a job for people.
The kind of data that the hurricane researchers need is at the ocean-air interface, the temperature of the water at the surface, slightly below the surface, and the kind of data that you just can't get from aircraft or satellites.
lt's the kind of data you'd like to put a ship in a hurricane to do, but you'll a hard time finding people willing to do that for obvious reasons.
But an unmanned vehicle could, of course, support that.
NARRATOR : Payne Kilbourne is the director of Unmanned Ocean Vehicles l ncorporated.
His ship will sail itself straight into the heart of a hurricane.
Kl LBOURNE: The boat is a completely unmanned, autonomous vehicle that deploys itself and stays at sea for an extended period of time.
When people first see the boat, they're reaction is, one, it's small, and, two, it's just a sailboat.
l like to say, ''Well, the Mars rover is just a jeep, but it's a really high-tech jeep.
'' And this is a really high-tech sailboat.
NARRATOR : With its watertight hull, rigid vertical wing, which is sturdier than any traditional sail, and its self-righting design, this is the ultimate storm boat.
Kl LBOURNE: Our prime design concern is survivability and ruggedness of the vehicle.
Because if it's gonna operate for one to two years at sea, it's gonna have to be able to survive many, many things.
NARRATOR : The Vie Bonne Mer is an energy scavenger which means it gets all the power it needs from wind, solar, and wave energy.
l n theory, it could stay out on a mission forever.
Kl LBOURNE: We forget that until 1 00 years ago, mankind used the ocean's energy, predominantly wind, to conduct global commerce, to fight its wars.
And we've kind of forgotten that.
But the wind is still blowing.
NARRATOR : But it's not just wind power that drives this boat.
The deck and rigid wing sail are covered in solar cells, and it can recharge its batteries without ever coming home.
l magine the wealth of scientific data a fleet of these storm boats could gather, going where no one has ever been.
They will sail out to wander the expanses of the ocean, sending new data to the scientists back home.
Kl LBOURNE: l think once we really explore the oceans and get to be as intimate with them as we are with the landmasses of this world, we'll start to understand things in a much deeper way, in a way that will help all mankind.
NARRATOR : Robotic ships may one day patrol our shores, but some of the greatest threats we face could actually come from the ships themselves.
Titanic cargo ships are spewing out over 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, heating the planet and speeding the melting of the polar ice caps.
NARRATOR : But what if someone began to rethink the entire question of power? What if the largest ships on Earth left no footprint at all? After all, isn't that the way ships used to be? Arild lversen believes that oil and internal-combustion engines have actually sent the shipping industry down the wrong path.
This is the ElS Orcelle -- a radical new concept for a zero-emission cargo ship.
To build something so utterly unconventional, the leaders of the Norwegian shipping company, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, went back to the drawing board.
Naval architects, environmental experts, and industrial designers all had a hand in imagining the Orcelle, and the result is a ship that draws its power from just about everything around it.
The Orcelle's sails can be positioned to use drag force and get power from the wind.
They will also be covered with photovoltaic cells to soak up energy from the sun.
This massive ship will also tap into the strength of the sea itself.
The Orcelle's 1 2 underwater fins will turn the kinetic power of the churning waves into mechanical energy for the journey.
And the inspiration for this long-distance sea vessel comes from one of the most efficient long-distance fliers in the sky.
Just as an albatross draws most of its flying power from the wind, the Orcelle will exploit the environment around it to minimize its energy needs, but it will still be able to carry a massive load.
The completed ship will have the capacity to carry 1 0, 000 cars in a cargo-deck stowage area as big as 1 4 football fields.
For the $9 billion shipping industry, this kind of big thinking may be the wave of the future.
lf the Orcelle could cleanly move tons of cargo across oceans, will the future also bring commuters cleanly across town? Could Christoph Behling transform rush hour? He believes he can and that the future of urban mobility lies in sun power.
l got some of the solar cells.
The raw material for solar cells, l thought, was the most magic material ever seen.
Not only is it absolutely beautiful.
lt looks like something from outer space.
lt also makes energy out of nothing which, still, to this day, l find absolutely fascinating.
NARRATOR : Behling's award-winning ship, the Solar Shuttle, is testing his ideas on the waters of London's Hyde Park.
lt's fueled entirely by light.
The way it works is very simple.
We have the solar cells on the top.
They collect the energy from the sun, and that gets fed into an energy management system which is down here which then feeds the batteries.
NARRATOR : Despite England's famously overcast skies, the solar cells still collect energy from light, even if the sun is not shining.
The result -- zero-emissions transport.
See -- no sound, no fumes.
lt's all clean.
NARRATOR : Solar technology is not new.
But high-capacity solar ferries didn't exist until the Solar Shuttle.
When you step on board, you'll be riding on a brand-new mode of transport, but what Behling wants you to notice is the light.
We thought, ''This is a solar boat.
lt's not a sailing boat.
lt's not a motorboat.
lt's a new typology.
lt has to look different.
'' NARRATOR : Behling's obsession with sunlight drove him to design even the shadows that fall on the deck of the boat.
BEHLlNG : Light is the soul of this whole product.
NARRATOR : The Shuttle may look like a charming green experiment, but Christoph Behling sees solar sailing as a smart new way to get around urban centers like London.
BEHLlNG : You see how the city developed totally parallel to the River Thames.
So if you're on land transport, you can jump into a cab and try to wiggle yourself through all these small Victorian streets, which will roughly take you an hour to go from here to here, or you can do the obvious thing, which you can see from space -- you can just use this massive highway which runs straight through the city, and you can just run about, going out here.
NARRATOR : And London is signing up for the idea.
The city plans to have five huge Solar Shuttles on the River Thames in time for the 201 2 Olympics.
Each ship will carry 250 people and will have top speeds of almost 60 miles per hour.
The ships will gather enough extra solar energy to feed back into the grid, lighting street lamps and city buildings with power from the sun every time they dock.
BEHLlNG : This whole thing doesn't need any kind of ground change of infrastructure.
You don't have to change the whole energy concept of the city.
You could just put them on the river tomorrow.
And this doesn't only work in London.
This would work anywhere.
NARRATOR : l magine a transportation transformation -- fleets of solar vessels moving millions of commuters around the world's cities every day, helping power those cities and stopping tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
lt's an elegant solution to one of our oldest problems.
BEHLlNG : The steam train, the car -- they're sort of mankind's brutal approaches to transport.
But l can see a future where water will be absolutely key.
NARRATOR : l n the future, you'll spend a lot more time on the water.
And if you've got the cash, you'll even be able to live on the water.
And no supercar, no private jet will ever rival the level of luxury that you could have with your future yacht.
But it will take the kind of crazy vision that only a few people possess.
Luca Bassani is one of them.
And even amongst those who think big, Bassani thinks even bigger.
l love the life a lot.
l'm trying to organize my life around this, around the technology, around innovation.
l love to live by passion.
As president of premier luxury boat company Wally Yachts, Bassani intends to take luxury boating to the next level.
He understands that the person who has everything still wants more.
For Bassani, it begins with power.
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WallyPower.
WallyPower is the first step to the future.
NARRATOR : The WallyPower 1 1 8 has the shape of a stealth fighter and the seafaring qualities of a Coast Guard cutter.
lt's clean lines are uninterrupted by visible cleats or winches, and it has some serious power under the hood.
Three high-performance gas turbines like those on a Chinook helicopter rocket the boat like nothing else on the water.
BASSAN l : You see the look of the boat is quite aggressive, because you want to have a very seaworthy hull.
You want to have a boat that never needs to go back into a marina.
NARRATOR : ls there another 1 1 8-foot yacht on the ocean with a cruising speed of 60 knots? lt's not easy to get very high technological results with very high performances, but at the same time creating a product that could really bring a new style, a new look, a new aesthetic.
NARRATOR : Bassani is after sophistication, and he knows exactly how to get it.
Just ask him.
Sophistication means to get more by less.
This is much more sophisticated than getting more by more.
lt's very easy.
Let's say to get the most speed, just adding horsepowers.
You should get more speed reducing horsepowers.
l think this is a real sophistication.
NARRATOR : But for Bassani, less will never mean sacrificing luxury.
As it speeds along the French Riviera, at the flip of a switch, the WallyPower morphs into a mansion.
BASSAN l : When you sail with a boat, it's closed, because you need protection.
You need the hull to be closed.
But then you can open it when you're at the anchor, not only giving you more view but also expanding the deck area.
NARRATOR : Once inside the yacht, the sleek exterior gives way to hidden luxury.
Teak floors and spacious open cabins create the feeling of a penthouse loft.
When you are inside the superstructure, you don't feel inside.
You feel outside, only protected and sheltered by the wind or by the sun.
NARRATOR : But ultra-luxury comes at a price.
Depending on what features you want, the WallyPower costs around $2 4 million.
With his latest vision, Bassani intends to push the boundaries of the outrageous.
We believe that today, already, the majority of the customers are using their boats as a floating island, but these boats are not conceived to be used as an island, so this is our new path.
NARRATOR : l magine Wally lsland, a customizable ultra-yacht that will let you design your own tropical island, right down to the number of palm trees and the flow of the waterfalls.
BASSAN l : You won't need anymore the land.
You won't miss anymore the land.
lt's another dream -- a floating island.
lt is a provocation.
NARRATOR : Why let the people on the ocean surface have all the fun.
Graham Hawkes, explorer and CEO of Ocean Technologies, wants to take you where no one has gone before -- down, all the way down.
HAWKES: lt's been said there are more footprints on the moon than the deep ocean, and that is literally true.
There are more spacecraft than there are submersible craft by a long, long way.
And yet the whole future of mankind, in terms of resources, living space, is down in that aquatic part of the planet.
NARRATOR : For 40 years, Graham Hawkes has been one of the world's leading designers of submersible vehicles.
He holds the world record for deepest solo dive at 3, 000 feet.
To the scientists and engineers that have spent billions of dollars trying to reach outer space, Graham Hawkes has a little advice.
Gentlemen, your rockets are pointing in the wrong direction.
Turn them 1 80 degrees.
Up there, you have a sterile vacuum.
Down here, we have everything.
What do we know about the oceans? Almost nothing.
Seriously.
You look back a few centuries to people where they thought that the Earth was the center of the universe, and we laugh at them.
How could they have been so silly? l tell you, future generations are gonna laugh at us 'cause we have no clue about the planet we're actually living on.
NARRATOR : Why don't we have a clue? l n part, because we don't have the tools to explore the ocean with ease.
But thanks to Graham Hawkes, that's about to change.
HAWKES: Well, behind me is the Deep Flight Super Falcon.
lt's the culmination of everything we've worked for for 1 5 years.
lt has all of the technology that we've got to go to full ocean depth in this exquisitely pure underwater flying machine.
And it's been built purely to do that.
You can say, ''Well, okay, but submarines have existed before.
'' Yeah, but they were heavy.
They were nasty.
They needed big mother ships, and they were frightfully expensive.
NARRATOR : Unlike the clunky deep-sea vessels of the past, the elegant design of the Super Falcon submersible will allow it to operate independently and affordably.
Once you climb inside, you'll be able to easily launch from shallow waters to take your solo flight into the deep.
By embracing the principles of flight underwater, Hawkes hopes to open up new worlds to all of us.
HAWKES: l had a ball test-flying this baby, just flying for the first time underwater, pure flight.
lt was just exquisite.
So now we can bring that to other people.
NARRATOR : The next incarnation of Hawkes' Deep Flight submersible, Deep Flight l l , will be a triumph of advanced engineering that will take us even farther into the abyss.
This vessel is designed to survive a flight through the most mysterious and inaccessible place on Earth.
lf you dare to join him, prepare to visit the Mariana Trench.
HAWKES: The deepest part of the planet is Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.
lt's 3 7, 000 feet.
That's almost twice as deep as anything else on the planet.
NARRATOR : Seven miles straight down is the deepest location on the surface of the Earth's crust with water pressure that could easily crush a truck.
HAWKES: The ambient pressure that we built that submersible to is 20, 000 pounds a square inch.
NARRATOR : You wouldn't want to go there with someone who doesn't know what he's doing.
HAWKES: There's no navy with that capability.
There's nothing.
l'm an engineer, and this is just the biggest challenge there is.
We've been out to get the shape dead right.
lt's been built for human comfort, human safety, and to be the highest performance in underwater flight.
lt's a pure underwater flying machine.
NARRATOR : Having been there himself, Hawkes looks forward to a time when regular people will have access to the underwater world that is now only open to a select few.
The magic is to take somebody down, have them look at the underside of waves, and go, ''Oh, my gosh, '' and look around, and just sense this exquisite, wild wilderness.
You don't need to be in the Navy to have one of these things in the future.
They're actually much easier to fly than aircraft for the very simple reason that if you mess up, you don't crash and die.
lf you stall one of these things, you come rocketing to the surface.
You fall smashed back on your back.
The craft rights itself up, and you go, ''Wow, that was exciting.
Let's do that again.
'' This is probably the 56th submersible l built.
With this one, we had the imagination, we had the technology.
lt's gonna be very hard to improve it from here on out.
l magine a future where you can purchase a craft for about the same as a light aircraft and go and find your own shipwrecks.
Then l think you can imagine a world where it begins to seep into the public consciousness that this is actually an ocean planet.
And maybe that's what we can achieve here in our lifetime.
l think she's beautiful.
l think it's absolutely exquisite.
l don't know anyone who can stand it.
l want to jump in there and go fly right now.
NARRATOR : Hawkes' plans for the Super Falcon go far beyond mere adventure.
He believes his supersubs might even be a tool for the survival of the human race.
HAWKES: We've expanded.
We're hard up against borders.
But 2l3 of this planet is unexplored.
Clearly, in the future, instead of colonizing Mars, we're going to be moving into the oceans.
We're going to have to find our energy, food, and ultimately kind of living space.
Once we connect with the oceans, it's all going to change.
lt's gonna be a very different world in the future.
NARRATOR : We will travel the sea in ways that Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus could not have imagined.
We will fly across the surface and share the waterways with robots.
We will dance with the waves, power our journeys from nature itself, and dive below to explore new territories.
These are future ships.