Microship FAQs and Facts (updated April 19, 2004)

What are “Microships”? The Microships (Wordplay and Songline) are a pair of canoe-scale amphibian pedal/solar/sail micro-trimarans, intended for open-ended exploration of coastal and inland waterways. Extensive computing and communication gear allows them to be connected more or less continuously to the Internet and to each other, as well as controlled by wireless handheld computers when the pilots are not on-board. Each boat is designed to carry one person, and with a brief conversion can enter “road mode” for human-powered overland transport. Who are the pilots? The expedition team consists of Steve Roberts and one or more partners, traveling as a technomadic flotilla. From 1983 to 1991, Steve traveled 17,000 miles around the US on a computerized recumbent bicycle, while writing books and magazine articles. This is obviously a huge project – how is it funded? We depend heavily on corporate “in-kind” sponsorship, with over 130 companies in a wide range of industries participating through equipment donation. Additional support comes from a diverse team of volunteers, who offer everything from guru-level system design to occasional help sanding fiberglass. Actual cashflow comes from the publication of tech/adventure tales in the form of Nomadic Research Labs technical monographs, public speaking engagements, and magazine freelancing. How long has it taken to build the boats? The project officially began in 1992, but went through a variety of nautical substrates before settling on the twin micro-trimarans in 1997. It’s been a full-time undertaking, with occasional breaks for relocation, speaking tours, lab building, and other distractions. The Fall of 2001 marked a key waypoint in the form of mechanical and nautical completion to a seaworthy level, leaving only electronic systems integration before the expedition can begin. You keep mentioning an “expedition” – what’s the plan? During 2004 there will be a Mini-Expedition in our home waters of the Pacific Northwest, directly accessible from our lab on Camano Island, Washington. If all continues to go as planned, the big trip will begin shortly thereafter, and comprise a “Great Loop” around the Eastern US. Is this just a lark, or are you on a mission? Well, there are a lot of reasons. In addition to indulging an addiction to travel, we will be writing books about the adventure, producing videos enroute, working with schoolkids, experimenting with mobile technology, and continuing to develop new location-independent business models as we have since pioneering technomadics in 1983. We will also be streaming about 50 telemetry channels to the Internet, many of which are from environmental data collection sensors, and we are developing the tools to provide graphical public access to this data as well as that generated by other travelers and probes. Our water resources need all the help they can get, especially in the current political climate. Where will you sleep? Our first choice is to stay with people we meet along the way (or via the Net, ham radio, or other connections). We’re also fully equipped for camping, and can even do “on-water bivouac” if conditions prevent haulout... though that’s a bit on the spartan side. What are these machines worth? Sorry, we’re not telling (actually, we don’t even know). The Microships represent all our resources of time and money, a vast infusion of creative energy from friends and volunteers over 8 years, and significant help from industry on all levels. Reducing all that to a dollar figure would be impossible... and very misleading. It’s a work of passion. Why is there so much technology on board? A big part of our “mission profile” involves nomadic connectivity... which is how we render our physical location irrelevant via our suite of connections to the Net. There’s also a need for adaptive control of the power system, security monitoring, remote control, navigation, video production, an MP3 music library, ham radio, MIDI synthesis... OK, OK, I admit it. We’re geeks. How do you keep all the electronics from being destroyed by salt water? That’s a big part of the packaging problem, and involves a range of oceanographic packaging techniques, pressurization, high-quality sealing, desiccants, active humidity monitoring, and specialized components. Why do the boats have wheels? That actually turned out to be one of the nastiest engineering problems, but was necessary because we want to travel freely on human-scale craft that are big enough for all the essential systems. Once you get beyond the kayak/canoe scale, it becomes difficult to haul a boat on land under human power... but we didn’t want a truck and trailer following us around and certainly had no interest in scaling the whole system up to a live-aboard. Hence the need for deployable landing gear... Where can I get more information about the project? An introductory book is in print (From BEHEMOTH to Microship), there is a substantial article collection here on the site, and you can keep current with the project and adventure by watching the daily update page.