Arktika

I have to settle on a model of boat as a base to build up the engineering details for the banking vehicle I've designed. There were questions about whether this had to indeed be a boat and whether or not a land train might provide a better function. I believe not - for several reasons:

1. A large train is no where near as manueverable as one boat.
2. To that effect one large vehicle would be too heavy for the ice that currently stands at only 2 - 3 meters thick on average and will only get thinner with global warming.

The Arktika class of Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers first appeared in 1977 and the last was built in 2008. They are the largest and most powerful class of icebreakers in the world and can manage around 19-25 knots through up to 6m of ice.



Because they're powered by nuclear reactors, they are unable to traverse from water with an average temperature of below freezing.



Snow melting hot spray form the engine coolant of another type of icebreaker might be an interesting modification.

They have a crew of around 115 and a passenger capacity of around 100. There are 6 in existence and 5 of the 7 vehicles to make it to the North Pole are Arktikas.