The Artificial Island Base is a modular mobile marine platform. It is designed to be free-floating, but can be anchored. The design features a hexagonal multiple deck main platform built around a central flotation and stabilization spar. The spar is largely submereged, and is divided into a series of flotation/ballast chambers. At the bottom end of the spar is a lead lined ballast chamber filled with depleted uranium. Water is used as additional ballast, and can be pumped into or out of the spar to change the displacement.
The main platform is divided into 2 or more decks, with a 25cm bulkhead between each deck. It is designed to serve as a watertight safety hull in case of emergencies. Directly below the below the bottom of the main platform is a layer of additional aerogel floatation. If, for some reason, the submerged flotation or spar should entirely fail, the platform can sink only as far as bottom of the living platform.
The spar provides flotation at the waterline, moving the center of buoyancy up, which makes it easier to get the center of gravity under it for stability. Of course, the downside of spar flotation is additional sensitivity to waves in both vertical and horizontal motion. There is a central elevator system running the length of the spar. Several sections of the spar may used as storage, habitation, and so forth. The island is designed so that 2/3rds of the spar height is below water, and the remainder is above water. The main platform is designed around the upper half of the above water portion of the spar.
The island is designed to be modular so that that individual islands can be connected to form larger units. The interconnections are flexible to account for the dynamic forces operating on the island, such as the continuous small fluctuations in the relative buoyancy of.
The variable flotation design allows for a single platform to be removed from within a large group of islands. After disconnecting it, the flotation is reduced so that the platform drops beneath the level of the other platforms. The island to be removed can then can be towed out between the spars, under the other platforms.
Standard utility interconnection allow infrastructure sharing between islands.
Because the island is designed for use on the open ocean, very little hull maintenance is required.
A wide variety of useful systems can be built into an island, such as helipads, OTECs, floating docks, and STOL or full length runways (in the case of multiple connected modules).
