Conducting research on a ship presents a particular challenge to its participants. Within a confined space and without the possibility of privacy everyone is confronted with questions and problems from diverse areas of study. The environment here is created mainly through communication, the dialogue between the members of the continuously changing scientific community from diverse nations. Science after all is not an isolated phenomenon. One can call it `science through dialogue´ and thereby emphasise interdisciplinary research and its process.

”Everything is in flux” (Heraclitus, 500 BC), expressing the continuity of eternal change – no other place can better symbolise this than a ship on the sea.

To name this ship after an important astronomer is logical and points to the importance of science for humanity and particularly also to the importance of astronomy for seafaring.

Astronomical knowledge and navigation according to the stars were vital for seafaring and indispensable for the success of long sea voyages.

What would former adventurers and discoverers of the world have done without their knowledge of astronomy? The theories of Henry the Navigator (1394 – 1460), for example, are based on the science of astronomy. His ”School of Navigation at Sagres” provided ship captains with an adequate education in order to position their ships according to the sun and stars. This was the key in order to find the way back out of the then ”dark sea”. Several European seafarers came from afar to visit the Portuguese school of navigation. Amongst them were Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506), who acquired the nautical training prevalent at the time und who was convinced of earth’s round shape, as well as Martin Behaim (1459 – 1506) of Nuremberg, whose globe is the oldest of all existing globes (1492).

The project ”Nicolaus Copernicus” serves to ignite a new approach to science, an improved form of communication among scientists. This may not be revolutionary but rather a restoration of the so strongly divided scientific disciplines. The goal is to gain new insights, which, through critical discourse at an attractive place that requires per se concentration, are to result in more complex views within the disciplines.

Therefore the famous astronomer and general scholar Nicolaus Copernicus was selected as the ship’s namesake. It was he who revolutionised science with his heliocentric worldview. Until this day, the term ”Copernican Revolution” marks the alteration of a worldview that results in significant changes in the sciences.

Educated in the spirit of science, Nicolaus Copernicus’ dedication was boundless. He lived in an era where studies at a university, the ”studium generale”, encompassed many scientific disciplines. He was a ”wanderer”, who crossed the boundaries: culture, belief, nations, politics.

With his revolutionary research, Nicolaus Copernicus was far ahead of his times. One can call him a great European, because he can not be pigeonholed according to the ideas of the 19th and 20th centuries. This also conforms with our future thoughts about Europe. On the ship, scientists -- initially from all over Europe, later also from other continents -- meet and engage in an exchange.

Born February 19, 1473 in Torun, Nicolaus Copernicus studied the law, ancient languages, medicine as well as astronomy in Krakow, Bologna, Padua, Rome and Ferrara. In 1506, he became personal physician and private secretary to his uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, the bishop of Ermland in Heilsberg.

In 1512, Copernicus became canon at Frauenburg Cathedral. His life’s goal, to solve the mysteries of the sky, and his astronomical studies early on lead him to the conviction that the sun is the centre of the circular planetary paths and that earth also circles her (Copernican and heliocentric worldsystem).

Cosmology, as it was accepted in Europe at the time, had been expressed by the Egyptian astronomer and geographer Claudius Ptolemaios during the second century. In this model, earth is the centre, around which sun, moon and stars rotate (geocentric worldview).

The Copernican revolution from the geocentric to the heliocentric worldview made possible the development of modern physics and astronomy. Nicolaus Copernicus’ theories revolutionised the way in which we utilise science and opened the door that later would be pushed open by great astronomers such as Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei.

The age of modernity, which can be marked with the beginning of the 15th century, differs from previous periods through rapid advances, the rapid increase of knowledge, a systematic application of the gained knowledge in technology, and through research in areas, which had been opened up or became interesting through technology. The results were considerable also in politics and culture.

Nicolaus Copernicus demonstrated courage and flexibility of thought by turning away from pure speculation and deduction and by pointing to the significance of observation instead. In his research, he kept far from pressures of any kind, disengaged himself from popular scientific thought and parochial powers. In this sense, detached from their usual environments, on the open sea, the researchers on the ship are supposed to also have the possibility to steer their thoughts into new directions, debate new possibilities, and jointly formulate new goals.

In 1532, Nicolaus Copernicus submitted his main work in manuscript form, ”De revolutionibus orbium coelestium”. At his friends’ urgings, it was published in the year he died, 1543.

It summarises his results from nearly thirty years of scientific study. His main thesis, that the sun and not the earth are the centre of the universe, was under heavy attack mainly by the church for a long time.

When attempting to publish his teacher’s work, Copernicus student, George Joachim Rheticus, experienced resistance from Martin Luther of all people, who considered Copernicus an ”astrological upstart”, a ”fool, who attempts to turn around the entire science of astronomy”.

Astronomy’s revolution, which was initiated by Copernicus, did not only bring about a change of universal basic principles, but over time brought an entirely new perspective of nature.

Nicolaus Copernicus wanted to correct the science of astronomy. He recognised the power of truth and rejected the belief in the given, in things granted, which was adopted by all those, who were not open to really grapple with this topic.

Only the great physics and astronomers of the 17th century (Kepler, Galilei, Newton) supported Copernicus.

Geophysics owes Copernicus the knowledge of the daily rotation of the earth and the annual revolution of the earth around the sun. The beginning of Copernicus’ work discusses the round shape of earth, composed of land and water masses. In it, he also mentions China and America as new discoveries.

Nicolaus Copernicus possessed the audaciousness to turn his back on Aristotle because he recognised that logical argumentation alone does not contribute to the propagation of knowledge.

With his ”Theory of Colours”, the prince of poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe created a monument to the important scientist. He writes:

”Of all discoveries and opinions, none may have exerted a greater effect on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus. The world had scarcely become known as round and complete in itself when it was asked to waive the tremendous privilege of being the centre of the universe. Never, perhaps, was a greater demand made on mankind--for by this admission so many things vanished in mist and smoke! What became of our Eden, our world of innocence, piety and poetry; the testimony of the senses; the conviction of a poetic--religious faith? No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown, indeed not even dreamed of."

The name Nicolaus Copernicus bestowes the ”Ship for the Youth of the World” with a profile that is special, unmistakeable, didactic-pedagogical, and relevant for science, as outlined in the project description:

• One lesson we can learn from Copernicus certainly is that it is better to courageously see beyond the norm and stand for the right thing rather than be comfortable with the familiar and falsehood.
• His name stands for the willingness of a scientific community to develop curiosity, to continue the search for the as yet unknown, and to be open to new horizons.
• Letting yourself be challenged in order to gain new experiences and to see and understand the old in new ways is most important.

To the entire world, the astronomer’s name Nicolaus Copernicus is unmistakeably linked to his revolutionary scientific insights. In the future, his name will also be linked with a ship, whose highly qualified crew faces up to a new, long overdue challenge.

His name becomes the programme for interdisciplinary, intercultural, international, intergenerational, and interactive thinking and action, furthermore for cooperation and worldwide networking on the basis of values and norms, which are dedicated to humanity and the protection of our blue planet.

The departure to new shores holds the possibility of new discoveries – from an emblematic point of view, the ship Nicolaus Copernicus is to open up this possibility for us and allow us to anchor at new shores and provide us with a tangible reason to linger.