Their time horizon is just under two years out.  The company is international and nothing like this has ever been done before:

The project is being developed by SeaOrbiter SAS, a company comprising an international team of experts headed by Jacques Rougerie and supported by a number of industrial, academic, technological, scientific, educational and media partners.

Following completion of construction in 2016, the vessel will undergo six months of sea trials in the Mediterranean Sea, perform exploratory missions in the same sea for roughly a year and will later be deployed for long-term missions in the Atlantic Ocean.

What do you think.  Is this the future of ocean exploration?  Feel free to comment.

thanks to ship-technology.com for the great info