If we learned anything from missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, it's that we aren't currently using our satellite technology in a way that helps us find missing planes and ships.
However, a team of researchers at the University of Leicester hopes to change that by using satellites to collect more images of the world's oceans for improving the chances of finding ships and planes lost at sea.
The concept doesn't even require additional technology. Researchers suggest that we use satellites we already have in space that are taking photos of Earth and put them to use taking updated photos of the oceans, too. Currently, most satellites focus their efforts solely on land.
These scientists believe that doing this will not only lessen the amount of time in finding these missing vehicles, but also reduce search areas to within a few hundred square miles. A faster turnaround time and a smaller search radius could mean the difference between life and death for passengers on these crafts lost at sea.
"This isn't a surveillance system that monitors vessel movements across the oceans in real time, like radar tracking of aircraft in the sky; instead we have proposed a system which records images every time a satellite passes over specific points of the sea," says the University's Dr. Nigel Bannister. "If we are alerted to a lost vessel, the images allow us to pinpoint its last observed position."
The University, along with the New Zealand Defense Technology Agency and DMC International Imaging, plans on bringing satellites together from 19 nations to achieve its goals. This is something that has never been done before.
The concept is now undergoing testing as the team works on building a system that will help them spot planes and ships lost in the ocean. Tests include the NigeriaSat 2 and the UK-DMC2 satellites. Researchers hope to have a working system in place in a few years.
"The University of Leicester's research is a watershed event encouraging international satellite owners and operators to collect and share open ocean imagery for the common good of enhancing safety of life at sea," says project funder David Neyland, former Assistant Director of the US Navy Office of Naval Research-Global. "The case of the missing Malaysian flight MH370 demonstrates how easy it is to lose a large object, even with today's technology."
Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Organizations from all over the world spent almost a year searching for the plane after it was lost, but to date, nothing has ever been found, leaving families and friends of that flight's passengers confused and frustrated.
Over 300 days later, the Malaysian government finally declared that the plane went missing due to an accident with all on board presumed dead.
