Satellite Limitations Searching for MH370

It’s been awhile since there’s been anything said about the mission Malaysian MH370 passenger jet, That’s good, because maybe it allows investigators to investigate. It’s potentially bad if the entire investigation has been dropped (doesn’t appear to be the case though–read about that, here). It appears that Space Safety Magazine has remembered the missing airliner […]

Space, Transparency, and MH370

The Atlantic’s Ari Schulman has a terrific explanation regarding Inmarsat’s analysis of the “pings” their geostationary satellite received from Malaysian Airlines flight 370. Of more interest, the article also talks about why Inmarsat’s analysis may be incorrect. There are some puzzling problems with the data Inmarsat produced. The “ping” doppler values appear to be positive, […]

Why Space Matters: Malaysian Malaise Mit Man-Made Moons

The Epoch Times posted this article explaining a bit more about the limitations of satellites in finding Malaysian Airlines MH370. This finding in spite of DigitalGlobe’s initiative with Tomnod to get many eyes looking for something unusual in the search areas. In previous posts, I’ve talked about the odds and limitations of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) […]

Can Satellites Help Find Lost Aircraft? Can You? Maybe!

“The mystery surrounding the unfortunate Malaysian Flight MH370 has caused some of the more astute reporters to ask questions about satellites. Specifically, were there any satellites over the area the airplane disappeared in? And if there were, would they, or could they have picked up anything to help find the missing airplane? Ultimately, can satellites help […]

This is Why Space Matters: Aircraft Tracking

According to this GPS World post, Harris Corporation intends to make it easier to track aircraft around the world. How? Simple–by using GPS and Iridium NEXT satellites. “Wait,” you might interject, “Don’t airplanes already use GPS?” Well, yes they do, but this is why Iridium NEXT is important, too. The point of GPS has almost […]