ISS Can Now Watch Sea Traffic From Space

gyrogeerloose writes "During its last mission, astronauts from the Space Shuttle Atlantis installed an Automatic Identification System antenna on the outside of the International Space Station that will allow astronauts aboard the ISS to monitor signals from the AIS transmitters mandated to be installed on most large ocean-going craft. Although these VHF signals can be monitored from the Earth's surface, their horizontal range is generally limited to about 75 km (46 mi), leaving large areas of the ocean unwatched. However, the signals easily reach the 400 km (250 mi) orbit of the ISS. The European Space Agency sees this experiment as a test platform for a future AIS-monitoring fleet of satellites that will eventually provide worldwide coverage of sea traffic."

Comments

Re:Innocuous Uses

[Winkhorst]

Somali pirates are former fishermen who took up piracy when Western and Chinese ships began dumping toxic waste in the Gulf of Aden.

Re:Innocuous Uses

[Winkhorst]

I don't know much about the Somalis. I do know that Al Qaida was created and bankrolled by the CIA as a response to the Soviets in Afghanistan (and secondarily as a kind of "get even" strategy for Russian actions in Vietnam), so I really don't think "some responsibility" quite covers it.

As for terrorism, you can either believe that some guy in a mountain cave engineered an operation that totally confounded the combined military defences of the United States of America or you can believe that the handlers of that guy in the cave rolled out the red carpet for that operation and not only made it possible but to a large extent made it happen.

Now there are folks here who will immediately make ad hominem attacks on any suggestion that the world according to Katie Couric isn't quite how it really is in the real world. But what an intelligent citizen has to keep in mind is that this new technology isn't going to help prevent any kind of attack any more than the technology that was already in place on 911--including a ban on box cutters!--if the powers that be see a political or monetary advantage in such an attack.

Re:Innocuous Uses

[Winkhorst]

You're an intelligent person. Look it up. What do I look like, a school marm? Learn to think for yourself, fella. You let other people think for you, they're gonna fill your head up with a lot of crap.