On Sep 10, 3:19 pm, Michael Ash wrote:
However, now that it's been done, I imagine it might become more common.
The major cost is actually getting the satellite pictures, so if it's
possible to get them while the satellite is otherwise idle and without
burning its fuel then the total cost of such an operation might become low
enough that it could be used routinely even for us little people.

TBH I don't know how effective this method of "searching" will prove.
As is linked to above, the prototype of this method was the search for
a Microsoft employee who sailed out of San Francisco and was never
seen again (I worked on that one too). Although a number of yachts of
the right size were sighted in the images, they proved not to be the
Tenacious and Gray was never found. (Gray and the Tenacious are still
out there, somewhere, probably on the seabed by now). You can read the
blog that was used to co-ordinate the satellite search:

http://www.openphi.net/tenacious/

The Fossett search is only the second attempt to use the technique and
is looking for a very different target on a very different surface, so
who knows if it will prove worthwhile. While the aircraft is easily
big enough to be visible to the satellite, indeed an airborne search
plane has already been spotted, it's not a guaranteed success. Maybe
the Citabria burned up on impact, or is obscured from the vertical
somehow. Maybe it's not there at all.

What is true, without doubt, is that a full conventional SAR operation
is launched for *anyone* who goes missing in an aircraft or boat,
whether rich or poor, or famous or not, and that's still a person's
best hope for timely rescue.


Dan