Malaysia Air Flight 370

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RECONFIGURABLE RADIOS

NASA reconfigurable radio communication to solve the problem of small data transfers over small distances.

In 2014, the Malaysia Air Flight 370 containing 239 passengers on board, went missing somewhere in depths of the Indian Ocean, and out of radar range. The search for the plane lasted almost three years, but after discovering they had been searching in the wrong places, and the search had cost over 160 million Australian dollars, it got called off on January 17th. (& Devlin, 2017) This was due to radio communication not being able to transfer over a broad enough distance. However, with the assistance of NASA, a solution to this problem is being discovered.

This is not the only time a plane has gone missing, and can be untrackable for many reasons. Depending on if the flight path is busy or not, it can either take moments, or 10-20 minutes to even notice the aircraft is missing. When a plane is flying over water, it must …show more content…

‘“A reconfigurable radio lets engineers change how the radio works throughout the life of the mission, if requirements change or when the environment does,” says Thomas Kacura.’ (NASA, n.d.) Reconfigurable radios include various technologies and systems, such as cognitive radio systems. A cognitive radio is a system that can be programmed and constructed through the use of energy to use the optimum wireless channels from in the area. (Mitola, 2013) It is essentially a form of wireless communication, in which a transceiver, a device that can transmit and receive communications. The key aspects of these technologies are noticing free ranges nearby, using geolocation databases. Geolocation is judgement of the geographical location of an object, or in this case, a radar source. “Within seconds, you can keep track of all the aircraft in the world” says Jeff Anderson, from Harris

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