To give you an idea of satellite capabilities, we can determine the difference between thousands of acres of deciduous, coniferous, water, structure, pavement, rock, grassland and scrub from a satellite with pretty good accuracy. Something tells me that determining the difference between an object floating in water would be fairly easy.
Getting to it would be difficult.
In reply to PHeller:
Have no fear, the Aussie's needed an excuse to send some convicts out on a barge to look for it. 
SVreX wrote: In reply to Basil Exposition: I hear the Hair Club for Men is developing a new satellite based sales and marketing campaign for identifying potential buyers of hair pieces.
THAT's why I'm getting all that damned junk mail!!
yamaha wrote: In reply to PHeller: Have no fear, the Aussie's needed an excuse to send some convicts out on a barge to look for it.
I think you're confused. The general direction of bargeloads of convicts is towards Australia.
Reminds me a story an Ozzie told me:
An elderly gentleman from Britain (Pommy bastard in Oz speak) was traveling to Australia-- his first trip abroad. Upon landing at the airport he was handed an entry form. One of the questions was "have you ever been convicted of a crime." Flustered, he called over one of the immigration officers, pointed to the question, and asked "I'm so sorry, is this still a requirement for entry?"
In reply to PHeller: Looking at google you can tell what cars are in my driveway. For the trillions in defense spending we ought to be ably to pick out tail numbers while they're flying or which seats are occupied by infrared
License plates. Right. How about what brand cigarette from reading the label? Remember that the Hubble telescope is an older model, crippled, spy satellite pointed out the other way.
The issue with spy satellites I suspect is less an issue of resolution and more of tasking. Spy satellites are low orbit satellites (as opposed to geosynchronous) so they are constantly moving (generally polar orbits I believe). I don't know, but I am pretty sure they are not providing a constant stream of super high res shots of everything they pass over. Probably a data transfer issue if nothing else. Using the satellites to regularly take shots of open ocean is unlikely.
Once they knew the plane was missing of course is another thing. But of course, they really didn't know where to look for quite while, which may have been too late.
In reply to aircooled:
That makes sense to me.
I'm pretty sure by the time anybody thought to start looking it was too late. Splashing a 777 isn't a high-survivability event. I suspect by the time people started to think - "hey, this isn't just a comm issue, I think we have a problem!" that bird was already down.
Funny thing is, if the pieces were floating where they thought the plane may have crashed... was the ocean current on hold for a week while they were looking?
Personally: This bird was landed after a hi-jacking, the passengers were killed five days later when the Powers That Be said "F.U. we ain't paying!" to the jackers. The plane was stormed, refueled and dumped in the Indian ocean by the people that can do these things and now suddenly wreckage is found floating where they were looking.
Quasi Mofo wrote: Personally: This bird was landed after a hi-jacking, the passengers were killed five days later when the Powers That Be said "F.U. we ain't paying!" to the jackers. The plane was stormed, refueled and dumped in the Indian ocean by the people that can do these things and now suddenly wreckage is found floating where they were looking.
I would disagree, but "reality" has been stretched beyond logic.
Quasi Mofo wrote: Personally: This bird was landed after a hi-jacking, the passengers were killed five days later when the Powers That Be said "F.U. we ain't paying!" to the jackers. The plane was stormed, refueled and dumped in the Indian ocean by the people that can do these things and now suddenly wreckage is found floating where they were looking.
That would make sense if the powers that be didn't actually want, if not appreciate, their people being terrorized into allowing whatever illegal stuff said powers that be want to do.
Kenny_McCormic wrote: That would make sense if the powers that be didn't actually want, if not appreciate, their people being terrorized into allowing whatever illegal stuff said powers that be want to do.
Sound much like Flight 800?
Whatever the truth is (and by now I doubt we'll ever know) the clowns in Malaysia who've been running this debacle of an investigation are happy to have some outsiders supply a somewhat plausible theory backed up by sketchy trumped-up data. These guys just want this fisaco to end and to get the spotlight off them. But if I had a loved-one on that flight I wouldn't be accepting this crap.
A couple fuzzy, blurry satellite images, a few possible half-ping signals, and some "high-level theoretical algorithms" by a private company in the UK to support a theory??? Oh no ... I'm not buying it. There's more going on here then (doesn't) meet the eye.
Leaving work I see CNN hasn't given up on searching for the plane. I guess nothing else brings in the viewers.
Basil Exposition wrote:yamaha wrote: In reply to PHeller: Have no fear, the Aussie's needed an excuse to send some convicts out on a barge to look for it.I think you're confused. The general direction of bargeloads of convicts is towards Australia. Reminds me a story an Ozzie told me: An elderly gentleman from Britain (Pommy bastard in Oz speak) was traveling to Australia-- his first trip abroad. Upon landing at the airport he was handed an entry form. One of the questions was "have you ever been convicted of a crime." Flustered, he called over one of the immigration officers, pointed to the question, and asked "I'm so sorry, is this still a requirement for entry?"
I was hinting at the Aussies are sending HMAS Success to the "wreckage site" thus the "Barge full of convicts".....I guess I should have said they were escaping convicts. 
Hope Nicholas Cage is on board the barge. 
In reply to N Sperlo:
But this isn't ConAir......
GeoResonance uses spectral imaging typically used for locating metals in mining surveys and finding warships at the bottom of the ocean, finds something resembling the metal signature patterns of an airline in the Bay of Bengal, and Australia dismisses these findings. We haven't heard anything until now because Australia pretty much said "nope, its down here, in the ocean south west of Perth" and GeoResonance finally has come out with this information because no-one checked up on their findings.
New news, it looks like CNN can wring a few more days out of the simulator.
I thought they moved to the ferry simulator. 
oldtin wrote: In reply to PHeller: Looking at google you can tell what cars are in my driveway.
Those shots are from airplane, not satellite.
GeoResonance appears to be debunked. No confirmed clients. Website is new. Science behind tech is flaky.
I think the alien space ship grabbed it
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