2014 mystery to be solved-why is MH370 so hard to find?

The Malaysian Airlines MH370 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the Beijing Capital International Airport has been gone for nearly five months since the March 8 loss of the Union. In the meantime, every piece of news about MH370 the hearts of billions of people around the world. In this respect, the U.S. science and Technology media recently on the basis of their collected information on the current MH370 search task of the latest progress and the challenges faced by a comb ...

In the weeks following the MH370 of the Malaysian airline, Australian officials said they were not even as knowledgeable about the lunar surface as they were about the Indian Ocean that was being explored.

In fact, the truth is even worse than the official said. Because the current human mapping of Mars and Venus on the surface of the map to reach the MH370 may be 250 times times the sea, and the current investigators are investigating the possible areas of the crash is actually a large dark, almost no signs of life in the deep-sea seabed.

At present, the method of detecting sea-bed contour is mainly composed by scanning the sea level by satellite radar or by the low-resolution image generated by the sonar system when the ship passes through the submarine area. And because there are fewer bacteria in the seabed, many scientists believe that a dead white whale may take 10 years to completely decompose.

As the Malaysian aviation MH17 incident, the concern for the MH370 incident has declined, but the flight to date "lost" is undoubtedly one of the biggest mysteries of modern aviation history. Because the difference between the MH17 incident was that people quickly found the debris, wreckage and bodies of the victims after the loss of MH17, but the global community has so far not found any clues about MH370 and its 239 passengers, What we currently have is just a series of mysterious satellite transmissions sent by the flight.

The researchers found a "handshake signal" (handshake) between the plane and the satellite, the satellite and the ground receiving station, which MH370 the area of the entire West Virginia State. However, the Australian military deployment of "Blue Fin -21" (Bluefin-21) has so far not collected any material evidence of the crash.

Now, after a full two months of lockout, the Australian Transport Safety Agency (Australian by Safety according) has been preparing to restart large-scale search operations and has organised the world's most elite deepwater field experts, offshore oil and gas companies, The Maritime Research Institute and even the search and rescue bid for the treasure-seekers, Australia hopes that these institutions will be able to use their skills and experience to participate in the MH370 search mission. Dr. David Gallo, world renowned deep-sea explorer

The Australian Transport Safety Agency said it would select one or more bidders in the next few weeks to participate in the $56 million search operation, and that specific search and rescue operations are expected to start again later in August. Moreover, the cost of the search will be borne separately by the Governments of Australia and Malaysia, but the proportion of the specific commitments is still unknown.

The good news is that, as offshore oil and gas companies, military and insurance companies have been frantically developing in recent years, the global deep-sea exploration industry is now maturing. Moreover, the successful launch of the mission, such as searching the Titanic and finding the American crash Challenger, has further accelerated the development of science and technology in this area, the advent of these technologies has allowed modern researchers to detect up to 3.7 miles of sea level, which has exceeded the deepest point of the MH370 target search.

"In the past, when a ship crashed in the deep sea, we usually stopped, but now we can't." "Dr. David Gallo, a world renowned deep-sea explorer who is involved in the search for Air France Flight 447," said Dr Davis, from the Woods Hole Marine Institute in Massachusetts.

Now, as there is no clear evidence of the exact location of the flight, the search mission will be the most likely to test the search capability of disaster search and rescue agencies. In June this year, Australia adjusted its main search area for the third time after analyzing satellite transmission data again. But even so, Australia admits it is not clear whether the adjustment will prove to be the right choice.

On the other hand, the mood of the MH370 flight family is closely linked to the progress of the search mission. For the airline industry as a whole, the possibility of finding a plane crash is an important cornerstone of public trust in the future, as they have hardly ever encountered an unsolved crash puzzle.

Australia will play an important role in this search under the terms of the Global Air Services Agreement (Libertarians Aerogem Agreement). In the current search-task bidding phase, many companies want to be independent or part of the survey, although they have signed a confidentiality agreement with the Australian government, but according to the Wall Street Journal news that at least eight companies or organizations involved in the bid.

Among them, a Dutch oil and gas consultancy called "Fugro FUR" has reopened its retired undersea sonar experts and hopes they will play a positive role in the search for MH370 's mission. At the same time, Oceaneering Analysys Inc., an engineering service provider who was involved in the search for the Titanic Mission in 1985, as well as individuals and organizations that live through deep-sea treasure hunts, will include Odyssey Marine Explorations. , the company profited 50 million dollars from a Spanish ship that had been found 1805 years ago.

In response, Colleen Keller, a senior analyst at Mittlen Metron Inc., a research consultancy based in Virginia, said: "This will undoubtedly be the largest search operation that our generation has ever experienced." It should be noted that Mittlen is currently involved in the MH370 search campaign, which has been involved in the Air France search operation and has been working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (U.S). Department of Homeland Security) maintains a cooperative relationship.

In fact, in a number of deep-sea search missions in history, deep-sea researchers have found that sonar devices can find their targets faster than the unaided eye, while the "side sweep sonar" (Side scan sonar) technology developed by the US Navy is more applicable.

It is reported that "the principle of side sweep sonar" technology is to use echo sounder sounding principle to detect seabed topography and underwater objects, the transducer is installed in the hull of Ocean survey ship or in the towed body, and the acoustic wave of fan beam is emitted to both sides in the direction of navigation, and the seabed topography is swept along the side. " The echo signal received by the transducer is magnified, processed and recorded, and the image of the seabed is displayed on the note. The target image with strong echo signal is black, and the image tone of the shadow area without sound wave is very light. Based on this principle, researchers can estimate the altitude of a target and use it to detect objects such as reefs, sunken ships, pipelines, cables, etc. In the 80 's, these devices were widely used in the industry because they could withstand high water pressure from the seabed.

However, in the case of the MH370 incident, things may not be so simple. Because when the plane hits the water, even if the flight can keep the glider's landing posture, only a few large pieces of debris will remain intact, the aircraft's engine and extremely strong turbines will be broken and sank into the seabed. Sometimes, the cockpit of the plane can be preserved in a relatively intact, but the rest of the plane will probably collapse under the impact of a huge impact. However, even a few large pieces of debris will not provide much convenience for the search because they are likely to be overlooked by researchers in trenches and in the rocky Sea area.

This was most evident in the previous search for Air France Flight 447, when investigators found several pieces of debris on the surface of the sea and knew the location of the plane's crash, but the final search still took 2 years to finally find most of the wreckage and the black box.

In the MH370 survey, investigators did not even find a single piece of debris to set a basis for their investigation, and the most likely to crash the sea area is precisely the current one of the least information of the region. At present, most of the underwater sonar data on this area also come from the information provided by ships and Soviet "Viteaz" (Vityaz) in the late 60 and 70. Although the authorities are already trying to carry out detailed seabed mapping in the area through three of modern sonar devices, the images generated by operating equipment on the surface are mostly not clear enough to recognise the wreckage.

Therefore, the researchers need to use submarine sonar equipment to further carry out the aerial survey mission. Martin Dolan, head of transport safety at the Australian capital, Canberra, will join five other senior government officials to determine the ultimate winner of the competition. According to the news, Dolan has the final decision in the decision, and his consideration will not only be based on the price quoted by bidders, but will more consider whether the other side can successfully complete the aircraft search task.

It is clear that Dolan's choice may be under great pressure, as Williamson & Associates These bidders are mainly "towed sonar" (towed sonars) technology, such as Woods Hole these enterprises are using the underwater unmanned vehicle search method, so Dolan's choice of the main search technology will inevitably have a significant impact on the success of the task.

The biggest advantage of the "drag-and-drop" is that it is much quicker to find a target than the underwater vehicle's search method, which is important for the bid, as the Australian Transportation Safety Agency is under pressure to give bidders only 300 days to explore more than 20,000 square miles of sea. However, the "towed sonar" equipment is very difficult to control, and in 2009 there was a mission in the task because the cable pulled off the entire "towed sonar" equipment accident.

On the other hand, underwater unmanned vehicles (AUVs) can be programmed to overcome the intricate topography of the underwater environment, but because of the limited battery duration of the underwater vehicle, the single working range of the equipment is very limited. At the same time, the underwater vehicle can not work long hours on the rough seas, as this may pose a danger to the collection of its mother ship.

It is to be noted that Woods hole's flagship deep-sea diving robot, the "Neptune" (Nereus), was accidentally "killed" during an expedition to the Kermadec Trench (Kermadec Trench) in northeastern New Zealand in May this year. Another millions of-dollar deep-sea unmanned vehicle, Remus 6000, has emerged from a recent search mission.

"Whether the final decision is correct or not, this will ultimately be directly related to me." "said Dolan.

According to the Wall Street Journal, many of the companies involved in the bidding will participate in the bidding process as a business alliance, because independent companies usually do not have the equipment, technology and experience to do it alone.

When the search mission in the area is complete, Dolan says, the sea-bed landscape will become the most detailed underwater map in the world. Researchers can clearly know the location of every gully and fault in the area, but ultimately it is not possible to find MH370 through this massive operation.