ISS Benefits for Humanity: Found at Sea

The Vessel-ID System investigation on the International Space Station demonstrated the ability for a space-based radio receiver to track a ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) signal, the marine equivalent of the air traffic control system. Since being turned on in 2010, Vessel-ID has been able to relay more than 400,000 ship position reports from more than 22,000 ships in a single day, proving a quantum leap in the ship tracking ability of coast guards around the world. This ability, coupled with m