Given the official statements describe the process as
"Today (12/6) at 03:07 JST, as a result of the beacon direction search, the capsule landing point has been estimated. Now, we will search by helicopter."
and
"Today (12/6) at 04:47 JST, as a result of the helicopter search, we found a capsule in the planned landing area!"
I don't think the beacon "transmitted location" and the headline seems accurate.
Not to mention the region of the world selected has a seventy year history of searching and mostly finding stuff that falls from the sky, it's part of the globes largest (land area wise) long range weapons testing complex dating back to post WWII British testing.
In the event of unexpected beacon failures, etc. there's a pre existing network of interlinked upward facing cameras and tracking software designed to assist finding rockets, meteorites, or plummeting blue whales.
> I don't think the beacon "transmitted location" and the headline seems accurate.
From TFA:
> The capsule then began transmitting a beacon with information about its position.
It reads to me like it absolutely was transmitting its location (why wouldn't it? I have a GPS receiver in my watch with 1-metre accuracy). It just took an hour or two to retrieve it because they waited until it was light.
From memory they were looking at worstcase scenario of ±10km in a strip of search area. They were hoping to narrow it down with visual and other observations.
Guess we'll have to rely on other reporting to find out.
detaro|5 years ago
"Today (12/6) at 03:07 JST, as a result of the beacon direction search, the capsule landing point has been estimated. Now, we will search by helicopter."
and
"Today (12/6) at 04:47 JST, as a result of the helicopter search, we found a capsule in the planned landing area!"
I don't think the beacon "transmitted location" and the headline seems accurate.
defrost|5 years ago
In the event of unexpected beacon failures, etc. there's a pre existing network of interlinked upward facing cameras and tracking software designed to assist finding rockets, meteorites, or plummeting blue whales.
Maxious|5 years ago
dmurray|5 years ago
From TFA:
> The capsule then began transmitting a beacon with information about its position.
It reads to me like it absolutely was transmitting its location (why wouldn't it? I have a GPS receiver in my watch with 1-metre accuracy). It just took an hour or two to retrieve it because they waited until it was light.
DarthGhandi|5 years ago
Guess we'll have to rely on other reporting to find out.