Japan Plans Emergency Cell Phone Relay Station In Space
This post is a continuation of the Disaster management technologies series. The idea here is to present not just the commercial side of technology but also to showcase technical activities which can help save lives. This story is from Daily Yomiuri, a Japanese newspaper and it reports about plans to launch a satellite to create an emergency cell phone relay station in space by 2015. This is to solve 2 common issues (which Pakistan also faced in 2005) that after a disaster cell phones may be rendered useless due to damage to the local base station and due to the heavy call volume after the disaster which overloads remaining base stations.
The paper mentions how this effort will help:
Setting up a base station in space would ensure calls for help reach the relevant authorities in time, allow people to confirm loved ones’ safety without clogging regular mobile networks and relay calls to and from places that have lost connections.
The stationary orbital satellite with an antenna more than twice the size of any existing satellite antenna, would be used to secure mobile phone connections when ground base relay stations have been knocked out in an earthquake or other natural disasters.
Cell phones that use communications satellites are already in use, but the large size of the equipment for sending and receiving signals restricts it to users with special handsets.
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