Here is an animation of global ship traffic as seen from space. Mesmerizing and beautiful.
Global ship traffic seen from space – FleetMon Satellite AIS and FleetMon Explorer
Two thoughts immediately come to mind. The first is that ships and the people who operate them are what keep this misnamed planet working. Ships are the connective tissue of our civilization.
The second thought that came to mind is that those who have been arguing for turning ships into drones by replacing captains and crews with electronics and machinery do not understand what they are suggesting. Most argue that it would save money, as no doubt it would, as long as the machinery and electronics always function as intended. We all know how well that works. Some have even gone as far as to claim that drone ships would make the seas safer as if remote captains on dry land operating ships from the equivalent of a video game console would do a better job than a master on the bridge of a ship. Watch the traffic in the Strait of Malacca and then imagine moving all the deck officers and engineers to some sort of corporate video arcade.
Fortunately, we are not in a world where sailors have been driven from the seas, at least no yet. In the meantime perhaps it is enough to watch the world and the ships go ’round.
I think anybody who has seen the many forces of entropy– some violent and some sneaky– working on a ship will understand we’re a long way from widely-deployed drone ships, at least if we don’t contemplate frequent interventions and repairs in the middle of the open ocean.
Once we’re confident we could have accomplished the Hubble telescope repair program under the effectors of robots it might be time to look at this again. As it stands, the ocean is arguably equally as destructive and harsh to machinery as is low orbit, and human adaptability the only tool equal to the job of resisting constant assault.
Devil’s advocate:
— what about drunk skippers on short-haul freighters (see the litany of recent events in/around the UK)?
— slothful navigation practices.
Regarding the latter, there’s an argument to be made for taking navigation and even possibly watchkeeping in general out of the hands of people, leaving crew as clerks and repairmen. I suspect 100% autopilot (with full integration) operation with the exception of berthing would produce better statistics than what we see today. Examples of human nature besting reliable methods are too numerous to bother citing. But how to keep navigators in practice for when a fuse blows?
-There are no brake pedals on these ships, like a ULCC!
It does ones heart good to see so much surface ship traffic.
The obvious advantage of cargo handling, and logistics of maritime transportation are shown in JL Radtke’s charts:
Nothing Trumps the ULCC, except energy conservation:
http://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOEFJ/TOEFJ-1-11.pdf
I think it’s simulated.
Ships bow floodlights aren’t that bright that you could see them from space.
There have been other similar videos and programs recently on the net showing the same thing, but they only showed 2012.