New Zealand’s marine search and rescue region stretches from Antarctica to north of Samoa. If someone goes missing without any means of communication, that’s a lot of ocean to search. Now researchers and the New Zealand Defence Force have teamed up to develop and test a low-tech, no-battery device that can be picked up by radar – including that beamed down by satellites orbiting Earth.

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In this episode:

01:30 At Mission Bay Beach Dr Tom Dowling demonstrates the device

03:40 In the University of Auckland’s Space Institute lab the team explain the device design, and how it works.

10:00 Dr Tom Dowling talks about the radar reflector trials in Campbell Island and Omaha beach

13:00 Dr David Galligan, director of Defence Science and Technology on why DST is interested in the device

19:00 The satellites are the second side of the equation. Dr Tom Dowling explains how that works.

20:50 Back at Mission Bay Beach Dr Tom Dowling explains how the radar reflector would be an additional part of a kit on a boat and how it would work to narrow down the search area…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details