Life at Sea vs Life in Space
As a leading provider of navigational products and services, Global Navigation Solutions has a vested interest in the welfare of global seafarers. Each year, the Futurenautics Crew Connectivity Survey is carried out to document how connected the world’s seafarers are, examining the availability of communication methods that we largely take for granted.
The results from the 2015 survey were particularly surprising. Only 58% of crew members always had access to crew communications. While this is up 2% on 2014’s figures, there are still 7%, or 103,000 global seafarers, who have no way of contacting loved ones. It seems our connected world only applies to those on land — or does it?
Remarkably, astronauts in orbit 400km away from Earth have better access to communications than seafarers on our own planet. Our latest graphic illustrates the differences between staying connected at sea and in space, so you can see who really has the better deal.
