the hms echo, though, it s got a two-mile-wide coverage. it s not high resolution like the bluefin submersible, but way broader brush strokes, if you like, and much faster. we ve talked before about the silted bottom down there. perhaps meters of silt at the bottom. that would give off this echo from hms echo would give a soft signal back, if you like. now, that means that if there is a plane down there or wreckage down there, it would give off a hard signal. so it s obviously out there to sort of help now that we know those pings are in that area. going to go do broad brush strokes and see if they can found wreckage. meanwhile, the other ships are a few hundred miles from the west where experts think any debris from the suspected crash site would have drifted over the weeks since mh-370 disappeared, wolf. michael holmes on the scene for us in perth. thank you. we also have new compelling details of what may have happened in the first few hours
have skimmed off of it, narrowed it down by 29,000 square miles instead of the 30,000 it was yesterday. it is still a vast area of ocean. but the two areas of focus still one in the south where the chinese, you remember they say they found some pings. they have not verified that but they re still working on it. another area in the north of the zone where the shield, the australian vessel is using equipment borrowed from the u.s. navy which has tracked what they believe are pings from the black boxes but still have not managed to capture them over the weekend. they re still working on it but as yet they have not managed to get the signal back, and they re very worried about it. you talk about ocean shield, do we know how many planes or ships are participating in today s search? yeah, it is 15 planes, not just the two vessels, it is 15 airplanes, most of them civilian, but military, as well.
malaysians were waiting for a reason to go in. which to us in the u.s. we think if plane disappeared, our poem there within two hours. they stood outside the home guarded for several days but never went in. can we get jim clancy back up and i want to ask him about the philosophy of law enforcement and going into those homes. when we get that signal back, we will talk about that. we want to talk about the other big story we are following this morning. voters in the hotly disputed region of ukraine casting ballots right now as we speak to decide whether to join russia or peckively to become independent. polls have been open in crimea for about four hours now. voters considering these two questions and these are the only two. support the reunification of crimea with russia or support the restoration of the constitution of the republic of crimea in 1992, leaving it as part of ukraine. diana is outside of the station in the village near the
i wasn t a same person who can do that. you don t need brains. good morning to you. we are interrupting our programming for breaking new. a historic landing on the planet mars after approximately 352 million mile, 36-week journey from earth. the touchdown on mars s gale crater. nasa s most high tech recovery ever built plunged at top speets of 13 million miles per hour to land safely on the surface. nasa is a wading a signal that it landed safely. let s go live to our space correspondent who has details. jay, are with you us? yes, everything is going right on time now. what we are receiving is a signal back from mars that was sent to us 14 minutes ago.
to what happened. it will all be over before they get the first signal. jon: they don t know whether, by the time they know what has happened to this craft, whether it works or whether it doesn t, everything will have been done? right. that is exactly right. the, the events will all have occurred. nicknamed it seven minutes of terror from the time it touches the martian atmosphere to the time the rover is on the surface. since it takes 13 minutes to get the signal back, basically it will all be over and they will be waiting to see what the results were. jon: you heard criticisms of people who say we re spending millions and millions of dollars to go explore a planet that as far as we know doesn t have life on it. couldn t we sues that money better here at home? what do you say? well, what i say, that is pretty shortsighted when you think about, first of all the money spent here on earth, with people who are the rocket scientists,