Project Loon: Internet Via Balloons
An important enabler to relief and developmental projects in unapproachable locations
Google has come up with an inexpensive, long-range and somewhat bizarre solution to bring Internet to everyone, everywhere, via balloons. They call this initiative: Project Loon.
As many internet and telecom providers have realised, providing internet in hinterlands, rough terrains and other challenging areas like politically afflicted/economically unstable regions is an uphill task (no pun intended), and extremely expensive at that since it involves setting up base- and relay-stations in such locations.
Unwilling to give in to the hand-wringing methods of traditional providers, Google has decided to take to the air, in order to execute on its mission of making the Internet a part of the list of basic human necessities (so per Google, the basic human needs according would now be food, shelter, clothes and the Internet… some wish they had included free smartphones for their users too — a humorous wish, not intended to take away from their serious contributions to the connected world).
Executing on their lofty plans, Google has launched Internet balloons in the Earth’s stratosphere where winds travel in layers.
Collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has helped Google understand wind velocities and steering mechanisms to maneuver the balloons. In return Google will share data with the NOAA to help them improve their wind predictions.
Both organisations are hoping that this will evolve into a long-term symbiotic relationship of data sharing between them.
Google’s plan of action fascinatingly involves a fleet of interconnected and intelligent balloons sailing 20 kilometres above sea level. These balloons can read wind patterns, formulate and recognize paths, communicate with one another and provide internet coverage over large areas.
The balloon design seems to have been very well thought through: armed with onboard solar panels that can produce up to 100W of power during daylight, enough to run all circuitry and onboard gizmos through the day, night and even through foul-weather days.
A fully inflated balloon stands at 12 meters tall and 15 meters wide, and also has a special envelope to handle pressure changes (which would be quite a norm considering the habitat that the balloon needs to reside in).
Once aloft, the balloon is largely autonomous — it reads wind patterns, manoeuvres to catch the right wind currents and hence steer, all the while providing Internet coverage by connecting to specialized antennas on ground.
The balloons communicate amongst themselves and the nearest Internet-providing ground station receiving, amplifying and re-radiating the signals back downwards (over a fairly larger area, with increased signal quality).
After a balloon has served its due course, a landing is planned, where the parts of the balloon will be recycled and reused in the replacement ‘loon.
To ensure that the balloons don’t contribute any adverse by-products like noise, extensive tests were carried out using numerous carefully placed microphones within the balloon and cradle, that yielded no noise up there thus indicating that the speed of the balloon was in sync with the wind speed, hence causing no turbulence nor wind-noise.
On the other hand, in some cases, below-par transmission of the Internet was experienced. Tests found signal interference during communication, drawing Google’s attention to rectify radio configuration.
Considering how unprecedented this entire landscape is, Google will have continue to testing and iterating the technology and design for a long time to come. Usage data too, will provide invaluable insights into the effective achievement of the primary objective.
Google aims at providing Internet facilities to areas that probably most need it i.e. the less developed parts of the world. For example in a financially underprivileged town somewhere deep in Africa, Internet could bring education, medical consultation, world news and entertainment within minutes or, in a politically unstable city, voices could be heard, opinions shared.
However while Google proudly boasts of its most ambitious project, some such as Bill Gates are questioning its credibility. As Gates mentioned in an interview with “ABC News”, the less developed parts of the world don’t need Internet that can remotely provide consultations and advice, but rather they require human support and equipment.
While the technological innovators are of differing opinions; our question is — would it be bad to have the internet connections over remote locations if they enable the citizens and rescue/development missions to utilize the same without taking anything and without any detrimental affects?
This project could prove to be an important enabler to the existing relief and developmental projects in locations largely forgotten or unapproachable in normal terms.
Originally published at Chip-Monks.
