Bharat SainiLast Updated on April 26, 2017 by Bharat Saini
Project Loon of Google is a reliable and cost-effective way to beam Internet service from the sky to places lacking it. It beams Internet connectivity hundreds of kilometers between balloons while they travel the stratospheric winds. To extend connectivity to billions of people for whom the closest Internet access point can be hundreds or even thousands of kilometers away and particularly to those in remote rural areas, Project Loon can transmit a signal from Internet connection points on the ground, beam it across multiple balloons in the stratosphere, and then send that signal back down to users. This is particularly challenging given that all the while, each balloon in the chain is constantly in motion sailing the stratospheric winds. The system also aims to improve communication during natural disaster to affected regions. Under the Project Loon a platform can be created to allow for consistent high-speed data transmission across balloons travelling 20 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.
Google has made major improvements to its stratospheric craft and has developed a way to accurately pilot balloons across thousands of miles without any form of propulsion. The stratosphere, which typically is used only by weather balloons and spy planes, is safely above clouds, storms, and commercial flights. But it has strong winds, sometimes exceeding 300 kilometers per hour. Providing reliable wireless service means being able to guarantee that there will always be a balloon within 40 kilometers.
Google claims it now has control over movement of its balloons making it possible to focus on a specific region, rather than circumnavigating the globe and the Project Loon can now use machine learning to predict weather systems. The balloons float in the stratosphere around 18 kilometers high. By raising or lowering altitude, the balloons can be caught in different weather streams, changing direction. Google has found a way to predict weather by using machine-learning algorithms, with enough accuracy to make it possible for balloons to hover over a relatively small area for a long period of time.
Google also claims it has solved the aviation problem by turning it into a computer problem. Winds blow in different directions and at different speeds in different layers of the stratosphere. Loon balloons exploit that by changing altitude. As a smaller balloon inside the main one inflates or deflates, they can rise or fall to seek out the winds that will send them where Google wants them to go. It’s all directed by software in a Google data center that incorporates wind forecasts from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) into a simulation of stratospheric airflow.
Google says these balloons can deliver widespread economic and social benefits by bringing Internet access to the 60 per cent of the world’s people who don’t have it. Many of those 4.3 billion people live in rural places where telecommunications companies haven’t found it worthwhile to build cell towers or other infrastructure. After working for three years and flying balloons for more than three million kilometers, Google claims Loon balloons are almost ready to step in. Project Loon team is motivated by a desire to make people’s lives better as by Loon’s outlandish technology it is confident that the public good will be served.
Project Loon Research Balloons
