Project Loon

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Balloon at a project event

The project loon originated as a research project of the US company Alphabet Inc. remote to supply areas with internet access . Since the effort in such areas would be too great for a terrestrial network, a gas balloon keeps solar-powered relay stations in the stratosphere . The project was approved by the company's own research department X passed. In July 2018, Loon was outsourced from the research department as an independent company.

history

The project was tested over New Zealand with 30 balloons in June 2013 . Approx. 50 residents of the city of Christchurch were allowed to take part in the test. In May 2014 there was another test in Brazil. A final test of the balloon took place over the southern hemisphere with a record flight of 187 days.

On July 30, 2015, Sri Lanka announced that it would be the first country to receive nationwide internet access through Project Loon.

The Loon was first deployed in October 2017 in the U.S. suburb of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria destroyed the telephone connection for most of the island's 3.4 million residents.

At the beginning of 2019, a mobile network with the solar-powered helium balloons will be set up in cooperation with Telkom Kenya.

functionality

In order to be able to act independently of the weather and not pose a threat to air traffic, the Project Loon balloons should rise to a height of 20 km above the ground. At this altitude, the wind direction changes with a height difference of just a few meters, so that the balloons can specifically influence their flight direction by ascending and descending. An algorithm developed by Google should guarantee that the balloon can act completely autonomously and independently ascend and descend depending on the desired direction of flight. At the same time, the balloons should be able to communicate with one another so that a complete communication network can be set up automatically.

Due to the low air pressure and the lack of protection against UV radiation in the stratosphere, a special construction is required for the development of the balloons. The shell of each balloon is made of a special Kevlar mixture and is 0.3 millimeters thick. The balloons are twelve meters high and 15 meters wide. In order not to pose a danger to people in an emergency, each balloon of the Loon project has a parachute.

The energy supply is guaranteed by several solar cells that can provide up to 100 watts. A battery is used in order to be functional at night. The current range in which a balloon can provide Internet via LTE is 40 km.

See also

Web links

Commons : Project Loon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ PCWelt: Google balloon "Loon" circles the earth. Retrieved April 15, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Tagesspiegel: Internet from the clouds. Retrieved April 15, 2014 .
  3. ↑ a b Google: Loon. Retrieved July 11, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Chip: Project Loon: Google balloon circles the earth. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 16, 2014 ; Retrieved April 15, 2014 .
  5. ↑ SpiegelOnline: Ballon project: Google tests flying internet connection. Retrieved April 15, 2014 .
  6. ↑ Nick Summers: Google celebrates Project Loon's birthday with first LTE experiments and launch near the equator. The Next Web, June 16, 2014, accessed May 1, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Tom Simonite: Google Project Loon: Last Tests with the Internet Balloons. Heise, April 7, 2015, accessed May 1, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Drew Olanoff: Google Loon To Cover Entire Country Of Sri Lanka With Internet. TechCrunch, July 30, 2015, accessed July 30, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Google parent Alphabet: Kenya gets cell phone network from helium balloons. In: Spiegel Online . July 20, 2018, accessed July 22, 2018 .
  10. ^ A b Gordon Ecco: Google Loon: Internet for the world. Bluemind.tv, April 21, 2015, accessed May 1, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Will Oremus: Not As Loony As It Sounds. Slate, December 2, 2014, accessed May 1, 2015 .