Google’s Wi-Fi carrying balloon managed to fly around the globe in a record 22 days. This far exceeds the team expectations of 33 days and proves that this project is not that loony after all.
The Project Loon Balloon was launched by Google last year and it was intended to provide internet access to rural and remote areas, where it’s difficult to wire up due to location and cost. Balloons are specially designed and are supposed to be floating in stratosphere but to be moved by high-altitude winds.The balloons are maneuvered by adjusting their altitude to float to a wind layer after identifying the wind layer with the desired speed. The users on the ground would connect to the balloons, through antennas on their roofs, while the balloons would be interconnected and acquiring the signal from the internet service provider,on the ground.
Creators of Google Class, Google X Lab, are also responsible for the Project Loon, which could possibly become future way of internet sharing. But until then the team is continuing the test flights- Ibis-167 is now starting its second lap around the world, to ensure the hardiness of their balloons. Stay tuned!
Ibis-167′s flight path around the world
Image credits: Google-Project Loon
In order to collect data and make the required technological changes the balloons have flown around 500 000 km since the project started.
“Since last June, we’ve been using the wind data we’ve collected during flights to refine our prediction models and are now able to forecast balloon trajectories twice as far in advance.” - says the Project Loon team.
Image credits: Google-Project Loon
Image credits: Google-Project Loon
Image credits: Google-Project Loon
Image credits: Google-Project Loon
Each balloon is powered via solar panels but they also are equipped with transceivers which send signals from the ground station to the balloon (also between balloons). GPS on balloons helps Google team to monitor the location of every single balloon.
Technology behind The Project Loon, explained:
Source: Project LoonIf you liked this article, check out here and here, for more interesting stuff.
