Google Launches Project Loon balloons to bring internet ... - The Messenger

Milan – Balloons flying around the world to provide access to the internet in aerial rural, remote and where natural disasters have made it complicated communications. This is the Loon Project , seemingly crazy and far-fetched idea (hence the choice of Loon, which in English means crazy) and is the new challenge of Google , which aims to fill a gap that rests above the southern hemisphere, where a very large proportion of the population the web is still a mirage. Given the costs, unsustainable for those who live with a miserable salary (as in South America, Asia and Africa), but also for those wishing to invest in infrastructure by implementing traditional methods, Google points to an intelligent, able to ease costs and provide access Internet convenient and reliable.

PROJECT LOON – Flying balloons, Internet Central Station and special receivers, these are the basic elements of the project. Like small red balloons, hidden antenna receivers internet and are positioned outside the houses but most importantly, taking advantage of the local internet infrastructure, they are able to send and receive signals from passing balloons in the sky. Consist of solar panels that provide solar energy and packaging that keeps the ball in the stratosphere, the balloons include radio, antennas, a control system for the altitude (to move up and down), and an onboard computer that runs the flight. They are made of plastic, have a diameter of fifteen meters and minimum thickness (0.077 mm), flying at an altitude of twenty kilometers (twice that of commercial aircraft) and use pouches, like the super pressure balloons for children’s parties , which allow to maintain a constant volume and fly longer. “Flying to twenty kilometers up the balls move freely circulating thanks to winds from west to east and so migrating from South Africa to South America “, is the analysis of Astro Teller , one of the leaders of Loon Project.
The use of balloons is great for spreading the signal over long distances by clearing the cables, but also presents complex issues, chief among them being able to control their movement in the sky. To do so, Google has developed a system that combines wind, solar and special algorithms to vary the altitude at which they fly the balloons allowing them to manage the direction and speed of flight, and the ability to control the balls into groups makes it possible to offer a constant connectivity in a particular place at a particular time.

TEST IN NEW ZEALAND – This week has started a pilot project with the launch of thirty balloons from the South of Tekapo Island, in New Zealand, and about fifty people working on the ground and distributed among different areas of Christchurch and Canterbury. Each of them can connect to the network created by the balloons when they are within a radius of twenty miles from their home. Responses are good, and although the tests are just beginning and there is still much work to do, thanks to Google even those areas hitherto excluded from the web can begin to become familiar with virtual reality.