Project Loon
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Project Loon
Project Loon is a Google-led initiative that uses high-altitude balloons to provide internet access to remote and underserved areas by floating in the stratosphere and transmitting signals to ground-based receivers.
What does Project Loon mean?
Project Loon is an ambitious initiative by Google to provide Internet Access to remote and underserved areas of the world through the use of high-altitude balloons. These helium-filled balloons, equipped with wireless transmitters and solar panels, float in the stratosphere, forming a mobile network that can reach areas with limited or no terrestrial connectivity. The project&#;s goal is to bridge the digital divide and ensure that people in these regions have equal access to information, education, and economic opportunities.
To achieve this, Project Loon balloons operate at altitudes between 18 and 25 kilometers above the Earth&#;s surface, where they can stay aloft for extended periods due to stable atmospheric conditions. They are designed to adjust their altitude and position based on wind patterns, enabling them to cover vast areas and connect users within a wide radius. The balloons commu
After a journey of a decade, what started as Project Loon by Google is no more. Promoted as a way to bring communications to the most remote parts of the globe, it used gigantic, high-altitude balloons equipped with communication hardware for air to ground, as well as air to air communication, between individual balloons. Based around LTE technology, it would bring multiple megabit per second data links to both remote areas and disaster zones.
Seven years into its development, Loon became its own company (Loon LLC), and would provide communications to some areas of Kenya, in addition to Sri Lanka in and Puerto Rico in after Hurricane Maria. Three years later, in January of , it was announced that Loon LLC would be shutting down operations. By that point it had become apparent that the technology would not be commercially viable, with alternatives including wired internet access having reduced the target market.
While the idea behind Loon sounds simple in theory, it turns out that it was more complicated than just floating up some weather balloon with LTE base stations strapped to them.
The (Ba)looney Part
The balloons that Loon used were manufactured by Raven Aerostar, fr
In today‘s digital age, the internet has become an indispensable tool for communication, education, commerce, and more. However, over half the world‘s population still lacks access to this vital resource, especially those in remote and rural locations underserved by traditional infrastructure. But what if we could use an unexpected technology to bridge this digital divide &#; balloons?
Enter Project Loon, an audacious initiative by Google (now part of parent company Alphabet) to beam high-speed internet from the stratosphere using a network of giant balloons. While it may sound like science fiction, the Loon team has spent nearly a decade turning this moonshot idea into a viable solution for connecting the unconnected.
How Project Loon Works
The key components of Project Loon are the balloons themselves &#; massive meter tall superpressure balloons made of polyethylene plastic. Powered by solar panels and equipped with antennas, radios, and GPS, these high-flying balloons sail 20 kilometers above the Earth‘s surface, twice as high as airplanes and weather.
By moving up or down into different wind currents, the balloons can be steered to desired locations to
Google solved that 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 into a simulation of stratospheric airflow. “The idea is to find a way through the maze of the winds,” says Johan Mathe, a software engineer working on Loon’s navigation system. A fleet of balloons can be coördinated that way to ensure there is always one over any particular area.
The first version of this system sent new commands to Loon balloons once a day. It could find a way for a balloon launched over New Zealand, for example, to dawdle over land until prevailing winds pushed it east and over the Pacific Ocean. Then it would have the balloon ride the fastest winds possible for the 9,kilometer trip east to Chile. But that system could only get balloons
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