Google Loon balloon
(Google Loon launch event , June 2013)
grams when fully fueled. To make
the technology more feasible, it’s
imperative that satellites be built
more compactly and lighter so that
a single rocket launch can transport
a big batch. O3b has sent up four at
a time. While Google has invested
in Musk’s endeavor, it’s also finetuning an experiment of its own to
haul service to the Internet boondocks in rural, far-flung regions.
‘Loon’, like the orbital proposals, is about delivering connectivity
from above but while also staying
12
put
within
Earth’s
a t m o s p h e r e .
A
cluster
of
giant,
unmanned
balloons,
floating
in a bluish, cloudless, ozonedrenched
r e a l m ,
about
20
miles vertical, will create an aerial
Wi-Fi matrix that will offer 3G-like
speeds. In that serene ‘near-space’,
where the air is thin, dry, and nippy,
they’ll have no trucking with commercial jets or weather-related turbulence—but only different layers
of winds. These dirigibles will scud
away to wherever they’re needed
by hitchhiking on the back of a cold
stream, moving north, south, east,
or west. To test the program, 30
balloons were deployed above New
Zealand’s South Island, in June,
2013. Each unit can provide coverage to an area with a diameter of
25 miles. Below, in an apartment
complex, subscribers will be able
tap into it, using a bowl fixed on
their rooftop.