Jam Session Topic: Google Project Loon
Balloon-Powered Internet For Everyone a Google's initiative to provide internet access to everybody.
WHAT IS PROJECT
LOON?
Many of us think
of the Internet as a global community. But two-thirds of the world’s population
does not yet have Internet access. Project Loon is a network of balloons
traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote
areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters.
WHERE LOON HAS BEEN
Project Loon
began in June 2013 with an experimental pilot in New Zealand, where a small
group of Project Loon pioneers tested Loon technology. The results of the pilot
test have been used to improve the technology, and continued refinements are
now being tested in an ongoing series of research flights in California’s
Central Valley.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Project Loon
balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather.
In the stratosphere, there are many layers of wind, and each layer of wind
varies in direction and speed. Loon balloons go where they’re needed by rising
or descending into a layer of wind blowing in the desired direction of travel.
People can connect to the balloon network using a special Internet antenna
attached to their building. The signal bounces from this antenna up to the
balloon network, and then down to the global Internet on Earth.
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