‘Project Loon’ : Google Division X ready with thousands of helium balloons to deliver Internet for all
If you have read about Google’s Project Loon then you may know that Google is planning to send helium balloons around the world and deliver Internet to users in remote areas. The project was started in June 2013 by the top secret Google Division X and now is going for beta phase.
According to the latest news from Google, it will be conducting Project Loon trials in Australia, New Zealand and Latin America. ย Mike Cassidy from Google says that Google will be using its own manufacturing facility and automated systems to deliver a balloon in hours instead of days. He further stated that the company is now ready to launch thousands of balloons in the skies.
Google has tied up with leading service provides like Telstra in Australia, Telefonica in Latin America and Vodafone in New Zealand for end point connectivity.
Cassidy stated that their testing of Project Loon revealed that the helium balloons can stay afloat for six months, far above where planes fly. Further Google can keep a real time track of the balloons and retrieve them once they have outlived their life or run out of helium. ย Cassidy said that Google has developed allied software systems and hardware for the same.
According to Google,ย the helium powered balloons can be used in disaster regions like earthquake or tsunami affected ones, ย where on-ground communication has been destroyed can provide much necessary real time information about the situation on ground. ย Each balloon is nearly 50 feet in diameter and an electronic equipments hang underneath each carrier, which include ย radio antennae, a flight computer, an altitude control system and solar panels.
Cassidy further said that with the new automated crane system for reliable delivery of the balloons in the sky and that Google can now launch dozens of balloons every day.
Latest video of Project Loon