Google is launching Internet-beaming antennas

[Dude]

Google is launching Internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons with the lofty goal of getting the entire planet online.

Source

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Interesting Dude I am just a bit concerned how long they will last in that ultra violet battering they will get and if one fails I would hate to be the unlucky person standing in it's downward path to earth

 

[bobafetthotmail]

I suspect that balloons are used only in the early testing stages. Then they will transition to something less stupid and more controllable like solar-powered UAVs, even solar-powered UAV blimps are better than this as they do have some kind of control on where they go. Military tech is of course more advanced than this, but they won't lend it to more useful stuff than bombing perceived enemies of the US.

And being one of the poor fellas caught in the digital divide, I endorse this.

"People were calling in reports about UFOs," DeVaul said.

Oh well. This is another side-effect. Conspiracy theorist galore.
GOOGLE IS USING BALLOONS TO COVER A MASSIVE UFO INVASION, PROOF THAT THEY ARE CONTROLLED BY REPTILIANS. No really.

I would hate to be the unlucky person standing in it's downward path to earth

Eyeballing, its weight doesn't go beyond 5 kg, as it uses thin-film solar panels and it's basically a wifi router with a big antenna. So I doubt it has a high-enough density to reach dangerous terminal velocities.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum Bob ever dropped the bar of soap on your foot in the shower sorta hurts mate or at least it does me!!:shock:

I am surprised it hasn't reached them with their "clout" - putting it on a satellite quite frankly:huh:

 

[Kari]

Posted a video about this Project Loon in Youtube thread: http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-room/243377-youtube-dump-2-a-52.html#post2435282

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Hum Bob ever dropped the bar of soap on your foot in the shower sorta hurts mate or at least it does me!!:shock:

That's because the soap has a relatively high density and it catches enough speed to hurt even with a short fall. If something is fluffy enough on its own, air attrition will prevent it from reaching dangerous speeds. Most insects (and mice) can fall any distance because of that and still survive because they have a low density, their body acts as a parachute because of their tiny mass. For a human this happens too, and our maximum falling speed is around 200 km/h, so we need a parachute to increase air drag enough that the terminal velocity (maximum falling speed) becomes survivable.

So to sum it up, even in case it ends up on people this may cause pain, but it is not going to cause permanent damage, imho.

I am surprised it hasn't reached them with their "clout" - putting it on a satellite quite frankly:huh:

Satellites cost a few hundred millions a pop of launch costs alone. And you cannot re-route satellites in orbit nor launch new ones with a decent timeframe to cover new areas (say areas where a disaster strikes). Also a satellite does have a more limited bandwith-per-user because it has to serve a lot of people to cover costs.

While a blimp or UAV flies much lower than a sat and can get away with less users and a more direct connection to the ground. And costs 2-3 orders of magnitude less.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hum Bob ever dropped the bar of soap on your foot in the shower sorta hurts mate or at least it does me!!:shock:

That's because the soap has a relatively high density and it catches enough speed to hurt even with a short fall. If something is fluffy enough on its own, air attrition will prevent it from reaching dangerous speeds. Most insects (and mice) can fall any distance because of that and still survive because they have a low density, their body acts as a parachute because of their tiny mass. For a human this happens too, and our maximum falling speed is around 200 km/h, so we need a parachute to increase air drag enough that the terminal velocity (maximum falling speed) becomes survivable.

So to sum it up, even in case it ends up on people this may cause pain, but it is not going to cause permanent damage, imho.

I am surprised it hasn't reached them with their "clout" - putting it on a satellite quite frankly:huh:

Satellites cost a few hundred millions a pop of launch costs alone. And you cannot re-route satellites in orbit nor launch new ones with a decent timeframe to cover new areas (say areas where a disaster strikes). Also a satellite does have a more limited bandwith-per-user because it has to serve a lot of people to cover costs.

While a blimp or UAV flies much lower than a sat and can get away with less users and a more direct connection to the ground. And costs 2-3 orders of magnitude less.

Ah got it thanks Bob

 

[Dude]

Posted a video about this Project Loon in Youtube thread: http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-room/243377-youtube-dump-2-a-52.html#post2435282

Interesting vid, I didn't notice it until I read this post.

 

[Gary]

Google will do anything for a buck.

 

[Golden]

Google will do anything for a buck.

Thankfully they are also prepared to push the boundaries when it comes to internet technology...we should be more grateful

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Google will do anything for a buck.

Yeah thats why I suggested they hadn't even thought of sats and given that helium is now known to be a finite resource her on earth seems to me at least to be rather flippant use of this material.
Is helium a finite resource?

I just know someone will say the universe is full of the stuff but that isn't here at 'ground zero"

 

[Golden]

I just know someone will say the universe is full of the stuff but that isn't here at 'ground zero"

In a sense it is. Helium (He3+ isotope) forms from the decay of radioactive elements in the earths crust, predominantly thorium and uranium. It seeps through cracks and is eventually lost into space.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I just know someone will say the universe is full of the stuff but that isn't here at 'ground zero"

In a sense it is. Helium (He3+ isotope) forms from the decay of radioactive elements in the earths crust, predominantly thorium and uranium. It seeps through cracks and is eventually lost into space.

Yep it is off interest too that the thorium you mentioned is also a very good 'fuel"source for generating power and we sit on a pile of it here in Oz.

Thorium
Thorium fuel cycle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thorium Fuel for Nuclear Energy » American Scientist

I suppose it still has the usual downsides but IMHO a safer way to go. Having said that I have to assume that there is probably too much tied up in R&D of uranium for it to happen:sarc:

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Actually most Helium is distilled from natural gas. I guess it got trapped there the same way natural gas did.

What would give us a ton of helium would be "dirty" fusion technology, where you fuse deuterium and tritium you get from water and neutron bombardment of Lithium respectively (since that kind of fusion does produce a ton of neutrons you can do that in-house), not the one where you fuse He3 you get from space or it's a catch 22.

For something like that they can easily use hydrogen. When you go beyond 8 km of altitude (the baloons are at more than 10, they are technically in space) there is no more atmosphere to speak of, so it would be pretty inert. No Hindemburg all over again.
Although the stuff has the nasty tendency of escaping through the tiniest holes in the balloon and even through the solid walls of it due to its nature of lightest gas of the universe. So it risks to shorten the life of each balloon.

Yep it is off interest too that the thorium you mentioned is also a very good 'fuel"source for generating power and we sit on a pile of it here in Oz.

I have read of some pretty cool reactor designs with thorium, like LTFRs, molten-salt reactors that allow you to skip all the ridiculous things like pressure vessels strong enough to keep water liquid at 400 celsius, and allow to insert easy kill-switches that literally empty the reactor in a passive cooling pool (its core is already molten so...) in case of irrecoverable power failure. This to read more. They are a bit optimistic, but the prototype worked even back then, at the times when it was supposed to be the reactor of a nuclear-powered long-range bomber. Aah... those were good times.

Sadly I think that anything with "nuclear" in the name is going to be too scary to get any acceptance after Fukushima. Besides, uranium had always ever been practical only if the government planned to stockpile nukes (all nuclear reactor "waste" contains a lot of Plutonium, which is pretty useful to make good nukes) and gave funds for this reason.
Now that none is eager to nuke each other over Capitalism Vs Communism there is no more incentive and uranium technology returns to lab-only breeder reactors.

 

[Dude]

Wow, this thread got really interesting

 

[FerchogtX]

Oh yes!!!!!!!!!!... I hope they come to Mexico soon XD...

 

[XweAponX]

This is VERY interesting. How do they plan on keeping track of the balloons, they move around, so aiming a connection at them may be interrupted by Wind Drift.

 

[galaxys]

Sounds very cool! But not sure how their going to manage all those balloons...

 

[Golden]

This is VERY interesting. How do they plan on keeping track of the balloons, they move around, so aiming a connection at them may be interrupted by Wind Drift.

Not that difficult....the air currents at different altitudes are well known so keeping track of these is quite easy.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

This is VERY interesting. How do they plan on keeping track of the balloons, they move around, so aiming a connection at them may be interrupted by Wind Drift.

The idea is to have a more or less constant concentration of those balloons, so that when one goes out of range, another is in range and takes over the previous one's job seamlessly. Did you watch the video?

It is mildly inconvenient to pull off at the first time and will likely help the understanding of jet streams, but should work fine after some more tests to get the hang of it.