But the plan is really like in the operation.
June 2013, Google announced the launch of "Project Loon", hopes to use "Wi-Fi hot-air balloon" to provide affordable Internet services to rural, remote and poor areas, the experts of this change in attitude from suspicion to dismissive. It is reported that Google plans while flying hundreds of solar hot air balloon, even stratospheric encounter unstable wind speed, able to ensure the coordinated movement of each balloon to provide consistent and reliable network services.
"Absolutely impossible", Per Lindstrand said the aviation engineer from Sweden, perhaps the world's most famous balloonists, which he published an article in "Connection," the article had views, "from scientific point of view, the plan is on paper, "in particular, he questioned the Google description balloon - hot-air balloon material durable enough to float in the air 100 days, almost twice the world's most advanced hot-air balloon durability of NASA, "even so, NASA balloon floating three weeks is very rare," he laughed at to.
However, when you read this article Autel MS906 But I do not want to be fooled by these cool tech Google recently publicized, so I asked Cassidy, the probability of these things can really realized how many? Cassidy replied: "In the beginning of this project, I would say 5%, but as the project progresses, we were happy to find that so far there is nothing to prevent it from running Nothing in life is the percentage. one hundred determined, but at least for now, the progress of the project is quite good. "
Why Google uncommon to carry out this work? This requires persistent strength, as well as the company's own resources, flexibility, and technical ambitions. In the history of global capitalism, few competitors are doing these things.
Last summer, the company is the first attempt to fly over-pressure balloon in New Zealand, if Lindstrand present, he might laugh. In the debut, the balloon took off shortly after the explosion, the nylon fabric is bursting at the seams 100,000 lbs high pressure inside the ball. The same fate befell the second test, the third time until the next fifty times is true. Team constantly adjust fabric, and with more class synthetic fiber rope reinforcement, but still balloon explosion until they master the precise length of the rope. "We know that manufacturing is difficult to over-pressure balloon," Cassidy recalls, "I never thought we were going to try 61 times to succeed."
Even so, success is fleeting. Balloon no longer explode, but slowly began to leak inside helium, flying just a day or two balloon drops. "Even if the size of the least bit of vulnerability will force the balloon flight a few days later decline," Cassidy said. "We made the next 40-50 balloons, have suffered this problem."
Google's engineers have spent weeks to resolve this issue. They are located in Mountain View, ground turkey Could hangar inflatable balloon out of the box, then use polarization, through the sphere, and even the use of sniffer helium mass spectrometer leak. They fall for each balloon are in a "failure analysis", detailed view detailed records of assembly people, places, tools and during transport.
The final reason for the leak was determined Foxwell NT510 to be two types of problems. First, from the balloon during transport caused by multiple folding, folding makes some repetition produces small fissures in the balloon at the knuckle. Google has begun to find a method capable of folding and retracting the pressure is evenly distributed over the balloon fabric. The second type of problem is when workers with the foot pressure balloon when the balloon fabric socks slightly torn. This can be used to solve the hair soft socks, Cassidy said, "really is not the same. The more soft socks, the less leakage."
With the team will reduce leakage, balloon flight time gradually increases - from four days to six days, then a flight to last for several weeks. In the case in November to see, Cassidy said, two-thirds of the balloon can fly more than 100 days in the air.
But let's keep the balloon floating state is only the first representation of the project encountered. How to get on the track to keep the balloon flying is more difficult.
When Google first announced this project, I take brightly colored villages hovering above the target hundreds of feet means for probably the world's longest rope to connect. The work in the real implementation will be more complicated, but also more charming scene.
First, the balloon liftoff over 60,000 feet, reach the stratosphere, and over all aircraft flying height, on the ground high enough to barely see them. In addition, these devices can not be suspended balloon at a predetermined position. They are up to stratospheric speed of 100 km / h blowing air continued to move, so that the original plan to provide a stable data services through positioning means thoughts completely wasted.
Google's response to this proposed solution is the simultaneous deployment of a large group of balloons in the air, some of which moves along the track of other balloons. In this way, once one of the balloon is about to leave the set area, just another balloon will arrive in the region, they link together to ensure that the signal is always in the active Foxwell state.Google understatement with this sophisticated approach makes high-performance aircraft (ie the balloon) can accurately in orbit. But these are low power balloons, no way to directly control their trajectory. You can do is adjust their height. Balloon manipulation is based on wind speed and direction at different altitudes, the manipulation of moving up and down to capture the balloon allows the balloon to the desired track to run on those series airflow.
Google engineers are aware of this work is extremely difficult, they put their hopes in the wind and wind direction data obtained from weather balloons and archival records of the National Weather Service. But they did not anticipate these romantic is so unpredictable. For example, the National Weather Service may be reported from the ground at 55,000 feet southward 20 miles per hour wind blowing, but at 65,000 feet southeast winds to reach 30 mph. Based on linear interpolation, Google calculates, at 60,000 feet altitude, south to southeast wind speed / 25 mph. Sometimes this is true, but the team found that sometimes, 60,000 feet above the wind blowing in the opposite direction.
For this problem there is an embarrassing example of Google in May in front of the Minister of Communications and Telefonica Brazil president made a high-profile showcase for their balloons. "They say never been a live demonstration," Google balloon project leader Cassidy said, "when the first balloon rises, we said to them, our simulations show these balloons will fly in that direction. But the balloon but fly in another direction under the eyes of all. "the project leader flushed immediately requested wayward balloon down and sent a truck to go 12 miles to get back outside. Then they raised the second balloon, the wind is very complex, local school students successfully logged on the network.
There are indications that, Google is likely to honor this commitment - to no Internet service area to provide some form of Internet access services. All these efforts are worth depends entirely on the speed and reliability of such services, as well as the cost of maintaining their operation.
The original idea was to use the balloon to the ground station transmit Wi-Fi signals. But the spectrum convenience Google quickly realized the power limit evils compared with unrestricted easier to solve. So Google and telecommunications companies began to improve the efficiency of the existing cellular network at the same LTE framework agreement. Essentially, based on a standard tower and using the same conditions as LTE standard balloon is a low-cost, low-power option. Google is now showing respect to the speed of mobile data transmission equipment can reach 5Mbps, fixtures reached 22Mbps. And now the average American broadband speed is 11Mbps.
Through cooperation with telecommunications companies to provide services, Google to withdraw himself from the cellular data in sales and customer service, but also to himself in contention for the 2.6GHz frequency band between countries involved in conflicts of interest arising out of it. With direct negotiations with customers and lobbying bureaucracy compared to Google or better at and more willing to solve complex engineering problems.
Through a set of cost-based algorithm oriented balloon to provide Internet services to pay may sound excessive, but Cassidy said the fact that the cost of such programs than the construction and maintenance of signal towers to be an order of magnitude, so the remote region, this is a more economical choice. Although the quality of Google services balloon never comparable with Google Fiber, but Cassidy convinced that Google can make this service has made great progress, much better than some of the current regional network service levels. We have done research in some cities, the people here through Wi-Fi hotspots intercity buses on the Internet, when the bus arrived, people Autel all of a sudden the phone can be connected. When the bus to go to another city when there suddenly have hot (this refers to Internet services can not be sustained and stable).
If Google balloon successful, Google will face a series of skeptics commonplace problem, for example, it will profit you? Countries will agree and trust Google to use their country's airspace in the stratosphere it? Head of Google X, the follow-up interview with Astro Teller "Connection" magazine said in June balloon project as "Google X hatched a model project." Team completed a great job - control within each balloon 100,000 lbs of pressure, but the next test will be processed if the "moon landing program" for commercial pressures.
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