Project Loon to Provide Web Access to Everybody

Google has come up with a loony idea that might actually work. It seems that although the Internet might seem to be an all invasive part of just about everybody's life, we're in the minority. About two-thirds of the rest of the world doesn't have any Internet access at all. 

Google wants to change that. So, what they've come up with is called Project Loon. Yes, you read that right: Project LOON. They call it Project Loon because, being Google you know, they know it's a crazy idea but since Google has more money than they know what to do with, why not try changing the world anyway.

Project Loon is a network of 50-foot high balloons that travel about 13 miles up in the sky on the edge of space. When all the balloons are in place, and if everything works right, they'll eventually beam down Internet access to every single corner of the earth. The balloons have to be that high because not only are the winds there pretty much predictable, but they'll be out of everybody's way, circling around the earth about twice as high as commercial planes go so nobody should slam into any of them.

Each balloon will be able to provide Internet connectivity to a ground area about 25 miles in diameter, so it's going to take a lot of them whizzing around the planet. But, put enough of them up in the sky and you've got continual Internet coverage for everybody.

To make everything work, the electronics they've devised electronically connects all the balloons together so they provide a continuous Internet connection, like cell towers do right now on land. When one balloon moves away from a location, another balloon moves into its place so the link continues working. One balloon may provide connectivity in one place and when it moves away to another location, it provides a connection there while another balloon moves into the original space.

All the tests are coming out positive and more balloons are being launched all the time. Yes, of course the balloons come down. About every 100 days or so. So when one is taken "out of service," the gas inside is released to bring it back down in a controlled descent. If one drops a little too quickly, it will deploy a parachute to slow its descent. I guess there will be lots of Google employees driving around using their Google Maps and GPS devices to pick these things up and take them back for refurbishing at Google retrieval stations, right? 

Project Loon began in June 2013 on New Zealand's South Island with 30 balloons being launched in a pilot test. Google says they intend to continue expanding the project and hope to establish a continuous ring of uninterrupted service at latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere within a year or so. After that, the rest of the world is waiting. 

Whoever figured all this out has to be a genius.