Project Loon

In today's generation internet has undoubtedly an enormous impact on our lives, But still there are 5 billion people that is 2-3rd of the worlds population without internet access, because for every one person in the world that can get online, there are two that cant. So Google X has launched a project called project loon, a balloon powered internet for everyone with a mission of providing internet access to the people in the rural and remote areas.

The project uses a network of high altitude balloons flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds at an altitude if 18 km to create an aerial network with up to 4G-LTE speeds. So these balloons floats in the stratosphere twice as high as airplanes and the weather to beam internet access to the ground.

In the stratosphere there are many layers of wind and each layer of wind varies in direction and speed. project loon uses software algorithms to determine where it needs to go,then moves each one into a layer of wind blowing in the right  direction. They are steered via solar power and ensured that they catch the right winds to keep them together and give good internet coverage on the ground. The patterns of the balloon sailing in the wind is shaped so that when one balloon leaves, another balloon is set to take its place. They communicate with a specialized internet antennas on the ground, then each talks to its neighboring balloon and back to the ground station which is connected to local internet service provider.

This creates one large communication network in the sky. The antennas have been designed to receive signals from project loon only to achieve high bandwidth over the long distance involved.

As the balloons floats at high altitude there may arise problems of air pressure, damage from UV radiation and changes in weather conditions. But the balloon envelop is carefully designed to withstand these conditions.
The balloon's envelope is made from polyethylene plastic. Each balloons electronics are powered by an array of solar panels, These solar array is placed at steep angle to effectively capture sunlight so that it can produce power in full sun to keep the electronics running and also store power in the lithium ion batteries so balloon can operate in night.
On 16th June 2013 Google began a pilot experiment in New Zealand where about 30 balloons were launched. Google has tested its balloon powered internet access venture in Piaui, Brazil and in Sri Lanka.