Google Loon balloon circled Earth in record 22 days

In June 2013, Google launched an interesting Google Loon experiment. Many solar-powered balloons should run in stratospheric winds at an altitude of 20 km. Winds at this altitude are steady, steady and often blow parallel to the equator, so the balls must rotate around the planet on the same parallel at a speed of 8-30 km / h. Due to the large number of balls, it is possible to provide a complete Internet coverage of the earth’s territory on a specific parallel. At least in theory.

The experiment is still ongoing, and recently one of the balls has managed to show an incredible result. Changing the height and jumping into different stratospheric streams, the Ibis-167 ball could go around the Earth in just 22 days !

“He made a few loops over the Pacific Ocean before he caught the westerly wind in the direction of Chile and Argentina, and then returned to the launch point over Australia and New Zealand,” says Google in the official blog of the Loon project. “On the way, he managed to get into the Roaring Forties — strong westerly winds in the southern hemisphere, which work like an autobahn in the sky, where balloons can quickly move between continents, where people need them.”
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Integrated into a single communications network, Google Balls will provide connectivity in vast areas around the world, as well as in hard-to-reach lands and during natural disasters. Each ball covers a land area with a diameter of 40 km.





Each unit consists of an “envelope” (15-meter polyethylene sheath filled with helium) with a parachute for controlled descent, solar panels of several square meters and a box with equipment weighing about 10 kg. The box contains batteries, electronics and radio transmitters for communication with neighboring balls and subscribers on Earth. Accumulators accumulate energy during the day, so that it is enough for the equipment to work at night. With good sun panels provide power devices with a power consumption of 100 watts.

Radio transmitters operating on unlicensed “scientific” ISM frequencies in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands. For communication with them, homemade modems are used. Although the frequencies coincide with the frequencies of standard WiFi, the signals can be filtered.

So far, the Google experiment is conducted only on the 40th parallel. Several hundred balloons should provide connectivity to subscribers in New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Argentina.

Well, the aforementioned record holder Ibis-167 has already gone to the second circle around the Earth. In total, all the balls of the Google Loon project have already overcome more than 500,000 km.