Google is going to launch 180 microsatellites for the "internetization" of remote regions

Apparently, Google is going to spend about a billion US dollars on an interesting project. The goal of the project is to connect to the Network of remote regions, where conventional methods can be either impossible or too expensive.

According to the Wall Street Journal , the corporation is hiring new employees who previously worked in “satellite” companies. The project will be led by Greg Wyler, founder of microsatellite startup O3b Networks.
')
As far as can be judged, the satellites will be really small in size, and their weight will be 113 kilograms (250 pounds). True, the total cost of the project reaches about 3 billion, taking into account all operational, direct and indirect, costs.

Google is now working with another similar project, Project Loon, which has already been written on Habré . True, it uses balloons, not satellites. Facebook is working on a similar project, but in this project it is planned to use not drones or satellites, but balloons.



By the way, here is a comparison of the possibilities of drones and aerostats planned to be used in projects for "webization" (taken from here ):

Google Balloons:
height of 18-30 km
covering a radius of 19.9 km - 1244 square meters. km
payload 10 kg
Power supply - solar panels
mini satellite receiver

UAV Facebook
Solara 50 and Solara 60
height of 18 - 24 km
Power supply - solar panels - 7 kW
Solara payload 50 - 31 kg, Solara 60 - 100 kg
coverage radius 28.9 km - 2623 square meters. km
minus - the need for batteries for flying at night

In principle, all these projects can become parts of one large project, which uses both satellites, balloons, and drones. If not all at once, then at least one of the indicated projects (or maybe, right now, a company is developing and something else similar) may well become successful. And then even the regions whose residents have long lost hope of connecting to the global network will become "connected."

Via theverge