What if Google Earth was real time images?<\/p>\n
Google is now floating the idea publicly of their network in the sky – the idea is Google would launch a significant number of relatively inexpensive balloons that would float up to about 60,000 feet – high enough to be above commercial airplane traffic – they would not be tethered to the ground – they would have a minor ability to have their direction altered, but they would mostly just randomly circulate – with enough balloons, one would be fairly reliably overhead within the range that it would have line of sight.<\/p>\n
With the balloon overhead (solar powered), an antenna on your house could then get Internet access from the balloon – since it is only 12 miles up, there is no latency like with satellite Internet.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/technology\/google\/10120198\/Googles-internet-balloons-offer-remote-areas-web-access.html<\/p>\n
The balloons themselves get Internet access from a combination of base stations on the ground and the satellites forming a “mesh” with balloons relaying data to each other. Each balloon would provide coverage to about 780 square miles under its current location.<\/p>\n
The surface area of the entire planet is about 197 million square miles, but much of the world wouldn’t need reliable coverage – it would take many 1000s of these balloons to form a moderately reliable network.<\/p>\n
However, you have to wonder how those obsolete entities called “nation states” would feel about a constant stream of balloons floating overhead, with the potential to take and relay images in real time, listen to and relay phone traffic, radio stations, TV signals, etc. <\/p>\n
There would probably need to be some global agreement to allow Google to have these things floating around unmolested by government weapons systems. Created in large volumes, the cost per balloon would probably be only a few hundred dollars – the goal is to provide Internet access to a large portion of the world’s 4.8 billion people who don’t currently have access or the access is too expensive. A million balloons would probably cost less than one aircraft carrier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What if Google Earth was real time images? Google is now floating the idea publicly of their network in the sky – the idea is Google would launch a significant number of relatively inexpensive balloons that would float up to … Continue reading