PROJECT LOON : Powered Internet Project by Google

Google is preparing to conquer a new dimension: the stratosphere. The Internet giant is releasing 30 high-tech balloons in a trial of technology designed to bring the Internet to places where people are not yet connected.

The balloons are being sent up into the sky from New Zealand's South Island this month in the first trial of a pioneering system dubbed Project Loon.

According to Google, "Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters."

Google estimates that two-thirds of the global population is without fast, affordable Internet access. So while it sounds like something from the realms of science fiction, if successful, the project could make a difference to many people around the world.

                                            

                                                               

                                                                  Google Balloon

What are Google Balloons?

Google is experimenting with helium-filled balloons that beam the internet from the sky. Developed over a period of 18 months, these jellyfish-shaped balloons are part of Project Loon that Google has commissioned them in New Zealand.

These are the helium-filled balloons that are made from a thin polyethylene film and are 15 meters (49 feet) in diameter when fully inflated.

How does these Google Balloons work?

The balloons would sail on the stratosphere's winds in a continuous circuit around the globe. The balloons come equipped with flight computers, and Google would control the balloons' altitude from the ground, keeping them moving along a desired channel by using different winds at different heights.

Once released, the balloons will float in the stratosphere above 60,000 feet (18,300 meters), twice as high as airplanes and the weather, Google says. Their altitude will be controlled from "Loon Mission Control" using special software to allow them to pick up layers of wind traveling in the right direction and form a balloon network.

If all goes to plan, about 60 people who've had a special antenna fixed on their homes for the trial should be able to connect to the balloon network. The signal will bounce from balloon to balloon, then to the Internet back on Earth. Hundreds of people will be able to connect to one balloon at a time.

                             

                                              Project Loon Grid

People behind Project Loon:

Rich Devaul, Chief Technical Architect for Project Loon, explained that the system will “communicate with specialized internet antennas on the ground. [An] antenna points up at the sky and talks to [a] balloon and each one of these balloons talks to their neighboring balloons and then back down to the ground station which is connected to the local internet provider.”

Devaul also stated that the team has “designed our radios and antennas specifically to receive signals from Project Loon only… If we didn't filter out the other signals the technology just wouldn't work.”

By early 2012, the experiment had gained status of a genuine Google X project. It also had a new leader. DeVaul, preferring to work on tech rather than management, helped hire a project leader, Mike Cassidy, a top search engineer who had started multiple companies before joining Google. Cassidy built up the team with network engineers, mapping specialists, energy experts, and ex-military operatives who were stunningly good at recovering downed payloads in wilderness terrain. (When balloons would go down, the payload would separate and glide earthward by parachute. Civilians stumbling on the scary-looking package would see a non-branded message reading HARMLESS SCIENCE EXPERIMENT, and a promise of a reward for those who called a number to return it.) When it became clear that Google needed many more balloons that its small team was able to hand-craft, Cassidy began a fruitful collaboration with Raven Aerostar, the company that makes weather balloons for NASA and created the monster bubble that took Felix Baumgartner into near space for his record leap earthward.

Advantages:

Google says the balloons have the potential to provide internet access far more cheaply, quickly and widely than traditional underground fiber cables. 

One downside is that computer users on the ground would need to install a receiver to get the signal.

                                   

Challenges Google Balloons face

Managing the flight of just one balloon in our complex and ever-changing atmosphere is a huge challenge. Trying to harmonize an entire fleet of thousands of them will be mind-boggling.

One issue that Google has had to deal with is how to keep the balloons floating roughly in the same area to maintain an Internet connection on Earth. Cassidy said the team members believe they've figured it out. "All we had to do was figure out how to control their path through the sky," he noted. "We've now found a way to do that, using just wind and solar power: We can move the balloons up or down to catch the winds we want them to travel in. That solution then led us to a new problem: How to manage a fleet of balloons sailing around the world so that each balloon is in the area you want it right when you need it. We're solving this with some complex algorithms and lots of computing power."

Google's vision:

Google's vision is to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on stratospheric winds about 12.4 miles high, that provide Internet access to remote and undeserved areas. The balloons communicate with specially designed antennas on the ground, which in turn, connect to ground stations that connect to the local Internet service provider, the company said.

 But if all works according to the company’s grand vision, hundreds, even thousands, of high-pressure balloons circling the earth could provide Internet to a significant chunk of the world’s 5 billion unconnected souls, enriching their lives with vital news, precious educational materials, lifesaving health information and many more.

Green Computing-The next wave in Computing

A Chinese proverb, often used by environmentalists, states

                          "One generation plants a tree; the next sits in its shade."

Computers impact the environment in a number of ways. Making computers requires non-renewable resources and creates manufacturing waste and pollution. Using computers requires electricity and generates heat, which is also a form of pollution. Disposing of computers creates even more trash and is potentially hazardous because of the materials in the computer. The goal of green computing is to reduce the environmental impact of computers for both the user and the manufacturer by making computers as energy efficient as possible, reducing the amount of hazardous and non-recyclable materials, and properly disposing of old machines.

Origin:

Every one of us are aware of the energy-star logo on printers computers etc. In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched Energy Star, a voluntary labeling program that is designed to promote and recognize energy-efficiency in monitors, climate control equipment, and other technologies. This resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode among consumer electronics. Concurrently, the Swedish organization TCO Development launched the TCO Certification program to promote low magnetic and electrical emissions from CRT-based computer displays; this program was later expanded to include criteria on energy consumption, ergonomics, and the use of hazardous materials in construction.

                                                             

Advantages are as below:

Cloud Computing

It is an innovative technology to help save significant energy usage. Cloud computing includes replacement of regular services with virtual servers. The distinct areas where this technology finds it use are for software application, operating systems, networking and data storage.

 Recycling

With recycling, one can save great amount of energy, money and time spent in creating these electronic stuffs. The resources utilized and the money disbursed in creating these electronic stuffs from scratch is anytime an excellent option. Only a negligible percentage of used or discarded electronic items can be recycled. 

 Shutting down your Computers

Shutting down your computers during the night assists to save a substantial amount of electrical energy. The projected amount of the energy used up in a year due to continued computer usage is $115-$160.  Using your PC for just eight hours in a day will help to save around 810 kWh of energy in a year. 

 Enhancing Algorithmic Efficiency

Green computing is also useful for enhancing algorithmic efficacy of the computers. Well-organized algorithm utilizes minimum resources thus, increasing the productivity. Therefore, without enhancing algorithmic efficiency, you cannot expect substantial energy conservation through cloud computing.    

How can technology be a boon to  Environment:

While some of the impact of computers and the Internet has unfortunately been negative, much of it has also been positive. Here's just a few of the ways that technology is helping to improve the environment:

• It helps us develop and produce new materials and technologies that are sustainable and do not harm the environment, so we can eventually stop using ones that do harm it
• It allow us to monitor and study our environment to better understand how it works and the impact of our actions on it
• It helps us create smarter technologies that respond to how we use them and adjust themselves to reduce their environmental impact, such as lights that can sense when no one is in the room and automatically turn off
• It allows us to have a worldwide virtual laboratory, so that experts from all fields can share their research, experience and ideas to come up with better, smarter solutions. Not only does this allow people far away from each other to work together, but it also reduces the environmental impact people would normally cause from traveling to meet with each other
• It allows for paperless communication like email and online bill paying toreduce the amount of trees cut down
• It allows companies to reduce shipping and manufacturing impact and to reach a broader audience

Everyone talks about doing something about the mother earth but no one finds the answer to the most basic questions 1. How? and 2 where?   well every one has to think upon this and try to find the answer.

Green computing is all about using computers but in a smarter and Eco-friendly way.