Google and CNES: the crazy project to connect the earth to the internet – TF1

The French Space Agency (CNES) and Google will formalize this Thursday, a partnership in the Loon project, announces the Figaro.fr. This should allow the US giant to cover remote areas for Internet Earth via balloons filled with helium floating in the stratosphere, a little less than 50 km from the ground .dropoff window

“Google technology skills. For each of its futuristic projects, it seeks to ally with the best experts in the world,” says one of the group’s next US daily the site. For Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES, the objective of the major US technology companies (Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon) is to connect to the internet the five billion people who have no access there. For this, all solutions are explored: “satellites, balloons and drones.”

Balloons against scientific experiments

When contacted last spring, CNES agreed to partner in this adventure that reveals much less expensive that a connection via satellites at 36 000 km above the Earth. The reputation of the French agency and recent successes such as the Rosetta mission, partnerships with NASA fueled the interest of Google. In addition, CNES has real expertise in long-term stratospheric balloon flights used for decades to recover measures and test data collection devices. “We were the first to realize the first campaign from the Arctic to the benefit of dynamic weather lab, with pressurized balloons”, reminds the Figaro.fr Philippe Cocquerel, project leader “Loon” for CNES.

In exchange for his expertise should help design a new generation Loon ball for the project, the French agency has obtained the right to integrate scientific experiments appliances altitude on the balloons. The first tests should intervene 2015. balloons drift current and 20 km from the ground, above the level of commercial flights, and will be powered by solar panels. A mesh will allow them to communicate with each other and with the Earth. A major new project for the CNES will also participate in the Ariane Mission 6. But Loon experimental phase should last several years before a placement possibly from 2019.