Earlier this year Electronic Products reported on Facebook’s drone prototype, and now the drone with a wingspan of a Boeing 737 is ready to be tested.
Known as the Aquila, this giant’s mission is to deliver Internet access to more than 4 billion people on Earth who aren’t already connected. Aquila is planned to circle in the stratosphere, above the weather, wirelessly beaming Internet signals to base stations in underdeveloped areas of countries such as India and Nigeria.
Image: Facebook.
Although it’s as wide as a 737, the drone weighs hundreds of times less than the commercial airliner because of its carbon-fiber frame. According to Facebook’s Yael Maguire, who is overseeing the project, the goal is to reach a point where the drone can stay aloft for 90 days at an altitude of between 60,000 and 90,000 feet. “We think this is a very ambitious goal, given that the world record, as far as we can tell, is about two weeks,” he told Wired.
Image: Facebook.
There’s also another group of Facebook engineers at a lab in Woodland Hills, California, developing new laser networking technologies that can help the drone beam its Internet signals down to Earth. Impressively, the group has already designed and tested a laser that can deliver data at “10s of Gbits per second,” accurately hitting a target the size of a dime at a distance of 10 miles.
Image: Facebook.
Maguire said Facebook most likely won’t reach its 90-day-aloft goal until the end of this year or early next year. At 60,000 feet, the drones are certainly above the most violent weather and clouds, but they’ll have to deal with some wind and extremely cold temperatures. And although the drone is light and can power itself via solar energy, Facebook must find a way for the drones to carry all of the equipment needed to deliver Internet signals.
Facebook’s social network now serves 1.3 billion people worldwide, and it knows there are so many more to reach.
Source: Wired
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