5 ms·
SDN in the stratosphere: Loon's aerospace mesh network
- ggm 4y agoA truly amazing project. Predicting SDN choices so it's not just reacting to signal loss but making pre-emptive decisions to be able to route around.
- tjmc 4y agoI've never understood why they opted for balloons over high altitude solar drones like Zephyr (1) which are much more maneuverable and can stay over a particular area. 1. https://www.airbus.com/en/products-services/defence/uas/uas-solutions/zephyr https://www.airbus.com/en/products-services/defence/uas/uas-...
- aaron695 4y agoZepher's payload is 5kg and only stays up for a month and costs $$$$. Balloons are a bag that can carry tonnes and last forever in theory. The obvious choice is balloons. You can tether balloons for local. In practice what works best is a hard question. What will the military fund etc.
- tjmc 4y agoHow do you tether a balloon at 30,000ft? Perhaps a happy medium would be a solar airship with a rotor for maneuvering during the day.
- an_ko 4y agoI'm only guessing, but perhaps because balloons have fewer moving parts? They're the lowest-tech aircraft. Minimise aerospace engineering, focus on networks for now.
- londons_explore 4y agoThe project started ~a decade ago, and back then a drone that could stay airborne 24x7 wasn't really doable - at least not with several kg of radio equipment and several hundred watts of power for networking gear. Even today that's challenging - today's 24x7 drones glide all night because that's more efficient than carrying the weight of a battery that can last all night.
- tjmc 4y agoYour point about needing to glide all night is interesting. Is this true for Zephyr as well?
- TruthWillHurt 4y agoBaloons are simpler, sturdier and much cheaper.
- dgnemo 4y agoMostly payload and Airborne time. Idk what is the current status of Zephyr (google search suggests 26 days?) but Loon balloons were consistently reaching 300 days of airborne time.
- philipkglass 4y agoZephyr's latest flight had 64 days airborne: https://newatlas.com/aircraft/zephyr-8-mission-ends-abruptly-record-breaking-endurance-flight/ https://newatlas.com/aircraft/zephyr-8-mission-ends-abruptly... Unfortunately, it ended with a crash.
- tjmc 4y agoThanks for the link. Pretty impressive mission despite the unfortunate ending! Edit: Did it actually crash? The article says it was “brought down” but that could have still been a glide and regular landing if it lost power.