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SkyOrbiter UAVs Could Fly For Years and Provide Global Internet Access
Zothecula writes The internet has become a critical means of communication during humanitarian crises and a crucial everyday tool for people around the world. Now, a Portuguese company wants to make sure everyone has access to it. Quarkson plans to use SkyOrbiter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to transmit internet access "to every corner of the world."
Please, please, PLEASE can the folks who are setting this up call it "Skynet"? Thanks.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
So how are they going to finagle fees from us for this? Decoders? It is scandalous that we have to pay through the nose just for the right to be spied on ....
And, just as likely, surveillance.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Isn't this already here with satellites? i.e. unmanned aerial vehicles
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
On their web site, I see a lot about what they wish they could do, and very little about how they'd manage to do it.
They say their HA series is designed to stay aloft for up to five years at "all latitudes". "All latitudes precludes the use of solar power since it's dark for six months at a time at far north and far south latitudes, and most of their pictures clearly show no solar panels. So are they hoping for a magic battery that will last five years but not weigh hundreds of pounds, or are they planning on nuclear power? Submarines that stay out for years use nuclear power, so that is a proven option.
Another option that's known to be somewhat workable at some latitudes is a hot air balloon, where the black balloon continually absorbs heat from the sun to keep the craft aloft. Their pictures show model planes, though, not balloons.
Do these guys have any idea how to solve the most fundamental physics problems in the way, or do they just have a wish and nothing else? Their web site doesn't seem to indicate they've thought about how to do it, just how to get people to hand over cash, with no actual plan published.
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Could these "fly for years"? Sure. Will they? Unlikely.
You're talking about a solar power system, a battery backup system, a rotating assembly, and a bunch of "as lightweight as possible" materials held together by "as lightweight as possible" joints. Oh, and the communications array itself. Subject to constant hurricane-force winds. Flying maintenance-free for "years"?
Call me when you get past "days."
The military might find their services useful and affordable, most people in remote enough areas to need this can't afford it.
In case you can't access their website, gizmag:
http://www.gizmag.com/quarkson-skyorbiter/33912/
So, let's see. If it is nasty nerds peeking in windows we call them "drones." If it is well meaning corporations then they are "uav's." I am glad to see the hatred for individual tinkerers is this explicit.
Submarines that stay out for years use nuclear power, so that is a proven option since there is an ocean in the sky.
Fixed that for you. :-p
Otherwise, I agree with you.
Their website is giving me a WordPress Error page after a lengthy timeout:
Warning: mysql_connect(): Lost connection to MySQL server at 'waiting for initial communication packet', system error: 95 in /usr/share/wordpress/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 1147
Before bringing the "internet to every corner of the world", they need to bring a better database to their Wordpress.
Well, the sky is just a little less dense than the ocean so you need to work on your buoyancy.
This service has to be really cheap and fast to succeed. Iridium and GlobalStar already offer a satellite-based service. Iridium really does cover the entire planetary surface; GlobalStar has most of the planet, but not the polar areas. So it's all about being price-competitive.
Funny enough it's been tried as a business concept, though under different circumstances. In the mid-90s a company called AngelCorp wanted to build a series of manned aircraft that could loiter at high altitudes for long periods of time to provide high speed internet access. This was shortly before DSL, CableModems, WIfi and T1/T3 connectivity at the workplace would pretty much saturate that market. Bad timing.
Scaled Composites built one ship, the Proteus, a beautiful, revolutionary aircraft that is still in use today for many other payload missions such as airborne laser testing. The Proteus was also the uncle of White Knight I, the mothership for SpaceShipOne.
The odd thing is, the AngelCorp website still exists, frozen in time.
With advances in battery propulsion and cheap UAV / drone guidance systems, it could be a workable thing for providing temporary access to remote regions.
Naah, they need to bring a better web framework to their database.
something tells me I've read this before.
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/p... (viability study from this year)
http://www.neowin.net/news/78-... (MSCI corporate venture to provide 3G backhaul from LEO (news from 2011). To date, I think about 0 have been actually deployed).
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/h... (oh yes, this is one of the more recent ones by Google - again, nothing came of it).
I don't think any of the microsats being launched from ISS are intended for trunking wireless. ICBW.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Uh, 3D printers, Elon Musk, computers got better, therefore everything will get better.
Quarkson plans to use SkyOrbiter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to track you "to every corner of the world."
Quarkson. Jeremey Quarkson?
POWER!!
Simpsons did it! Oh, I mean there are other players in this same field. It'll be interesting to see who, if anyone, makes it to market.
Like the USA and our barely working Internet infrastructure.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
That's a valid point, of course. Perhaps I should have been more specific and said the concept of a long- endurance vehicle being nuclear powered has been proven, but keeping the nuclear power source aloft for years is another question.
Power for long-range airplanes is a tricky thing. More endurance requires more fuel, but that additional fuel is more weight, which increases fuel consumption. Many options would be counterproductive, weighing more than can be kept aloft by the energy they provide or store. I suspect that only nuclear fuel and a hot-air envelope can provide enough energy to keep themselves aloft for years.
There's pretty big difference between powering an aircraft and powering a submarine with nuclear power: With submarine, you have more water available for cooling than you could ever hope to use. And that's after ignoring weight.
Instead of looking into reactors used in the sea, you should look into those used in space. Problem is tho, they are not even nearly as safe.
SkyOrbiter UAVs Could Fly For Years and Provide Global Internet Access
They should have called it Complete Internet Access. They should also clarify that there will be No Surveillance Allowed.
As for the name,
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If all the money spent on military action in the Middle East were diverted to blanketing the area with these UAVs, together with an air-drop of 50 million tablets, the political outcome would be favorable to the West.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Zothecula writes: "The internet has become a critical means of communication during humanitarian crises and a crucial everyday tool for people around the world." Very well put. I am not sure about all these schemes you read about to distribute Internet via balloon and now UAV. But the need is there. I suspect that some sort of distributed access scheme would help out in other situations. Many countries have segmented off "their" Internet from the rest of the world. I hear the Iranians have their own version of YouTube (Mullah approved) and everything. Looks like the Russians are following suit. Meanwhile in the good 'ol U.S. of A. you get the Internet that your corporate overlords say you get and anything they don't like is throttled or blocked. Perhaps a well thought out ad hoc Internet distribution scheme might help get around some of the censorship and interference that even first world countries currently enjoy.
Beamed microwave power is another option.
They could be thinking of microwave energy. Of course that means they need a 10Km rectenna on the plane, which would be problematic to put it mildly. From their web site, there's no way to tell what they're thinking, or if they're thinking.
Sounds like an updated version of iridium, and that ended so well...
Use a radioisotope thermal generator then? The power may be not that much, but they are simple, relatively low tech and the power is always-on for years. Such generators were precisely built and operated to provide permanent power for years or decades without maintenance and in inacessible places. Might still be too heavy, and they're hardly more appetizing than nuclear waste.
You sure would want to collect the generator safely after you're done with it, and even then I would be worried about people trying to shoot it down.
PS : I have just hovered over your link and it is about RTGs. I missed them from your post because I believe they're not reactors.
This looks like a cheaper approach https://smartech.gatech.edu/bi...