America
Facebook's solar-powered drone to beam internet from the sky
Washington, July 31
Facebook has completed the
production of its first full-scale solar-powered internet drone that
will deliver wireless internet with lasers from the sky in parts of the
developing world where internet availability is still a dream.
Mark
Zuckerberg has announced the completion of Aquila, Facebook’s first
unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky, as
part of his project with Internet.org.
"It has the wingspan of a
Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for
months at a time,†Zuckerberg said in a statement posted on his Facebook
blog on Thursday.
"We have also made a breakthrough in laser
communications technology. We have successfully tested a new laser that
can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second,†he continued.
"That
is 10 times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately
connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away,â€
Zuckerberg said.
Aquila’s wings are made of a type of material called carbon fibre.
"When
the carbon fibre material undergoes a kind of heating process known as
curing, it can become “stronger than steel for the same mass of
material,†Yael Maguire, Facebook Connectivity Lab director, wrote in a
blog post.
The drone has been developed by Facebook’s
Connectivity Lab which is part of Facebook’s Internet.org initiative to
bring the internet to places where there is a lack of connectivity.
This
effort is important “because 10 percent of the world’s population lives
in areas without existing internet infrastructure. To affordably
connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies,â€
Zuckerberg informed.
In an accompanying video, Facebook engineers
said that the drone will fly from 60,000 to 90,000 feet above the Earth
and stay in the sky three months at a time.
"Using aircraft to
connect communities using lasers might seem like science fiction. But
science fiction is often just science before its time,†Zuckerberg
wrote.
This is how it will work.
Facebook will have lasers
on the ground that can locate the dome-shaped optical head, located on
the bottom of the plane, in the air ? basically shooting a laser at a
dime-sized target that is more than 10 miles away, tech portal The Verge
reported.
The plane will first hone in on the general location
of the laser on the ground, proceeding to target it further and lock
onto the location so that it can start beaming down the internet.
Because
the plane requires a connection with the lasers on the ground though,
you might experience a slower connection when it's raining or cloudy.
"Over
the coming months, we will test these systems in the real world and
continue refining them so we can turn their promise into reality,â€
Zuckerberg further posted.
"Aquila†is also a constellation, named after the bird that carried Zeus' thunderbolts to battle in Greco-Roman mythology.