Facebook Plans Remote Coverage via Drones
A consortium including Facebook and Qualcomm wants to launch solar-powered atmospheric satellite drones that can carry equipment for relaying wireless networks in remote areas that currently have no Internet connections. Larry Greenemeier reports
By Larry Greenemeier
SUBSCRIBE TO 60-Second Tech
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Two out of three people in the world cannot connect to the Internet. Not because of crummy service, but rather because in the remote areas where they live there is no service.
To come up with ways to deliver data services to underserved areas Facebook, Qualcomm and others formed Internet.org.
Facebook’s big idea is to launch solar-powered atmospheric satellite drones that can carry equipment for relaying wireless networks. To get the hardware, the social network is buying atmosat-maker Titan Aerospace for $60 million.
Rather than just buying a fleet of Titan’s Solara drones, Facebook is trying to accelerate their development. Titan has said its atmosats wouldn’t be ready for customers until next year.
But building an autonomous aircraft that can stay aloft for years at a time isn’t easy. Just ask the U.S. Defense Department and Boeing. They spent about five years and tens of millions of dollars trying to get their high-flying, solar-powered Vulture aircraft off the ground. But in 2012 DARPA decided to instead focus on further developing only the photovoltaic and energy storage systems meant for the Vulture.
That said, being “liked” by Facebook should help the Solara drones soar.
—Larry Greenemeier
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism
Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.
When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.
Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber
