This loony project got an appropriately loony title: Project Loon. After delivering internet access to Nimmo the sheep farmer and conducting other test missions, the Loon balloons went on to fly more than thirty million miles. When catastrophic floods hit Peru in early 2017, the balloons came to the rescue. The floods affected hundreds of thousands of people and knocked out the communications network across the country. In less than seventy-two hours, Project Loon showed up on the scene and began delivering basic connectivity to tens of thousands of Peruvians.4 Later that year, after Hurricane
...more
