Facebook drone flight success: providing wireless Internet services to remote areas-Facebook, drones, Zuckerberg-IT information

Although the world has entered the age of the Internet, not everyone can enjoy the convenience of the Internet. Even today, only less than half of the regions in the world connected to the Internet, there is 60% of the total population of 4 billion people do not have a network. 1.6 billion people living in the mobile network coverage in remote areas, providing Internet connectivity to these remote areas, there are many technical challenges and cost a lot of money problems.

Facebook drone Aquila a successful maiden flight

Mark Zuckerberg (left), witness the first Aquila

Facebook UAV specifications details

Internet giants like Facebook and Google want to resolve the problem. Google balloon network project Project after the Loon has settled in Sri Lanka, drones of the Facebook network has passed a new milestone of the project.

Facebook announced today that its network delivery drone Aquila had its maiden voyage on June 28 in a military airport, Arizona successfully. Although a Facebook engineer one-fifth Aquila have been testing for a few months, but this is the full size of Aquila the first successful test flight. Aquila flight was flying at a low altitude for 96 minutes, flying more than Facebook had expected three times. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has to appear in person to witness this moment.

In 2013, the Facebook together Nokia, Ericsson, Qualcomm and other network equipment and Internet company created Internet.org, dedicated to Internet for developing countries and in remote areas. In March this year, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had the Philippines and Paraguay operators, helped 3 million people in the network.

Then Facebook Facebook Connectivity Lab laboratory was set up, developing unmanned aerial vehicles, satellites and other technical means to achieve this goal. In order to form a team, Facebook from United States aerospace agencies such as NASA has hired many engineers. In addition, 2014 Facebook acquired the United Kingdom drone company Ascenta, access to a number of important technologies.

Aquila is powered by the solar panels, in theory, can fly for up to 3 months at a time, up to 120 km per hour while wingspan approaching Boeing 737 aircraft, but only 453 kilograms in weight; on cruise mode, only 5000 Watt power consumption, power consumption is only the equivalent of three hair-dryer or a microwave oven. According to the design plan, the drones can fly at a height of 18000 meters through lasers and millimeter wave technology, for the traditional network equipment from reaching the remote areas push Internet, network coverage is 96 km radius.

Facebook in the future will continue to test and advance the performance of Aquila. Solar-powered unmanned endurance record at present is two weeks, Aquila to meet the Facebook for 3 month battery life is expected to be many subsequent research and development. In contrast, Google can float in the upper stratosphere balloon network for 6 months.

However, the network Facebook push to use, still need to set up antennas on the ground, to push the drone's signal into a Wi-Fi or 4G. This means that if there is not willing to set up antennas receive signals, so also unable to access the Internet. Similarly, Google's balloon project must be approved by the local government.

Facebook无人机首航成功：向偏远地区提供无线上网服务 - Facebook,无人机,扎克伯格 - IT资讯

虽然世界已经进入互联网时代，并不是每个人都可以享受到互联网带来的便利。即便是当下，全球也只有不到一半的地区可以连接互联网，还有六成的人口总计40亿人没有网络。其中16亿人生活在移动网络无法覆盖的偏远地区，为这些偏远地区提供互联网覆盖存在诸多技术挑战以及造价不菲的问题。

Facebook无人机Aquila首飞成功

扎克伯格(左一)现场见证了Aquila首飞

Facebook无人机规格详解

这也是Facebook和谷歌等互联网巨头所致力于解决的问题。在谷歌气球网络项目Project Loon已在斯里兰卡落户之后，Facebook的无人机网络项目也迈过了新的里程碑。

Facebook今日宣布，其网络投送无人机Aquila已经于6月28日在亚利桑那州的一个军用机场成功首航。虽然此前Facebook工程师测试一款五分之一尺寸的Aquila已有数月时间，但这次是全尺寸Aquila的第一次成功试飞。Aquila首航在低空飞行了96分钟，飞行时间超过了Facebook此前预期的三倍。Facebook创始人兼CEO扎克伯格也亲自到场见证了这一时刻。

2013年，Facebook携手诺基亚、爱立信、高通等网络设备及互联网公司创建了Internet.org，致力于为发展中国家及偏远地区提供互联网。今年3月，扎克伯格宣布Facebook已经和菲律宾和巴拉圭运营商合作，帮助300万人获得了网络。

随后，Facebook成立了Facebook Connectivity Lab实验室，开发无人机、卫星等技术手段实现这一目标。为了组建这一团队，Facebook从美国宇航局等航空航天机构挖来了诸多工程师。此外，2014年Facebook收购了英国无人机公司Ascenta，获得了诸多重要技术。

Aquila是由太阳能面板供电的，理论上一次可以飞行至多3个月时间，速度达到每小时120公里；虽然翼展接近波音737飞机，但重量仅有453公斤；开启巡航模式，耗电仅为5000瓦，功耗仅仅相当于三个头发吹风机或者一台微波炉。按照设计规划，这架无人机可以在18000米的高空飞行，通过激光和毫米波技术，为那些传统网络设备无法抵达的偏远地区推送互联网，网络覆盖半径为96公里。

未来Facebook还将继续测试和推进Aquila的性能。目前太阳能无人机的续航记录是两个星期，Aquila要达到Facebook长达3个月续航的预期还要进行诸多后续研发。相对而言，谷歌的气球网络可以在高空平流层漂浮6个月。

不过，要使用Facebook推送的网络，地面依然需要设置天线，将无人机推送的信号转化为Wi-Fi或4G网络。这意味着，如果当地不愿意设置天线接受信号，那么也无法接入互联网。同样的，谷歌的气球项目也必须得到当地政府的批准。