CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) — Wrinkled and skinny at first, the translucent, jellyfish-shaped balloons that Google released this week from a frozen field in the heart of New Zealand's South Island hardened into shiny pumpkins as they rose into the blue winter skies above Lake Tekapo, passing the first big test of a lofty goal to get the entire planet online.
It was the culmination of 18 months' work on what Google calls Project Loon, in recognition of how wacky the idea may sound. Developed in the secretive X lab that came up with a driverless car and web-surfing eyeglasses, the flimsy helium-filled inflatables beam the Internet down to earth as they sail past on the wind.
Still in their experimental stage, the balloons were the first of thousands that Google's leaders eventually hope to launch 20 kilometers (12 miles) into the stratosphere in order to bridge the gaping digital divide between the world's 4.8 billion unwired people and their 2.2 billion plugged-in counterparts.
Google should use hydrogen. Flammable as heck, but for unmanned balloons who cares?
Edit: First comment on that story already covered my point.
If it were in critically short supply, it would be more expensive. Based on this information below, sourced from wikipedia, the US land mass alone has an estimated 46,000 year supply of helium to meet global demand.
Quote:
In 1996, the U.S. had proven helium reserves, in such gas well complexes, of about 147 billion standard cubic feet (4.2 billion SCM). At rates of use at that time (72 million SCM per year in the U.S.; see pie chart below) this is enough helium for about 58 years of U.S. use, and less than this (perhaps 80% of the time) at world use rates, although factors in saving and processing impact effective reserve numbers. It is estimated that the resource base for yet-unproven helium in natural gas in the U.S. is 31–53 trillion SCM, about 1000 times the proven reserves.
If it were in critically short supply, it would be more expensive. Based on this information below, sourced from wikipedia, the US land mass alone has an estimated 46,000 year supply of helium to meet global demand.
Interesting, but this is locked in untapped natural gas reserves, isn't it? From the same Wikipedia article...
Quote:
Prices in the 2000s have been lowered by U.S. Congress' decision to sell off the country's large helium stockpile by 2015.
The US began building a huge stockpile of helium in 1925 as a strategic supply of gas for airships, and the reserve later became an important source of coolant for rockets during the Cold War. In 1996, however, the Helium Privatization Act came into law allowing US companies to recover and sell the helium, which is mainly stored in Amarillo, Texas, in a natural geological gas storage rock formation. The act was deliberately designed to exhaust the US stockpile by 2015 so that the government could recoup the cost of setting up the facility.
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However, the report says that selling off the helium stockpile "has adversely affected critical users of helium and is not in the best interest of the US taxpayers or the country." One problem posed by the selling off the stockpile, which the report says accounts for up to a third of global demand, is that the price for helium is low, being "not set by current market conditions but by the terms of the 1996 Act". The fear is that once the supplies run out, the price will shoot up.
So artificial shortage but also artificial market value?
Most helium isnt recovered now and just allowed to escape into the atmosphere. So waste is the largest user of helium. Cost needs to go up or regulation to force people to capture it.
The cost will simply too high. The costs have been held ridiculously low artificially, as a result of the US government's policy to get out of the business by 2015.
When world reserves run low, the only place we really get more is the tiny percentage of byproduct that comes out of natural gas extraction.
Combine that with more and more medical/ research uses for it. MRI machines, for instance, need a huge quantity of helium (used to cool the superconducting magnets).
The Following User Says Thank You to You Need a Thneed For This Useful Post:
Google Launches Internet Ballons
