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back to article Raving mad: Glow sticks are secret weapon in Facebook's 2.1Gbps laser internet drones

At Facebook's F8 Developer Conference this year, Mark Zuckerberg revealed more details about his laser-firing drones that will encircle the world and relay Facebook, sorry, the internet to far-flung places, reaching potentially all seven billion of us. The first solar-powered Aquila autonomous drones to do that job have now …

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  1. DNTP

    Glowing orbs in the sky

    Facebook's florescent drone deployment will no doubt be accompanied by the release of their FaceBlueBook project, where people will be invited to sign up and post about UFO sightings.

    3 0 Reply
    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
      Reply Icon

      Re: Glowing orbs in the sky

      ... make excellent targets*.

      Clever idea though. But I do wonder about using a blue laser. Isn't there a lot of blue (and UV) light "up there" already that might influence the signal-to-noise ratio in an undesired way?

      * Well, I did serve in artillery once, and an artilleryman doesn't know friend or foe, only targets.

      7 0 Reply
      1. TeeCee Gold badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Glowing orbs in the sky

        ....an artilleryman doesn't know friend or foe, only targets.

        A fact also well-known by Harrier pilots. When the Falklands went off, some eejit decided that rather than taking an RAF regiment unit, they'd just get 'em to give their Rapier batteries to the pongoes.

        The results were what you'd expect from giving an antiaircraft system that effective to a bunch who can't tell the difference between a Harrier and a Mirage from more than 10 feet away.

        2 0 Reply
  2. Mark 85
    Unhappy

    Both Google and FB are presented with an advertising opportunity. Google could sell space on the side of it's balloon like they used to here in the States with the Goodyear blimp. Probably not very effective though due to the altitude and moving with the winds.

    But FB has the solid gold method.... use lasers to write on the clouds.... or on buildings, or just about anywhere. There would be minimal drift since the aircraft would fly "on station" so they could saturate an area with laser light show type ads.

    And where there's advertising, there's profit.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Dabooka
      Reply Icon
      Go

      Why stop with the clouds?

      Back in the 80s, 2000AD had a story about projecting onto the moon;

      Best I can find after a quick Google search

      1 0 Reply
    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Er no

      And where there's advertising, there's profit.

      And where there's advertising, there's a target to be shot down

      There fixed it for you.

      2 0 Reply
  3. Ru'

    So this is like a really inefficient optical lens array, with a delay built-in for good measure? I don't understand (and sadly lack the will to look into this much further).

    4 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hang on, let me get this straight..

    They use balloons, and then fire lasers at them?

    Bwahaha :)

    4 0 Reply
  5. Jos V

    Down, but up?

    I didn't read the research article, so it might well be covered there, but from the article it seems they seem to have the downstream transfer to end-systems covered.

    So how does the upstream channel work?

    2 0 Reply
    1. Buzzword
      Reply Icon

      Re: Down, but up?

      Upstream requires much less bandwidth, so existing land-based comms would probably suffice. After all, the upstream channel only contains "Like" and "Share".

      9 0 Reply
    2. Bob H
      Reply Icon

      Re: Down, but up?

      The lasers are directional and one way, so each drone will have both a send laser and a receive sensor. The question is, can a drone have more than one receive and send function to provide mesh functionality.

      0 0 Reply
  6. Christoph

    Wot no triffids?

    So it's safe to look at the green flashes in the sky, you won't get blinded?

    (Mind you, if the light is visible from below I don't think the astronomers are going to be pleased about this, or the areas with dark sky certification.)

    2 0 Reply
    1. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Alert

      Re: Wot no triffids?

      Have they asked the airline pilots how they feel about this yet?

      2 0 Reply
  7. You aint sin me, roit
    Mushroom

    And when the grid is in place...

    They switch on the SD masers.

    1 0 Reply
  8. Sleep deprived
    Thumb Down

    Isn't this more light pollution?

    Won't be easy for annoyed astronomers and stargazers to set up a Facebook protest page...

    2 0 Reply
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DDOSers?

    Hmm.. I wonder what might be done by shinging a suitable light source at the ground receiving end? Aside from swamping the signals from the drones, that is.

    0 0 Reply

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