Friends, we have come up with a new movement. Many of you remember our last year's fun geek project "»: we made a small server based on the Raspberry Pi and launched it in a balloon.
Now we have decided to go even further, that is, higher - the stratosphere is waiting for us!
Briefly recall what was the essence of the first project "Server in the Clouds". The server did not just fly in a balloon, the intrigue was that the device was operational and broadcast its telemetry to the ground.
That is, everyone could track the route of movement in real time. Before the launch, 480 people put marks on the map where the balloon could land.
Of course, in full accordance with Edward Murphy's law, the main communication channel via the GSM modem “fell off” already in flight. Therefore, the crew had to literally switch on the fly to backup communications based on . The balloonists also had to solve the problem with the USB cable connecting the telemetry module and the Raspberry 3 - it seems that he was afraid of heights and refused to work. It's good that the problems ended there and the balloon landed safely. The three lucky ones whose tags were closest to the landing site received delicious prizes. By the way, for the first place we presented participation in the AFR 2018 sailing regatta (Vitalik, hello!).
The project proved that the idea of "air-based servers" is not as crazy as it might seem. And we want to take the next step on the way to the “flying data center”: check the operation of the server, which will rise on a stratosphere balloon to a height of about 30 km - into the stratosphere. The launch will coincide with Cosmonautics Day, that is, there is nothing left, less than a month.
The name "Server in the Clouds 2.0" is not entirely correct, because at such a height you will not find a single cloud. So you can call the project "Cloud Server" (the next project will have to be called "Baby, you are space!").
As in the first project, the server will be active. But the highlight is different: we want to test the concept of the famous Google Loon project and test the very possibility of distributing the Internet from the stratosphere.
The server operation scheme will look like this: on the landing page, you can send text messages to the server through the form. They will be transmitted via the HTTP protocol through 2 independent satellite communication systems to a computer suspended under the stratospheric balloon, and it will transmit this data back to Earth, but not in the same way via a satellite, but via a radio channel. This way we will know that the server is receiving data at all, and that it can distribute the Internet from the stratosphere. We will also be able to calculate the percentage of information lost “on the track”. The same landing page will display the flight schedule of the stratospheric balloon, and the points of receipt of each of your messages will be marked on it. That is, you will be able to track the route and height of the “sky-high server” in real time.
And for completely unbelievers who will say that this is all set up, we will install a small screen on board, on which all messages received from you will be displayed on an HTML page. The screen will be filmed by a camera, in the field of view of which there will also be a part of the horizon. We want to broadcast a video signal over a radio channel, but there is a nuance: if the weather is good, then the video should reach the ground for most of the flight of the stratospheric balloon, at 70-100 km. When it is cloudy, the transmission range can drop to 20 kilometers. But in any case, the video will be recorded and we will publish it after we find the fallen stratospheric balloon. By the way, we will look for it at the signal of the onboard GPS beacon. According to statistics, the server will land within 150 km from the launch site.
Soon we will tell you in detail how the stratospheric payload equipment will be arranged, and how all this will have to work with each other. And at the same time, we will reveal some more interesting details of the project related to space.
To make it interesting for you to follow the project, just like last year, we came up with a contest in which you need to determine the place where the server will land. The winner, who guessed the landing place most accurately, will be able to go to Baikonur, to launch the Soyuz MS-13 manned spacecraft on July 6, the prize for second place is a travel certificate from our friends from Tutu.ru. Twenty other participants will be able to go on a group tour to Star City in May. Details on .
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Source: habr.com