[Image: One of Google’ Loon balloons; screen grab from this video].
“The lab is 250 feet wide, 200 feet deep, and 70 feet tall. It’s a massive space where Google’s scientists can simulate the negative-60 degrees Celsius temperature of the stratosphere.” Alexis Madrigal on Google’s Project Loon balloons.
The future of the internet is cereal bag technology in the sky.
So, hundreds of ballons over Indonesia for a few days each means hundreds of balloon over the Pacific ocean, South America, the South Atlantic ocean, Africa, and the Indian ocean as they circumnavigate the globe on the Trade Winds at the latitude of Indonesia, until they bust and fall to the ground or fall into the water a hundred or so days later.
The rocket people are all excited about reusable boosters, while these balloon people are planning disposable carriers on a far larger scale. Cities in the Bay Area are banning plastic bags from their environment, while these people are planning to pollute the entire globe with this material.
Or do they have some secret plan to recover those balloons at the end of their flight plans that they're not telling anyone about. I'm betting that they're not thinking this project all the way through to its end-of-life phase. It's the Google way, to just abandon unprofitable projects. Orderly exits are for grownups.