Google is floating a trial balloon to...try balloons. That is, they plan to hoist balloons aloft to offer Internet access just about anywhere on Earth. Project Loon (insert own joke here) comprises a balloon-mounted box of electronics that contains GPS, sensors, weather-monitoring instruments, etc. A network of these balloons at the rim of space will offer Internet access via a simple antenna back down here on Earth. The electronics run on 100 watts of solar power, which keeps the on-board battery charged for four hours of use at night. The balloons would hover 12 miles above the Earth, above both weather and airplanes. They can also be steered, so Google can send them where they are needed—kind of like gently wafting drones, perhaps. Says GreenBiz:

“By moving with the wind,” says Google, “the balloons can be arranged to form one large communications network.” A signal will bounce from balloon to balloon, then to the global Internet back on Earth.

No word as to whether or not we have to worry about aliens sneaking onto our network perhaps they’ll password-secure it. The first balloons were launched on June 14, and 30 of them are bobbing about up there, as the technology is tested and refined. So some day, when you use Google to ask a question, you can in fact say, “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”