News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Project Loon by dvfb on Saturday June 15, 2013 @12:34AM (#5884057)
So the balloons just float on the air channels 20km up and presumably circulate around world? I can imagine problems coming up with some countries objecting to these being over their airspace.
Re:Project Loon by bvi on Saturday June 15, 2013 @12:39AM (#5884072)
So the question, then, is how high do you need to go before you're no longer in a country's airspace?
Re:Project Loon by tellarin on Saturday June 15, 2013 @12:54AM (#5884104)
As far as I know there is no international agreement on this. Altitude can vary from 30Km to 160Km.

Most countries seem to claim somewhere between 70Km and 100Km as their airspace.

If someone has more details on this, it's very welcome.

Re:Project Loon by wsh on Saturday June 15, 2013 @01:54AM (#5884252)
This master's thesis from 2005 ("The Vertical Limit of State Sovereignty") has a fairly comprehensive account of the history and present state of international law in this area:

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA436627

Re:Project Loon by tellarin on Saturday June 15, 2013 @04:19AM (#5884497)
I'm familiar with that. And the guy proposes 22Km as the limit.

Besides, a lot has changed in the use of airspace and space in the last 8 years.

Yet, I don't know of any authoritative source for the actual current claims of most countries.