Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Starver]

(Size of a small car? Hazardous? Maybe this one was an actual free-flying gatling-gun/autocannon..?)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ninja: It seems like (if it's anything at all, the jury is still out - but they're sending notes out to the clerk of the court asking if pertinant questions could be answered) China is looking to exploit the upper atmosphere. Simple technology (relatively) of a basic helium balloon, married to the latest in specialist hard silicon tech...

It's a thing that people have been trying, after all.

Ninjaed twice...

[Dostoevsky]

Whatever it is, the DOD person said they flew a plane up to look at it before shooting it down, so somebody knows.

[The Truth Is Out There]

[The_Explorer]

I guess balloons can be fitted with tech and stuff.

It just...using balloons seems like almost a meme to me. Dunno, I'm not even thinking of birthday balloons but like those big hotair balloons people travel on...like...straight out of some video games where balloons dominate the sky. It just sounds...like a meme xD Cause all I can think of is "its a balloon". Maybe its more serious though than my mind makes it out to be, but I just can't get past "its a balloon"

[jipehog]

If you prefer call it a drone, an unmanned arial vehicle.

Drones use different kinds of vehicles that operate very differently, the advantage of using lighter than air vehicle is that they can stay aloft for months without the need to refuel/recharge. It is essentially a relatively inexpensive more flexible satellite and can be loaded used for same purpose from providing internet communication, border surveillance, early warning system due to its increase los, etc..

[EuchreJack]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna70166

My response

[Lord Shonus]

Apparently, the sensor package on the original balloon was the mass of a small bus, a detail I hadn't come across until now.

[Random_Dragon]

So first we have the spy balloon that was shot down after it reached a safe area to engage it, now we've got something being brought down that's I've seen described as a "UFO" in the proper sense of unidentified...lower altitude making it much more of a priority, or hypercorrection after everyone bitched at them for waiting to bring the balloon down, I wonder?

[lemon10]

I guess balloons can be fitted with tech and stuff.

It just...using balloons seems like almost a meme to me. Dunno, I'm not even thinking of birthday balloons but like those big hotair balloons people travel on...like...straight out of some video games where balloons dominate the sky. It just sounds...like a meme xD Cause all I can think of is "its a balloon". Maybe its more serious though than my mind makes it out to be, but I just can't get past "its a balloon"

Ehh, balloons still have a pretty big place in modern life in that they are critical for weather data. Sure, this use is a bit unusual, but its not like its some crazy thing like a blimp or anything.

(also no, it is not more serious then your mind makes it out to be, this literally does not matter in any real way).

[Lord Shonus]

The lower altitude is a genuine concern - if this was also drifting uncontrolled the risk of a collision with an airliner is small but real. Such a collision would also be a fair bit higher on the International Incident scale than merely floating over.

There is also the possibility that this wasn't a balloon and was some sort of drone under active control. Such a thing wouldn't necessarily pose a greater threat than a balloon, but if an accident were to occur the diplomatic consequences would be even higher than that from a balloon collision.

[MrRoboto75]

I guess balloons can be fitted with tech and stuff.

It just...using balloons seems like almost a meme to me. Dunno, I'm not even thinking of birthday balloons but like those big hotair balloons people travel on...like...straight out of some video games where balloons dominate the sky. It just sounds...like a meme xD Cause all I can think of is "its a balloon". Maybe its more serious though than my mind makes it out to be, but I just can't get past "its a balloon"

It's cheap, stays aloft for a long time, fairly difficult to detect due to poor radar signature and little heat output, and it's cheap.

[Starver]

There's probably many ways to look at this whole thing. Including, but not limited to,...
* "Aarrgghhhh!!!! Thanks to some scientists, this is a thing now! It's like Jurassic Park, in that there'll inevitably be increasingly implausible and life-threatening sequels, until eventually we have to have people saving the balloons from bad people!"
* "This always something that could be done, and was done, and there's been many a top secret report on this sort of thing filed away. I think you'll find the big story is that camera phones are such a thing now that it can't be hushed up. And it didn't help that this lot made this version as big as a bus, the idiots..."
* "Hi, I'm a recently retired intelligence analyst. I think you'll find that my paper, in 1982, told you that this was doable, but you didn't want to fund either my balloon or anti-balloon projects back then, so don't blame me if they've stolen a march on you..."
* "I'm not sayng it's aliens... but it's aliens..."
* "YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO DISTRACT US FROM THE 5G CHIP VACCINES!!!"
* "I believe China. You're violently destroying their ability to control the weather and make it only rain at night when it's more useful..."

[Random_Dragon]

The lower altitude is a genuine concern - if this was also drifting uncontrolled the risk of a collision with an airliner is small but real. Such a collision would also be a fair bit higher on the International Incident scale than merely floating over.

There is also the possibility that this wasn't a balloon and was some sort of drone under active control. Such a thing wouldn't necessarily pose a greater threat than a balloon, but if an accident were to occur the diplomatic consequences would be even higher than that from a balloon collision.

Fair, but it does give the impression of hypercorrection if they're not giving any indication that they even know for sure what they shot down. I'm hoping they do know and just haven't bothered to publicly said so, but if so then stating publicly they don't know rather than simply saying they're waiting for more details or they aren't currently at liberty to say what it was seems weird.

Or it could be they DID say that and by the time it filtered through to reporters someone's since bungled and mislabelled it as unknown rather than "we aren't saying just yet"

[anewaname]

They also could be within range of aircraft emissions that would normally be unnoticed. That first balloon was shot down at 60k feet, which is about the ceiling for both the old U-2 aircraft and UAVs of the last few decades.

[EuchreJack]

Considering the US Government just shot down a smaller object upon first sight, they don't know what it is yet.

It appears they're not even sure this one came from China. But they now have wreckage to examine, so expect much more details tomorrow.

[Criptfeind]

On the second object during the press conference where the government guy announced they shot it down he called it a balloon (after he said that he wasn't going to confirm any details about it lol) so sadly I think it's fairly safe to say it's a second balloon and not the start of an alien invasion.
^{Unless that's just what the aliens what you to think!}