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So... the Big News is what is apparently a long-endurance spy/reconn/weather balloon that might have come from China hovering over the midwest USA.
And all the right wing gun nuts are pulling out their penis extenders and shouting 'Shoot it down! Let me shoot it down!'. Right. At an estimated altitude of 60-80 thousand feet your little pew-pew bullets are just going to fall to earth with getting nearly high enough. They'll fall.... somewhere - maybe on someone's head. Like you care.
From the people who know balloons it appears to be some kind of observation balloon with something slung underneath. It looks like there's long arms with solar panels so it's designed to be up there a while. Solar panels can be made light but I'm guessing that this balloon is one of the large models because you'll need all the lift you can get. Let's run through the hair-brained schemes it could be used for:
Spying: ah... satellites are better and controllable. And have you ever heard of Google Maps?
Distribute lethal chemicals/viruses: balloons can't carry big cargo. At that height no matter how powerful the chemical the small amount it could carry would be diluted over miles and miles to nothing. Viruses? Same thing - add to the fact that at 80 thousand feet it's super cold. Nothing biological could survive.
So an errant weather/research balloon sounds entirely reasonable.
I'm sure the military has the resources to shoot it down. Why waste the energy? Helium balloons leak. Eventually, it will descend and can either be grappled by a helicopter (cheap) or will land on it's own (cheaper still). Then it can be safely inspected.
Yesh people, take a chill pill.
And all the right wing gun nuts are pulling out their penis extenders and shouting 'Shoot it down! Let me shoot it down!'. Right. At an estimated altitude of 60-80 thousand feet your little pew-pew bullets are just going to fall to earth with getting nearly high enough. They'll fall.... somewhere - maybe on someone's head. Like you care.
From the people who know balloons it appears to be some kind of observation balloon with something slung underneath. It looks like there's long arms with solar panels so it's designed to be up there a while. Solar panels can be made light but I'm guessing that this balloon is one of the large models because you'll need all the lift you can get. Let's run through the hair-brained schemes it could be used for:
Spying: ah... satellites are better and controllable. And have you ever heard of Google Maps?
Distribute lethal chemicals/viruses: balloons can't carry big cargo. At that height no matter how powerful the chemical the small amount it could carry would be diluted over miles and miles to nothing. Viruses? Same thing - add to the fact that at 80 thousand feet it's super cold. Nothing biological could survive.
So an errant weather/research balloon sounds entirely reasonable.
I'm sure the military has the resources to shoot it down. Why waste the energy? Helium balloons leak. Eventually, it will descend and can either be grappled by a helicopter (cheap) or will land on it's own (cheaper still). Then it can be safely inspected.
Yesh people, take a chill pill.
no subject
There's an identical one over south America some place too. Satellites aren't an ideal solution, they follow predictable paths that are hard to change and the resolution isn't as good as even a cheap camera at 60,000ft
Apparently, what's making them suspicious is that the balloon evidently has a limited capacity for course alterations, i.e it's under power and control, and it altered course to fly over some of the militaries no-no zones.
Basically, it's not behaving like just a weather balloon... and China said it's for mainly metrological purposes.
But I agree, people are being stupid about it. Apart from anything else, China has been doing this for quite some time now. Only now the media has noticed it.