Chinese Balloon

[DPC]

Yes, I remember Eisenhower having to admit that it was a reconnaissance flight. A documentary I recently saw said that was the end of the CIA use of plausible deniability. I did not know Powers was supposed to take a suicide pill.

I could be wrong about the pill maybe I watch too many old movies
In every spy movie there is a poison pill and somehow you trick the bad guy into drinking the poisoned glass and the good guy manages to board a train and escape to West Berlin

 

[Think About It]

Probably would take thousands of small holes to get it to come down intact
Most likely it has some sophisticated buoyancy controls in order for a balloon to do the kinds of things it does
And then if you managed to turn it to Swiss cheese and it was going to land on the ground intact it was probably loaded with explosives that could be triggered from china and blow it to enough tiny pieces you could never find

Leave you two choices
Blow it out of the sky over the arctic so you can find it on the ice
Better over the sea incase it’s carrying a self destruct charge

What ever you do or has to be sudden so ground controllers can’t react and destroy evidence

Remember Gary powers failed to blow up his U2 and take his suicide pill
It was a fiasco….

I respect your opinion. But I don't believe that we couldn't have brought it down in one piece, in tact. If I were POTUS, I would have given the order to bring it down in one piece - whatever it takes. And call Elon Musk and Richard Branson and NASA - not just the people that only know how to shoot missiles at it. I would have instructed our diplomats not to bring the balloon up with the Chinese, not a word. Then I would have parked it on the front lawn of the Whitehouse for Xi Jinping to see when he comes to visit. The message would have been sent!

I don't know how. But there are many brilliant minds in this country. I'm sure we could have come up with a way in all the time that we had. I'm sure that part of the problem is that the military only knows how to shoot at things. Perhaps we could have pierced it with lasers. Once it descended to a lower altitude we could have caught it with a grappling hook from one of those huge helicopters that can lift a tractor trailer.

 

[time2roll]

I agree a capture and disable device needs to be constructed. Get a hold on it, pop the ballon, deploy a parachute for a soft or even guided landing.
If that Tesla guy can land a rocket vertically this should be childs play.

 

[DPC]

that Tesla guy

Stop giving him free money
Give him and Brandson some butterfly nets dangle them from hot air balloons and send them off to sea too
Dam oligarchs

Reason this out guys
If your a clever man to build a spy balloon that Crossed the pacific
Don’t you think they are smart enough to put some fail safes o
It to make sure you do not get to shoot it down in a n piece?

I’m just a stupid old polak and even I can envisage a simple radio controlled device connected to a self destruct charge

a grappling hook from one of those huge helicopters that can lift a tractor trailer.
I can remember people coming up with ideas like that to save sky lab from crashing with nets and stuff when they were not sure where it would land
Sounds good but the logistic of it
Not to mention it’s 40000 feet higher than a chopper can fly
It’s way up there to avoid capture by n the stratosphere where you lay high performance rocket interceptors can reach
Travelling at speeds that make trying to snag it comparable to snatched by a Kleenex from somebody in another car doing 75 mph down a highway with a pair of bbq tongs

A balloon is a light thing
A delicate structure

Jap bomb ballon’s were made of paper
I can imagine the Chinese engineering something like that to be robust enough to ever survive a landing crash or otherwise

When it mission was over likely it was intended to self destruct over the sea and never leave a trace

 

[Hedges]

People also said the US should have had a destruct system on the drone which was captured by Iran.

Put an explosive on an airship and fly it into a country you're not at war with (yet)?


Things can be done on a smaller scale, so as to not cause injury.
I was talking with a guy about his presentation on hydrodynamic modeling of inkjets (Rayleigh instability, etc.).
It was mechanical inkjet, ancient technology. I asked why he didn't use thermal inject.
They were printing explosives.

 

[DPC]

The drone in Iran
Did that not suffer a communication or computer failure and crash land intact?
Hardly a capture
Dum luck

I don’t imagine it ever happens again
But if memory service the Chinese got there hands on a malfunctioning drone that over flew Vietnam once

 

[Think About It]

The drone in Iran
Did that not suffer a communication or computer failure and crash land intact?
Hardly a capture
Dum luck

I don’t imagine it ever happens again
But if memory service the Chinese got there hands on a malfunctioning drone that over flew Vietnam once

What about all the military hardware that Biden gave to the Taliban?

 

[Danke]

 

[rodrick]

The drone in Iran
Did that not suffer a communication or computer failure and crash land intact?
Hardly a capture
Dum luck

I don’t imagine it ever happens again
But if memory service the Chinese got there hands on a malfunctioning drone that over flew Vietnam once

Yea it had a computer issue some software problem, you noticed about 6 months after Iran tried to analyze all of the computer programs there centrifuges went down some dam virus got to them somehow effected most of the government computers

 

[Sverige]

I can’t get over the size of this balloon. Just the dangly bit below it was said to be 200ft in length, so the balloon itself must have been gargantuan! Imagine how visible this thing is as it slowly comes down to land. People for hundreds of miles around would have a view of it. Nothing you can keep secret in the days when everyone has a phone with a camera.

The Chinese excuse that it’s a weather balloon won’t stand up to any kind of scrutiny if the US choose to release photos of the gear onboard, so why bother with such lame excuses?

 

[Sverige]

Hopefully the expense of using an F-22 and sidewinder to shoot down this balloon will be repaid with useful intelligence to answer the one burning question we’ve all got - exactly what kind of charge controller and BMS were the Chinese using on this solar setup??

 

[stok]

Hopefully the expense of using an F-22 and sidewinder to shoot down this balloon will be repaid with useful intelligence to answer the one burning question we’ve all got - exactly what kind of charge controller and BMS were the Chinese using on this solar setup??

I would bet it is one of those Fangpusun MPPT controllers, thats a exact clone of Victron. I would like to know the BMS that was used, so that we can know what is the very best Aliexpress BMS that we can buy... If its good enough for a intercontinental spy balloon that operates at 60 000 feet and has circled the earth, who know how many times , it will be good enough for my use as a stationary solar battery in my home.

 

[Sverige]

I would bet it is one of those Fangpusun MPPT controllers, thats an exact clone of Victron. I would like to know the BMS that was used, so that we can know what is the very best Aliexpress BMS that we can buy... If its good enough for a intercontinental spy balloon that operates at 60 000 feet and has circled the earth, who know how many times , it will be good enough for my use as a stationary solar battery in my home.

The real tease is the idea that all those panels, controllers, BMS and batteries were floating around in the sky to be had for free if I could just have come up with a pea shooter which could get high enough to pop the balloon Heck of a waste of scarce Helium though…

 

[MurphyGuy]

Yes, I remember Eisenhower having to admit that it was a reconnaissance flight. A documentary I recently saw said that was the end of the CIA use of plausible deniability. I did not know Powers was supposed to take a suicide pill.

That's not something I knew either. My curiosity kicked in and I decided to google "suicide pill" to start some fun research.

Apparently, Help is available and I'm supposed to call 988.

 

[HRTKD]

The actual ceiling of U.S. fighter jets is a carefully kept secret. The published ceiling is well below the height the balloon was at. If the U.S. sent an F-22 (for example) up there to "poke a hole in it" we would have revealed a more realistic ceiling for that plane.

 

[MurphyGuy]

The actual ceiling of U.S. fighter jets is a carefully kept secret. The published ceiling is well below the height the balloon was at. If the U.S. sent an F-22 (for example) up there to "poke a hole in it" we would have revealed a more realistic ceiling for that plane.

No.

The altitude of the balloon was estimated to be 60,000 to 65,000 feet.

The official ceiling of the F22 is 60,000 feet, and publicly posted information says that at that ceiling, and unlike other aircraft, it is fully capable of performing maneuvers, which is another way of saying, it can go higher than 60,000 if it doesn't try to dance.

 

[D71]

Our government is the best money can buy. This is exactly why ..... we will fail and are doomed. Dumbing down. " Everyone gets a prize. We are all equal." We are USA USa Usa usa living a modern lie of superiority.
We have become Idiocracy the movie
"Helium for everyone."

Sample of U.S. Govt:

Sample of The movie Idocracy:

Remember everyone - we went to the moon several times but not in over 50+ years.... we have not been back. Now we have ppl out there trying to figure out how to get BACK to space and to the moon. Did NASA destroy all the proven technology that we paid so much money for in the 1950-1970's? Did those captured former Nazi operation paper clip scientist delete everything. At what point did we dumb down to below retard level? AGAIN: Last time to the moon was over 50+ years ago. Hmmmmm there was a bs story circulating years ago that weather balloons were used to put satellites into the air. What happened to the space laser weapons and bs that Reagan spoke of when he was President? Anyone remember the series called V?

CONSPIRACY THEORY

 

[HRTKD]

No.

The altitude of the balloon was estimated to be 60,000 to 65,000 feet.

The official ceiling of the F22 is 60,000 feet, and publicly posted information says that at that ceiling, and unlike other aircraft, it is fully capable of performing maneuvers, which is another way of saying, it can go higher than 60,000 if it doesn't try to dance.

Show me an "official" Air Force confirmation of the ceiling height of the F-22. Most of the data that is out there are estimates.

 

[MurphyGuy]

Show me an "official" Air Force confirmation of the ceiling height of the F-22. Most of the data that is out there are estimates.

Seriously? Could this be the problem with our society today? People are incapable of looking up readily available facts?
Just google "F22 Ceiling"

F-22 Raptor

The F-22 Raptor is combination of stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, coupled with improved supportability, represents an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities. The

www.af.mil

 

[HRTKD]

Seriously? Could this be the problem with our society today? People are incapable of looking up readily available facts?
Just google "F22 Ceiling"

F-22 Raptor

The F-22 Raptor is combination of stealth, supercruise, maneuverability, and integrated avionics, coupled with improved supportability, represents an exponential leap in warfighting capabilities. The

www.af.mil

Hmm, that webpage says this:

Ceiling: above 50,000 feet (15 kilometers)

In other words, they aren't publishing the actual ceiling.