Alleged Chinese Spy Balloon Hovering Over Montana

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Cowabung-Gal

Simple. More sick people equals more money for Big Pharma.

Hmm so it's not about actually saving lives, you say?

Almost like big pharma doesn't have our best interest in mind. But that can't be true, can it? Lord Fauci and Big Daddy Biden are the good guys, aren't they?

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

Just shoot the f*cking thing down and be done with it.

Wouldn't that be a declaration of war?

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

Wouldn't that be a declaration of war?

What, shooting down an unidentified foreign aircraft that penetrated American airspace all the way to the Midwest unauthorized and for undisclosed reasons...? How?

Some would say that thing's current status is the declaration of war, on China's behalf.

[Mayhem]

For once, I have to rather agree, I’m rather surprised it hasn’t been blasted apart yet.

[IndigoErth]

Though I guess shooting it down also requires timing to avoid negative impacts on the ground, so I can see why that still could be an issue and not an action taken immediately.


edit: Shame it couldn't have just been some wayward and harmless Chinese New Year balloon drifted this way on the wind, because that would just be hilarious, minus any air traffic concerns...

[Cowabung-Gal]

No entry without permission

[Roseangelo]

Apparently the reason it's still floating is because they don't want debris to injure people on the ground. But surely we've got a big net or something.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

Russia is not Communist. But you can blame current conditions on Communism, since the ultranationalism and obsession with money we see in Russia today is a counter reaction to 74 years of Communism (1917–1991).

It is not a reaction - it is an extension of Soviet ideology.

[Andrew NDB]

So is this thing manned? Is there people in it?

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

edit: Shame it couldn't have just been some wayward and harmless Chinese New Year balloon drifted this way on the wind, because that would just be hilarious, minus any air traffic concerns...

Drifted on the wind across roughly 1/4 of the planet's circumference?

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

Drifted on the wind across roughly 1/4 of the planet's circumference?

It's a balloon, wind will carry them, so no matter what degree of control they have over its direction, unless they inflated it on U.S. soil, that would be the case, yes. Prob especially some heavy duty surveillance thing meant to last a while.

Now my joke... I'd expect it to at least have lost some amount of its helium if that were the case, since some big "party" balloon isn't made to last as well. But at least something harmless would just be weirdly funny instead of this concerning crap.



Just wait until the thing is over enough open land and take it down so it isn't hurting anyone or anything.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

It's a balloon, wind will carry them, so no matter what degree of control they have over its direction, unless they inflated it on U.S. soil, that would be the case, yes. Prob especially some heavy duty surveillance thing meant to last a while.

Now my joke... I'd expect it to at least have lost some amount of its helium if that were the case. But at least something harmless would just be weirdly funny instead of this concerning crap.

I'm fighting the urge to ask "A wind-carried Chinese balloon? At this time of year? In this part of the country? Localized entirely over your military bases?" and I hope you appreciate how hard that is.

Anyway, the thing's clearly steerable, drifting balloons don't maintain, and then deliberately change, a straight trajectory and altitude. The news over here mentioned it coming in through Canadian airspace, how reliable is that?

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Just wait until the thing is over enough open land and take it down so it isn't hurting anyone or anything.

Or the Great Lakes.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-s...143008568.html

So China has claimed it and explained its a weather balloon that veered off course from it's programed path.

Post #17 brother.

The Technodrome forums. Where people talk at each other not with each other.



As for shooting it down, I can't imagine that we don't have an energy weapon that could puncture it precisely and bring it down in a controlled manner - we are already lasing various targets like drones. On another note, sending a spy unit into another nation is act of war. Shooting down a foreign asset inside of your own territory is an act of self-defense.

On another note, if you "wait" to shoot it down once it's over a lake then it's already curated and likely disseminated via satellite the intelligence it was gathering. What you do is disable it immediately and if it's retrievable for intel that's even better. God sometimes I can't even fathom where some of you guys are coming from with some of this. Holy $#(.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

Anyway, the thing's clearly steerable, drifting balloons don't maintain, and then deliberately change, a straight trajectory and altitude.

Article I was looking at suggested it may have solar panels (some of those black marks in photos I guess?), though doesn't seem to have propellers or any obvious way of steering. If this golf ball-looking thing has anything built in for steering, it must be quite minimal that we can't pick it out in photos.

Or the Great Lakes.

That could work, if can't get it down sooner over open parts of the Midwest. Provided winter storms don't make it a problem, in either case.

'Course if they can control the direction and can resist where wind takes it, it might be hard to force it to go that way.

[ChosenOne]

Originally Posted by IMJ

On another note, if you "wait" to shoot it down once it's over a lake then it's already curated and likely disseminated via satellite the intelligence it was gathering. What you do is disable it immediately and if it's retrievable for intel that's even better. God sometimes I can't even fathom where some of you guys are coming from with some of this. Holy $#(.

But if you shoot you it down over a populated area, who knows what collateral damage might occur? Who knows for sure how that thing's built, what's inside it, etc? Could even kill someone. I'd rather risk losing a foreign spy craft and its data than civilian casualties.

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Article I was looking at suggested it may have solar panels (some of those black marks in photos I guess?), though doesn't seem to have propellers or any obvious way of steering. If this golf ball-looking thing has anything built in for steering, it must be quite minimal that we can't pick it out in photos.

What do you suppose the black structure halfway down its surface is?

[IMJ]

That's the thing - that balloon could be equipped with spectrometers or other muon sensing equipment that penetrates into the ground and broadcasts to a satellite. That's why you don't chance it.

It's literally flying over where we keep nuclear assets. The current liberal-appointed Washington braintrust says that it can't see things of importance, but what if it's got ground penetrating sensors that can not only see ICBM launch sites but see within them?

"Oh the Chinese don't have that!" How do you know? That's the whole point - you don't chance it. This was a calling card test from China to see how far they can push the envelope.

There are a zillion ways to bring that balloon down - very likely more than we are aware of at this level. The government can hit things with shaped charges that can literally end the destruction of a building within inches of a target. You're gonna tell me that we can't shoot down a balloon so that it doesn't hit something in sparsely populated Montanna or Kansas City?

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

What do you suppose the black structure halfway down its surface is?

It looks like a solar array with a communication grid on it.



I imagine the architecture to the immediate interior of the panels are various camera systems.

[joe-eyeball]

It was mentioned in an official press conference earlier today by our “intelligence” that the balloon does have some ability to maneuver. If that’s true then this thing is definitely more than it seems.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by ChosenOne

What do you suppose the black structure halfway down its surface is?

Anybody's guess, but along the bottom edge of the balloon it doesn't seem to fall off that edge like an object attached, it looks like it follows the shape of the balloon.

Some article suggested solar panels and maybe those black rectangles are what they were talking about. Maybe it has a system with that to keep itself inflated.


If weather conditions and location doesn't permit taking it down over land... well if anyone sees it, just be sure to flip them off. lol At least until it's blasted out of the sky over the Atlantic at the very latest.

Hope we do get that thing down. Even if it turned out to be of minimal concern, would be interesting to hear how it's rigged up mechanically.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by joe-eyeball

It was mentioned in an official press conference earlier today by our “intelligence” that the balloon does have some ability to maneuver. If that’s true then this thing is definitely more than it seems.

It's possible that the solar array is articulated whereby each square-panel can also serve as an airfoil as well as an energy accumulator, giving the entire thing a degree of planned mobility.

On another note, you don't "steer" with "propellers". omfg

[IndigoErth]

Second one reported crossing Latin America. Yeaaah...def starting to look less accidental.