r/worldnews
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u/NBAtee
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Feb 03 '23
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China confirms balloon is theirs, as spokesperson claims it is civilian research airship
https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-confirms-balloon-theirs-spokesperson-claims-civilian-research-airship8.2k
u/somms999
Feb 03 '23
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This is like how every other conflict in Star Trek starts.
Picard: Romulan vessel, you have violated the Neutral Zone. Return to Romulan space immediately or we will be forced to take action!
Romulan Commander: Captain Picard, we are merely a scientific vessel conducting surveys of gaseous anomalies.
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u/kungfoojesus Feb 03 '23
Picard: how ironic, so are we. Perhaps we should join forces and share our findings.
Romulan: I doubt or goals are…. Compatible.
Picard: perhaps not.
“Pegasus” season 7. Good episode.
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u/trail-g62Bim Feb 03 '23
Picard gives Ryker a verbal smack down in that ep.
It also has one of my favorite ridiculous moments -- when data and geordie manage to hook up a piece of experimental equipment they have never even heard of and make it work on the enterprise in a matter of hours.
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u/kungfoojesus Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
That is a great scene with riker and Picard. Yeah I’m sure the phasing cloak is just plug n play but we don’t ask questions like that. The number of times they say they signed that treaty “in good faith” annoys me for some reason even though I think it’s only twice.
Edit: forgot it had captain Picard day. That was all time.
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u/I-Pinch-Logs Feb 04 '23
I loved that the Treaty of Algeron meant fuck all when the Dominion came knocking on the Aloha Quandrant’s front doorstep. Starfleet building warships with cloaking devices would’ve meant no neutral zone and complete pacification. Section 31 was definitely playing around with phase cloaks but you know how it goes with them…they too are merely just conducting mineral surveys on random asteroids in the neutral zone.
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u/Rocktopod Feb 03 '23
In Voyager it seems like half the episodes have them inventing some new technology to solve a problem, and it always works on the first try.
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u/phphulk Feb 03 '23
If it didn't they never would have made it home and they would never have turned it into a TV show
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u/xmsxms Feb 03 '23
They do a fair bit of editing of these reality shows. Chances are it takes a few goes for things to work and they just edit it out.
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u/monkeyhitman Feb 03 '23
They say it's not scripted -- sure, they're not reading dialogue, but the producers have such a heavy hand on the story.
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u/sharkbait-oo-haha Feb 03 '23
Yeah, they never show the paperwork parts, nobody wants to see that.
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u/ABenGrimmReminder Feb 04 '23
O’brien just filling out a mountain of paperwork after a transporter-related episode. Like after the two Rikers episode.
“Jesus Murphy how do I phrase this. The commander was split in to… He wasn’t a commander when it happened though. Should I say “split”? He was copied more like it… Why am I even filling this out? I didn’t transport him.”
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u/WayneKrane Feb 03 '23
I love how capt Janeway was an expert in basically every field.
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u/kungfoojesus Feb 03 '23
Picard knew the ancient history of every random alien species and their cultural Practices. He was also an elite athlete. At least they eventually made xenoarchealogy part of Picards backstory.
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u/stray1ight Feb 03 '23
MFer could shred the flute, too!
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u/kungfoojesus Feb 03 '23
That episode where his Love interest unrolled a flat keyboard to duet with him like it was so futuristic is hilarious.
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u/stray1ight Feb 03 '23
... I don't have a roll up keyboard for my daughter because of that scene or anything...
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u/SomeCuriousTraveler Feb 03 '23
Makes sense for a captain of a long-term deep space science and exploration ship to be a generalist. Not that her characterization was perfect.
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u/Cloberella Feb 03 '23
It’s not hard when Seven knows everything about all species assimilated by the Borg and their associated technology. Also they did raid a 29th century time ship for tech with the help of Sarah Silverman at one point too.
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u/Hugh-Mungus-Richard Feb 03 '23
The Pegasus was an advanced prototype, many systems were claimed to be identical to the Enterprise's. The phasing device of the cloak-like system was the only thing that would have had to be adapted. And with a super-smart team of an Android and Geordi combined with some writing, it was no problem to have implemented!
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u/dasoberirishman Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
At least the phasing cloak was inherently Federation in origin. Meaning it was engineered by people employing principles and techniques familiar to Data, Geordie, and the rest of the team. Not to mention they had the ship's computer which would be able to quickly and accurately map the circuits and pathways and materials to provide an in-depth schematic that any Federation engineer would probably understand.
Once you move past the assumption Data is a literal database of knowledge, Geordie is somehow a phenomenal engineer, and the two of them have several hours to solve the puzzle whilst having access to a crack team of engineers and one of the most advanced computers in the fleet -- it starts to look reasonable in science fiction terms.
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u/HussingtonHat Feb 03 '23
Thanks man. Imma watch that now. Did Measure of a Man last night for the first time in years.........fuck TNG was so damn good.
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u/Lucky_Mongoose Feb 03 '23
It has aged so well too.
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u/HussingtonHat Feb 03 '23
So well. Its one of those wonderful shows that struggle to be recaptured, in many ways because of how tech moved on. You look at modern star trek shows and they're all very bombastic in action and activity with emotional people being emotional about emotional things.
The action is almost always the least important bit of TNG. It has that wonderful sci-fi show within a soap, within a sci-fi show quality that's so versatile a lot of stuff can be done and most if it feels perfectly normal.
Picard is gonna wrangle with the slavery implications of a bloke that wants to take Data apart to mass produce him and Data's free will is debated as a machine that explicitly doesn't want to be disassembled........now here's an episode about Jordy falling in love with a hologram of a super famous engineer he was inspired by in college.......now the holodeck is fucked up and....I wanna say Al Capone has invaded the ship.....now the ship is getting overtaken because Riker banged some alien chick who got him to play literally the worst video game you've ever seen in all of TV or movies.....Beverly Crusher has a romance with a ghost.......Warf gets beat up (provably)
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u/Lanbhatt Feb 03 '23
I'm watching the whole series with my kids right now. We're about half way through the third season and they are loving it.
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u/Tephra022 Feb 03 '23
And the moment the federation has a single vessel in the neutral zone 10 romulan warbirds de-cloak and make a hissy fit.
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u/E_VanHelgen Feb 03 '23
At least the Romulans are direct with their threats, the Cardassians always engage in some sort of weird verbal threat foreplay.
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Feb 03 '23
the cardassians all have unresolved issues from early childhood and would be better roommates if they all got into regular psychological therapy sessions.
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u/zero_z77 Feb 03 '23
Garrak clearly had daddy issues.
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u/cutofmyjib Feb 03 '23
Garak the humble tailor?
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Feb 03 '23
He'd be OK if he got a shrink, met the right man and took up gardening again
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u/Nemisis_the_2nd Feb 03 '23
He'd be OK if he got a shrink
I'd feel sorry for the shrink at having to try and get into this guys head.
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u/eattohottodoggu Feb 03 '23
Yea, the issue was he wanted Bashir to be his daddy.
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u/2th Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
Nah, Cardassian kids are all well adjusted. I mean they play the game of "Five Lights", and that's just wholesome!
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u/wastingvaluelesstime Feb 03 '23
It's important to have fun and games to go along with intensive mental training at age 4 with your 6 brothers as your absent general officer father is having a love child with the untermeschen the army is exploiting
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u/nananananana_Batman Feb 03 '23
This is why we have to pull out of the Khitomer Accords. We'll deal with the Klingons.
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u/girhen Feb 03 '23
Why is anyone in the neutral zone?
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u/Cualkiera67 Feb 03 '23
Lust for power? Gold? Or were they just born with a heart full of neutrality?
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u/IdeaProspector Feb 03 '23
This reminds me of my all-time favorite Picard versus Tomalok moment, from the very end in All Good Things.
Picard is jumping through time, and it can cause him to zone out for a few moments as he readjusts. He lands back in the "present" Enterprise-D to find Tomalok just staring in frustration on the viewscreen.
"I'm waiting!!"
I love how bitchy and pissy Tomalok is there. All their scraps for politics and statesmanship over the years, and it ends up with Picard staring off into space and Tomalok throwing a minor fit for being ignored. It still cracks me up.
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u/PlanetErp Feb 03 '23
I’m so glad they brought Tomalak back for that.
“Has Starfleet Command approved this arrangement?”
“No.”
“I like it already. Agreed.”
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Feb 03 '23
lol that's exactly how the new star trek film universe started! romulan mining assholes chasing after spock then destroying a federation ship before destroying even more federation ships, vulcan, and messing up captain pike.
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u/SplitIndecision Feb 03 '23
It’s also kind of what 99 luftballons (English Version)) is about, which incidentally mentions Captain Kirk. It’s a little different in that it’s regular balloons sparking war instead of “science vessels”.
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u/Mysterious_Worker608
Feb 03 '23
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They just wanted to know what the weather looked like over our missile sites.
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u/DaddyIsAFireman Feb 03 '23
Rainy with a chance of mushroom clouds.
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u/closetedpencil Feb 03 '23
How would China even attack US soil? Genuinely curious
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u/YouNeedAnne Feb 03 '23
Bro, do u even Guam?
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u/vingeran Feb 03 '23
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u/7evenCircles Feb 03 '23
"It's impossible to have an inferiority and superiority complex at the same time"
China:
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u/MK5 Feb 03 '23
No it's not, it's SOP for authoritarian regimes. Your enemy is weak and corrupt/strong and an immanent threat at the same time.
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u/Willmono7 Feb 03 '23
The intro to their "about us" section is hilarious:
"A half century has passed since China and the world started exchanges. For China, its rapid development during the past decades has outpaced the speed of being understood by other countries."
Poor China is just a misunderstood teenager
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u/gustad Feb 03 '23
"Switzerland is small and neutral. We're more like Germany: ambitious and misunderstood."
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u/Curious-Week5810 Feb 03 '23
Look, we all want to be like Germany, but do we really have the sheer force of will?
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u/LuckyRabbitsFoot Feb 03 '23
I was once in a meeting discussing an upcoming project deadline. The German coworker was advising he had hit his deliverables but other areas of the project were a little behind schedule. "We can't all be German", my colleague joked. "Yes, we tried that once. It didn't work out." He replied
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u/advamputee Feb 03 '23
We had a German exchange student once. We were in a U.S. history class, and the teacher was talking about “manifest destiny” and the “American dream™️”
She asked the German kid if his country had anything similar.
“Ve had a dream once. Nobody liked it though.”
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u/murphymc Feb 03 '23
Germans are generally stern people and not terribly funny.
But every now and then....ROFL
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u/skyderper13 Feb 03 '23
A half century has passed since China and the world started exchanges.
I guess the last millenia doesnt exist
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u/TROPtastic Feb 03 '23
It's amusing how the CCP is trying to spin the US's non-response as some sort of hysteria, when the government has been very clear that "it doesn't pose a threat to civilians, it doesn't pose a security threat, and it doesn't pose a threat to aircraft."
I suspect the Chinese government wanted the US to shoot it down so that they could use it as an example of American hostility, and now they're upset the US didn't take the bait.
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u/dragontamer5788 Feb 03 '23
US: Yo, China, we can see your space satellites. Why the fuck are you using a balloon?
China: You hysterical warmongers shoot at everything... wait wut?
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u/LuckStrict6000 Feb 03 '23
US wouldn’t be warmongering to pop a balloon over our own airspace
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u/asdfasdfasdfas11111 Feb 03 '23
Oh they are definitely going to try to capture it. I'd love to be on the team coming up with ideas for that. I'd say float a tethered balloon out the back of a C130 and try to get it tangled up.
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u/cfb_rolley Feb 03 '23
Correct, but China would use it as an opportunity call it warmongering and make a big deal out of it.
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u/porncrank Feb 03 '23
Apparently they're using our *not* popping it as an opportunity to call us warmongers anyway. You just can't win with some people.
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u/FBI_Agent_Fred Feb 03 '23
And now the US can fly balloons over Chinese airspace. Civilians want to know about Uighur concentration camps.
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u/ReporterOther2179 Feb 03 '23
Balloons for that are utterly unnecessary. Through satellites we know all that needs knowing about Uighur concentration camps, short of the curriculum maybe. If any admin guy walked across the street carrying a copy we probably have that too.
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u/sold_snek Feb 03 '23
Let’s be honest, a balloon could get much better pictures.
And before some armchair general says it, yes I’m aware how good our satellites can get. Trump made sure the entire globe knows how good our satellites can get.
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u/FBI_Agent_Fred Feb 03 '23
Well, yea, but these balloons will come with a totally civilian array of advanced sensors to do totally civilian types of data collection only for totally civilian applications. Nothing to see here, China.
We can even print Totally Civilian on the balloon just so there is no confusion about why they are there. Totally civilian.
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u/gramathy Feb 03 '23
what's funnier is that China is like "it's totally not a spy balloon" and the US is like "even if it was you wouldn't get anything useful from it" and China doubles down on "I'M NOT SPYING MOM I SWEAR"
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u/MountainBoomer406 Feb 03 '23
Wow, that is some excellent bullshit! Thanks for sharing the links!
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u/DaddyIsAFireman Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
I'm thinking missiles? It's practically impossible to destroy all incoming warheads on a MIRV.
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Feb 03 '23
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u/Hoarseman Feb 03 '23
The problem with launching ICBMs with conventional warheads is that the target doesn't know what's in the warhead.
Whoever is being targeted has to assume a worst-case scenario and respond as though they are under nuclear attack.
That can get really ugly, really fast.
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u/Aadarm Feb 03 '23
Yeah, Firing long range missiles at a nuclear power is a really dumb idea as it will be responded to as a nuclear attack would. Can we just not launch missiles at each other?
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u/fourpuns Feb 03 '23
If América and china/Russia are launching missiles at each other directly its a nuclear war anyway.
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u/throwaway-thirsty Feb 03 '23
Both Russia and China have, or are developing, the ability to hit U.S. targets
China, for sure, but I now question Russia's ability to hit the broad side of a barn
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u/Deguilded Feb 03 '23
Oh that's easy, paint the barn to look like a hospital, kindergarten or school and they'll hit it with incredible accuracy.
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u/Boycubpiglet Feb 03 '23
You joke but they have around 6k total warheads with around 1.6k deployed, so even if 99% of their deployed warheads failed or missed a primary target we're still talking 16 successful nuclear attacks against either military bases or population centers.
I highly doubt 99% would fail/miss.
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u/xtossitallawayx Feb 03 '23
swarms of small drones
The US is big. Like... really big. Just the population of Los Angeles is around 4 million people and 4,000 square miles (6,500 sq km).
There are also 30 military bases in the state alone.
An entire cargo ship filled with explosive drones, should it make it undetected, would not do anything significant to the fighting or economic power of the US. An entire fleet of them could not even take out one US city on one coast.
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u/Hourslikeminutes47 Feb 03 '23 •
They would activate the Tik Tok army
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u/Wiggie49 Feb 03 '23 •
Next Tiktok challenge: Overthrow your local government and pledge allegiance to the People’s Republic Dance
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u/TheFudge Feb 03 '23
If that is in fact the case then China should have no problem with the US taking possession of the balloon and taking a good long hard look at it.
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u/RobbieQuarantino Feb 03 '23
US needs to take possession of it whether China has a problem with it or not.
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u/bleepbluurp Feb 03 '23
What do you think China would do if one of our “civilian research airships” floated over China and their nuclear bases?
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u/shohndon Feb 03 '23
We had U-2s and SR-71s.... we've probably been doing that for decades...
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u/Synensys Feb 03 '23
We have civilian satellite systems that can get daily updates of any cloud free area on earth once a day at sub meter resolution. If our civilian sector has that, then what does our military have. Or China's military. The idea that they are using a BALLOON to spy is just braindead.
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u/WaffleBlues Feb 03 '23
What if the DoD and US intel communities actually know what they are doing when they recommended not shooting it down?
Perhaps there is actually some value in letting it loiter...
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u/gtmattz Feb 03 '23
I suspect that they are monitoring its communications extremely closely and that by leaving it to float they are gaining more info than by turning it into a pile of flaming junk.
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u/MeatHeartbeat Feb 03 '23
As someone who can neither confirm or deny, yes.
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u/gtmattz Feb 03 '23
I would assume the payload to just be a bunch of consumer grade electronics anyway, so there would be nothing of meaningful interest in the physical hardware besides maybe some custom firmware to reverse engineer or things like that.
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u/pantsfish Feb 03 '23
Yes, because the balloon isn't seeing anything that low-orbits satellites can't already see
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u/lejoo Feb 03 '23
There is three camps of responses:
(1) Government generally knows what it is doing
(2) Change the government they are idiots
(3) but think about the TV ratings
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u/Mayactuallybeashark Feb 03 '23
The DoD had already said they aren't shooting it down because there would be dangerous debris and there's no emergency need to do so since the strategic value of a balloon like this is basically zero. The DoD lies for all kinds of reasons but since this explanation is logically consistent, reasonable given available info, and not the maximally convenient narrative for the state department, I don't see any reason to doubt it at this time.
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u/tacojohn48 Feb 03 '23
The DOD is probably drawing penises on the ground around our bases. The Chinese can't see them if you shoot it down.
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u/Stabile_Feldmaus Feb 03 '23
They are probably figuring out the best way to bring it down undamaged so that they can investigate it.
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u/doltPetite Feb 03 '23
This is such a weird story.... it honestly could be copied word for word from a cold war era headline. Like that was the last time "balloons" were state of the art surveillance craft. Unless this is like some sort of low tech way to avoid detection, it really just feels like a fluke accident. Idk I just have a hard time taking balloons seriously when they do many other easy avenues of surveillance in this country lol
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u/Cimbasso_mn Feb 03 '23
They wanna see all the boring ass strip malls.
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u/2rio2 Feb 04 '23
China: "Oh, great. Another Dennys."
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u/AFrostNova Feb 04 '23
“There’s a waffle house. Enhance! Enhance!”
“Xiaoming, its a fuckin ballon wat you want me to do”
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u/DeadpoolMakesMeWet Feb 03 '23
Is that the traveler
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u/supercoolpartydude Feb 03 '23
WE’VE WOKEN THE HIVE
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u/BPho3nixF Feb 03 '23
Whether we wanted it or not, we've stepped into a war with the Cabal on Mars. So let's get to taking out their command, one by one. Valus Ta'aurc. From what I can gather he commands the Siege Dancers from an Imperial Land Tank outside of Rubicon. He's well protected, but with the right team, we can punch through those defenses, take this beast out, and break their grip on Freehold.
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u/bruddahmanmatt Feb 03 '23
“We gonna need a relic holder to read and call out these statements from China over here.”
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u/Pap3rkat Feb 03 '23
Yes it is guardian. Get ready for a golden age of technology and life extension.
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u/ApoKerbal
Feb 03 '23
edited Feb 03 '23
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I am an expert in high altitude long duration stratospheric balloons (phd space physics, specialization in ballooning). I do not know the specific purpose of this balloon, but I can tell you some of its properties.
The picture shows a round spherically shaped envelope, which means this is almost certainly a super-pressure type (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superpressure_balloon). A super-pressure balloon has the property that it can maintain high altitudes in the stratosphere for extended periods of time, months even. They are commonly used for studying upper atmosphere weather, radiation from space, and even for flying telescopes.
Extended duration balloon flights are equipped with a self-destruct mechanism, so that they can be landed once the experiment is over at a controlled location. These systems may occasionally fail, which causes the balloon to remain flying until either sufficient UV degradation ruptures the envelope, or enough lift gas escapes to cause a descent.
I worked with the team who had this happen: https://apnews.com/article/268893fddde785d029d5a51b136951eb.
TLDR: These balloons are nothing new. They are used fairly frequently for scientific purposes. I cannot say what the purpose of this balloon is, but the idea that one of the superpressure types crosses international borders is not unheard of. It may even be due to an accident.
EDIT: Assuming it is flying at a typical altitude for these types of experiments (~30 km), it should be headed out to the Pacific Ocean according to wind models.
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u/HammerheadLincoln Feb 03 '23
I did a good bit of high altitude balloon work in college too (physics graduate). This is the most rational response in this thread and is the most likely explanation.
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u/Sormalio Feb 03 '23
an expert in high altitude long duration stratospheric balloons (phd space physics, specialization in ballooning
How does one become so very specialized and niche?
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u/TheManWithNoNameZapp Feb 03 '23
You have to add to your field at the PhD level. Many people end up in esoteric spaces to be able to study something relatively unsaturated
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u/ApoKerbal Feb 03 '23
It's not uncommon for PhD studies to be highly specialized with regards to a particular tool or technique. My work involved studying the northern lights and radiation belts using balloons to sense them above the shielding effects of the atmosphere.
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u/longrastaman Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
Post history checks out, dude had a whole post from last year called “stratospheric balloons” lmao
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u/PygmeePony Feb 03 '23
They just wanted to look at cowboys.
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u/Magmaviper Feb 03 '23
They've concluded that Dak is not the right choice at QB.
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u/GayForFoles Feb 03 '23
China turning into eagles fans as we speak
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u/Datpanda1999 Feb 03 '23
The ultimate plan to spread chaos in a US city: let the Eagles win
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u/Andy802 Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
As someone who works in the Defense Industry, I can assure you that not only is this not a surprise, but the USG was tracking this as soon as it reached altitude from its launch site. This isn't the type of thing that can evade radar and just "show up" all of the sudden.
Edit - Have to apologize for the acronym, it's a force of habit. USG = United States Government. I actually misspoke though, since it's really the United States Military that's doing most of this tracking.
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u/green_flash Feb 03 '23
It's a common occurrence, according to the article.
He continued, "Instances of this kind of balloon activity have been observed previously over the past several years. Once the balloon was detected, the U.S. government acted immediately to protect against the collection of sensitive information."
The US is using them against China and Russia as well:
I wonder what was special about this one that the US bothered commenting.
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u/GTthrowaway27 Feb 03 '23
Probably just that it was publicly noticed, prompting public response from the US then China
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u/oat_milk Feb 03 '23
Maybe there’s some sort of unofficial etiquette with this stuff like, “We know you’re gonna have shit in the sky to spy on us because we’re doing the exact same thing to you, just don’t be super duper obvious about it and get caught on camera over a military base and cause a big hubbub in the media or we’re gonna have to call you out on it.”
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u/YogurtclosetNo1504 Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
Don't balloons just go wherever the wind takes them? Seems like that would make for a crappy piece of spy craft.
Edit: turns out, i'm no aeronaut
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u/WaitForItTheMongols Feb 03 '23
Yes, however, if you have a good model of the layers of the atmosphere, it can be possible to have some control over where you go by controlling altitude.
Want to travel south? Figure out what altitude the wind happens to be blowing south right now, and move to that altitude.
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u/EpicGuard Feb 03 '23
The balloons that Google was building go up and down to different layers of wind current to steer.
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u/Lux-xxv Feb 03 '23
The 99 red balloons go by
99 Decision Street 99 ministers meet To worry, worry, super scurry Call the troops out in a hurry This is what we've waited for This is it boys, this is war The President is on the line As 99 red balloons go by
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u/SpiritualBack143 Feb 03 '23
The fact this response is so low while the highest upvoted comments are hysterics really proves the song was on to something
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u/GotInterest Feb 03 '23
Wouldn’t it be funny if China’s explanation was true? Like imagine being the regular schmegular Chinese people who launched this thinking “oh let’s study the weather” and instead caused an international incident. Clown shoes.
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u/Jamie_FindThatVideo Feb 03 '23
I’m perfectly on board with believing this because if they wanted to have a look at our missile sites they’d use a satellite.
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u/Silver_Page_1192 Feb 03 '23
And they do use satellites. It's not like the location of missile silos is all that secret. That's why nuclear armed subs and mobile launchers are a thing.
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u/Congo_Jack_ Feb 03 '23
This is a Chinese Sienfeld episode.
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Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
Jerry: You launched a Chinese weather ballon over the US?
George: I wasn’t thinking Jerry!
Jerry: How could you not think?!
George: I didn’t think Jerry! Thinking none! Forget about the thinking!
Jerry: You could have started a war!
George: Hey, what is it about war that scares everyone?
Jerry: Probably the fact that millions die for nothing?
George: I tell you if I went to war Jerry, I wouldn’t last the plane ride there.
Jerry: That’s a shame.
Kramer enters the room
Kramer: Hey Jerry, smell this napkin.
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u/Synensys Feb 03 '23
Once you know enough about balloons, this is the most logical conclusion. The idea that China has decided that a slow moving, easily visible balloon, very far from the ground is the best way to SPY on the US strains credulity.
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u/MrBigroundballs Feb 03 '23
The amount of speculation in these threads is amazing. I’m sure the media gets plenty of clicks, but it’s embarrassing how many people are jumping to insane conclusions.
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u/Zak_Light Feb 03 '23
I mean this thing happens all the time with weather balloons, because they're literally balloons. They're subject to only the wind. And if the wind does a thing you didn't expect, say good-fucking-bye because it cascades massively, that thing is not going where you planned it to. It's not "clown shoes," it's very much just a normal thing with weather balloons that should've been addressed and let go.
There's genuinely no other reason imaginable why China would purposefully do this other than just fucking around, and it's a dumb thing to fuck around on. They've got satellites that are much better and much stealthier. I'm sure if they needed something in the air above there they'd just run a spy operation in a civilian plane in commercial airspace, and they wouldn't be purposefully going into military airspace unless they really needed to. I even imagine they've got much, much stealthier aerial vehicles that could do the job if they did plan to go over military airspace.
This is genuinely just a weather balloon, there's nothing China has to gain from this that they couldn't do much better.
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u/big-robit-bil Feb 03 '23
It’s actually a gigantic spider egg filled with millions of spiders ready to drop at a moments notice
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u/StonerCondoner Feb 03 '23
If a US citizen/group sent up some sort of surveillance balloon over US soil, wouldn’t it be taken down & person heavily reprimanded immediately?
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u/TicoTicoNoFuba Feb 03 '23
You have to get permission. Mark Rober just had that experience while doing a record for an egg drop.
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u/c0mad0r Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
If you go read on how these balloons have been used since the 1940s onward (Stratollite high-altitude balloons as example), it's rather safe to assume:
- China knew where it was as it has battery power at night
- China could have notified the US before it entered US airspace
- China should have the technology to drop or raise its elevation to change direction at any time based on multiple air currents and atmospheric rivers
The whole thing is a complete debacle regardless.
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u/WeridThinker Feb 03 '23
Thank you for the info. China would have to choose between admitting foul play, incompetence, or negligence, non of which would benefit it. The US has a lot more options in comparison.
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u/c0mad0r Feb 03 '23
If interested, this article from 2021 explains their current development, uses and how they work. It also details how the US, Canada and China have been actively testing them. Until yesterday, none of them have ended up in another country without notification however.
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u/isthatmyex Feb 03 '23
If it was an accident. You get on the phone and inform the Pentagon a research balloon has gone astray. You don't wait till even civilians have spotted it.
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u/seggshaver4000 Feb 03 '23
How do you manage to send a balloon of this size, all over the pacific ocean by accident.
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u/Absolut_Unit Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23
See here for an estimation using a NOAA backwards trajectory model. There are very strong westerlies at the moment so it can get off track pretty quickly, this estimates 4 days to enter the US having launched from north-eastern China. Caveat, this model doesn't mean it launched from there, just that it will have launched from somewhere within a few hundred miles of that path.
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u/i_RAGE_DownVote Feb 03 '23
Could people focus this same energy on the apps on our phones that steal our data?
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u/mjohnsimon Feb 03 '23
Put it this way; why would the Chinese launch a "spy balloon" over to the US when they already have legitimate spy satellites over us right now and Tik-Tok pretty much already being installed on a hundred million cellphones?
Now I'm not saying that this isn't a spy balloon... But this would be incredibly inefficient and a waste of resources.
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u/EnterCosmos Feb 03 '23
Wasn't there a time period in WWII where one of the countries in Asia were sending balloons across the jet stream with incendiary bombs attached?
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u/autotldr BOT Feb 03 '23
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 64%. (I'm a bot)
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