A troll post has been removed.

45 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

It was out of Chinese control and it shouldn't have been there. It simply wasn't any kind of threat. There was nothing the balloon could do that a satellite couldn't do better.

Satellites fly. A balloon can loiter. Big difference in terms of gathering information. Most weather balloons ascend to a designated altitude and not fly across the Pacific Ocean.  

10 hours ago, SunnyinBangrak said:

Just so much wrong in such a short post.

1.Canada is not part of the USA

2.No Canadian will get "a bit miffed" if the US shot down a spy satellite in US waters near the very remote Aleutian islands(part of Alaska).

3.Who said anything about shooting it down in international airspace? That would have been very foolish and possibly illegal, however nodody apart from you is suggesting that.

 

"The balloon entered U.S. airspace on Jan. 28 north of the Aleutian Islands, entered Canadian airspace over the Northwest Territories on Jan. 30, then traveled south and reentered U.S. airspace over northern Idaho on Jan. 31, according to a senior military official."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/chinese-surveillance-balloon-spotted/story?id=96883610

Yup dident know it touched on Alaska before entering Canada’s territory yup the Canadian folks would get a bit miffed if we shoot stuff down over their territory you are correct Canada is not part of the USA hence the ( miffed) comment shooting stuff down over the pacific (so close to Russia) just might be a bit dangerous due to the current situation ehhh?good that the adults handled the situation properly 

1 minute ago, sqwakvfr said:

Satellites fly. A balloon can loiter. Big difference in terms of gathering information. Most weather balloons ascend to a designated altitude and not fly across the Pacific Ocean.  

Satellites can be geostationary. There's nothing a balloon can do that a satellite can't. Their cameras are very high resolution and they have lots of sensors. For some it seems there's a conspiracy theory in every news story.

54 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

It was out of Chinese control and it shouldn't have been there. It simply wasn't any kind of threat. There was nothing the balloon could do that a satellite couldn't do better.

Except release gas or biological weapon or show the ability to do so at many elevations. Use the free propulsion of the jet stream. Cost about a zillion $ less than a sat. Plus they tested how the World responded. 

10 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

Alright so I've learned something. 

Fighter jets that can reach 60,000ft don't have machine guns only missiles.

 

Still leaves the question how the missile triggered in the proximity of the balloon?

 

That question has also been answered.

51 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

There was nothing the balloon could do that a satellite couldn't do better

Then why did China use a balloon?

2 minutes ago, John Drake said:

Then why did China use a balloon?

Most likely to signal their displeasure at our expanding military presence in the South China Sea also imo if it was a (weather balloon) don’t you think it would have been prudent for china to let us know beforehand to defuse the situation especially in light of the current state of affairs?

21 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

Alright so I've learned something. 

Fighter jets that can reach 60,000ft don't have machine guns only missiles.

 

Still leaves the question how the missile triggered in the proximity of the balloon?

 

"focal-plane array seeker"

https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/AIM-9X-Sidewinder

1 hour ago, ozimoron said:

It was out of Chinese control and it shouldn't have been there. It simply wasn't any kind of threat. There was nothing the balloon could do that a satellite couldn't do better.

Just politics as usual 

6 minutes ago, John Drake said:

Says who?

The Chinese said. 

 

CNN are saying that the balloon had limited surveillance capabilities and they were able to block it's signals. That would include any signals to control it.

 

Using a missile to shoot it down was the safest since cannon shells may not have shot it down on the spot and could overfly the target. They don't want unexploded high explosive ammo flying uncontrolled where it could do more damage. A missile explodes where they want it to and falls straight down in the target zone.

26 minutes ago, Beachcomber said:

 

 

Still leaves the question how the missile triggered in the proximity of the balloon?

 

All it takes is a blue missile, also called a cold one, or a dummy.

 

Or a tempered one (fixed destination) before detonation 

As a layman on this, this seems a good article with even some history.

https://eurasiantimes.com/1000-rounds-fired-why-canada-could-not-shoot-down-this-research-balloon-using-best-of-fighter-jets-25-years-ago/?amp

31 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

Satellites can be geostationary. There's nothing a balloon can do that a satellite can't. Their cameras are very high resolution and they have lots of sensors. For some it seems there's a conspiracy theory in every news story.

Geostationary can only be around the equator. Montana is at 47-48 deg north. A "very high" resolution camera at 20km that is stationary and can loiter for hours over the same spot can do much better images than a fly by satellite at 100km or more.

Posts in which the quoted content had been altered have been removed as well as the replies:

 

28. You will not make changes to messages quoted from other members posts, except for purposes of shortening the quoted post. Do not shorten any post in a way that alters the context of the original post. Do not change the formatting of the post you are quoting.

This is from BBC World News site. The meteorologists have calculated the possible route of the balloon, based on the prevailing wings at that altitude. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-64514120

 

I am a bit confused though. Some news say it has been shot down over the Atlantic off the coast of South Caroline. That would imply it has traveled across the whole continental US.

 

_128512391_balloon_us_china-2x-nc-40.webp

A real show of strength by Biden lol.

 

It's a shame he didnt do it before all the info had been captured and sent back to Beijing. The Chinese must be laughing their derrieres off.

 

Once again Joe is a day late and a dollar short. 

Shawn Brooks

 

 

And how, exactly, would China have handled it if a foreign weather balloon appeared over their country?  Or a place where the people don't consider themselves part of China but Beijing does?  And what's with the other weather balloons blowing in from the Pacific?  Oh my goodness, so many balloon errors anomalies happening all at once!

Beijing: we invade your airspace and you shoot us down?  How dare you!

 

 

4 hours ago, ozimoron said:

Satellites can be geostationary. There's nothing a balloon can do that a satellite can't. Their cameras are very high resolution and they have lots of sensors. For some it seems there's a conspiracy theory in every news story.

Did not state there was a conspiracy.  Intelligence can be gathered in two ways:  Covertly and Overtly.  I think a big balloon allegedly “drifting” in the jet stream from China sounds like a great story.  Of course  by chance it just drifted over major SAC(Strategic Air Command) bases in Montana and the Dakotas(South and North).  Of course SAC controls land based nuclear capable ICBMs.  

 

What would have China done if a foreign balloon had “drifted” into its airspace? 

16 hours ago, Beachcomber said:

Alright so I've learned something. 

Fighter jets that can reach 60,000ft don't have machine guns only missiles.

 

Still leaves the question how the missile triggered in the proximity of the balloon?

 

This was all for show, why would you send the best of the best a F-22 to soot down a helpless balloon?

18 hours ago, ozimoron said:

Jets don't carry machine guns anymore and smaller aircraft can't get to 50,000 feet.

Some fighters do have machine guns, but as the calibre is bigger, they are referred to as cannon...

1 hour ago, vandeventer said:

This was all for show, why would you send the best of the best a F-22 to soot down a helpless balloon?

Practice, and looks good on the tele.......

I asked a question earlier that might have been lost in the background noise, so I'll repeat it. Would really like to have an answer.

The balloon was spotted loitering over Nebraska, close to the west coast, but was eventually shot down over the Atlantic. Does this mean it traveled across the whole of the US?

 

Also, some asked what is it that a balloon can do that a satellite can't. Well, I did answer that an image taken at 20+km is much more detailed than taken at 100+km. But there is even more important aspect to loitering about at 20km, and that is recording radio signals. It's not even important what is being said over the radio, but recording the frequencies used by military, civil services, emergency services etc, can be very useful and cannot be done by a passing satellite.

2 minutes ago, SpaceKadet said:

I asked a question earlier that might have been lost in the background noise, so I'll repeat it. Would really like to have an answer.

The balloon was spotted loitering over Nebraska, close to the west coast, but was eventually shot down over the Atlantic. Does this mean it traveled across the whole of the US?

 

Also, some asked what is it that a balloon can do that a satellite can't. Well, I did answer that an image taken at 20+km is much more detailed than taken at 100+km. But there is even more important aspect to loitering about at 20km, and that is recording radio signals. It's not even important what is being said over the radio, but recording the frequencies used by military, civil services, emergency services etc, can be very useful and cannot be done by a passing satellite.

Yes US let it over America to shoot it down later to see if the Chinese is telling the truth. ????

Don't know what a balloon can do that a satellite can't. 

Well maybe we will see if you are right when they report not. ????????

3 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Yes US let it over America to shoot it down later to see if the Chinese is telling the truth. ????

Don't know what a balloon can do that a satellite can't. 

Well maybe we will see if you are right when they report not. ????????

Thanks for the info. Looks a little weak on US letting is just drift everywhere.

Somehow I don't think we will know what that balloon was...

3 minutes ago, SpaceKadet said:

Thanks for the info. Looks a little weak on US letting is just drift everywhere.

Somehow I don't think we will know what that balloon was...

Well the media report it was a civilian company weather balloon that had gone off course.

 

IMO now they have shot it down I would be very surprised if the USA will admit it was and apologize.

3 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Well the media report it was a civilian company weather balloon that had gone off course.

 

IMO now they have shot it down I would be very surprised if the USA will admit it was and apologize.

I know a little bit about weather balloons (dated a meteorologist in my much younger years), and they tend to stay close to where they are released and don't last more than a few hours. This one traveled half across the globe. Strange why China would be interested about the weather over Alaska, Canada and US.

  

   USA picking the balloon up 

The balloon was actually massive, even had propulsion. I found this vid which clears a few things up, and to the bloke who said modern jets don't have guns, watch the vid......