Chinese Weather Balloons, and Should You Worry About Them?

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eggtimer rocketry
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I wonder if a laser from a plane could paint it long enough to pop it? Not a Dr. Evil giant friggin laser, just something with a handful of watts. It would not need to be mounted to a shark or anything like that.

Sandy.
 
techrat said:
Anyone recall the Chinese "Spy Chips" that were found inside all Cisco Routers? If they are capable of monitoring all internet traffic (or a significant margin thereof), I think there's very little left for them to spy on. Meanwhile the NSA spent quadrillions of dollars building a giant datacenter to spy on Americans, yet they couldn't figure out what was going to happen on Jan 6th, so, color me skeptical that *any* relevant data can be gleaned from a balloon.
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Yeah I kinda have to agree with this. Is there not already a load of spy satellites that could easily get the same visual information that a balloon could? I just don't see it being realistic. Though, I have been wrong before and I will be wrong many more times in my life lol.
 
techrat said:
Anyone recall the Chinese "Spy Chips" that were found inside all Cisco Routers? If they are capable of monitoring all internet traffic (or a significant margin thereof), I think there's very little left for them to spy on. Meanwhile the NSA spent quadrillions of dollars building a giant datacenter to spy on Americans, yet they couldn't figure out what was going to happen on Jan 6th, so, color me skeptical that *any* relevant data can be gleaned from a balloon.
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Obviously Big Data and AI aren't as smart as everyone thinks... just about everyone KNEW what was going to happen on Jan. 6th, after He Who Must Not Be Named told us.
 
Maybe I didn't state my point properly, the monitoring is a side benefit of the balloon. A satellite hovering several hundred miles in space is not as intimidating as something hanging over your head at 60,000 feet and you not knowing what it's going to do. Now I know the folks here understand a lot of this (we fly rockets don't we) but there are lots of people out there right now that don't feel very good about this. And China is watching this play out so they can understand how we will respond when the real shooting starts. In so many words it's a big lab experiment. None of this has anything to do with the NSA, Snowden, or anything else. It's Psychological Warfare.

It could very well make it all the way to the Atlantic ocean right now it's already gone several thousand miles unless it was launched from Siberia or submarine. Current jet stream forecast shows a dip down toward Texas then back up along the east coast and out to sea over Newfoundland.

The next several days should prove to be a very interesting study in the American psyche. :popcorn:
 
charrington said:
Yeah I kinda have to agree with this. Is there not already a load of spy satellites that could easily get the same visual information that a balloon could? I just don't see it being realistic. Though, I have been wrong before and I will be wrong many more times in my life lol.
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I doubt it's collecting visual data. My opinion is it's a SIGINT/ELINT payload, collecting electronic emissions to and from our sensitive military installations. Satellites are only able to listen briefly. A balloon on the other hand is persistent and collect intelligence for hours to days and relay it back to China via satellite.
 
thousands of unused acres of land in Montana and with us being able to tell what the headlines are on a newspaper laid on a street with our spy satellites, that means that we could have brought this thing down in the middle of a bison field without hurting anybody and been done with it.
 
JLP1 said:
Maybe I didn't state my point properly, the monitoring is a side benefit of the balloon. A satellite hovering several hundred miles in space is not as intimidating as something hanging over your head at 60,000 feet and you not knowing what it's going to do. Now I know the folks here understand a lot of this (we fly rockets don't we) but there are lots of people out there right now that don't feel very good about this. And China is watching this play out so they can understand how we will respond when the real shooting starts. In so many words it's a big lab experiment. None of this has anything to do with the NSA, Snowden, or anything else. It's Psychological Warfare.

It could very well make it all the way to the Atlantic ocean right now it's already gone several thousand miles unless it was launched from Siberia or submarine. Current jet stream forecast shows a dip down toward Texas then back up along the east coast and out to sea over Newfoundland.

The next several days should prove to be a very interesting study in the American psyche. :popcorn:
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Also, how we react to it publicly provides the PRC with a certain amount of data.
Something I haven't seen discussed is the ability for a balloon like this to deliver payload(s). Do I think it has that capability? I have no idea.
 
techrat said:
Anyone recall the Chinese "Spy Chips" that were found inside all Cisco Routers? If they are capable of monitoring all internet traffic (or a significant margin thereof), I think there's very little left for them to spy on. Meanwhile the NSA spent quadrillions of dollars building a giant datacenter to spy on Americans, yet they couldn't figure out what was going to happen on Jan 6th, so, color me skeptical that *any* relevant data can be gleaned from a balloon.
Click to expand...
Maybe its our reaction and detection they are testing. A trial balloon if you will.
 
hobie1dog said:
thousands of unused acres of land in Montana and with us being able to tell what the headlines are on a newspaper laid on a street with our spy satellites, that means that we could have brought this thing down in the middle of a bison field without hurting anybody and been done with it.
Click to expand...
It would be easier for the intelligence groups to figure out what they are looking for and who's it is if it isn't blown into a million charred pieces.
 
At this point, I think we really should bring it down by whatever means and then look at the payload. If not, the Left and Right will blame the other until we self destruct even more, making this a very effective weapon for sure.

I wish there was no news and only the military knew about it and handled it however they thought made the most sense and in 50 years it got mentioned in history class. . .

Sandy.
 
Sandy H. said:
At this point, I think we really should bring it down by whatever means and then look at the payload. If not, the Left and Right will blame the other until we self destruct even more, making this a very effective weapon for sure.

I wish there was no news and only the military knew about it and handled it however they thought made the most sense and in 50 years it got mentioned in history class. . .

Sandy.
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The military did keep it under wraps. Once the people in Billings could see it with their naked eyes it became necessary to acknowledge it in order to avoid panic. Obviously that wasn’t entirely successful.
 
I saw an tracked 3 of these things last summer over my house. They showed up on ADS-B exchange. They came up from just south of the Va/NC line. I heard they travel around sending them up from differant locations. They were 65K feet up an clearly visable. I guess little Chinese man forgot to turn on the ADSB transmitter. :)
 
Sandy H. said:
At this point, I think we really should bring it down by whatever means and then look at the payload. If not, the Left and Right will blame the other until we self destruct even more, making this a very effective weapon for sure.
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Yes it would interesting to see where the chips inside came from.
 
This could be great sci-fi novel. What if a country made a bio weapon to look like a disease. Induce a pandemic. Then 3 years later send a balloon into the atmosphere to pop over a country. Once popped it releases spores that triggers a reaction in the original infection or a trigger in the vaccine. To what end . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . James Bond stuff.
 
I think Japan in WWII sent balloons that end up crashing in Or. Some found in last ten years still had active explosives.
 
Anybody know the whereabouts of "Big Head Pete". He got out of HPR and started putting styrofoam coolers with instrumentation up to 100k feet! And got it back with video!. Maybe he is involved with this hehehehe
 

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