61–70 of 593 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The original ballon was large enough to be noticed and photographed by civilians on the ground.
Isn’t it a little TOO convenient that no civilians were out on Lake Huron in the middle of winter under the objects flight path to take a picture? (/s, if that was necessary to clarify)
Balloons could be a clever counter to what the US is doing with Low Earth Orbit satellites recently. SpaceX is launching tons of spy/missile defense satellites over China as part of the Space Development Agency: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency China has been complaining to the United Nations about it. https://press.un.org/en/2022/gadis3698.doc.htm More details: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Star…
So I’m guessing we recently upgraded or reconfigured some software and now we are seeing a lot of things that have been there but we didn’t detect. Or something finally crossed a line and the enemy, which did not know we were watching was going to find out so it’s all being cleaned up now.
Now that they’ve said that, I’m actually more concerned and it raises more questions than it answers. Perspective of some retired NORAD employee would be very welcome
Random question - anyone know how a sidewinder missile hits these objects (whatever they are)? My missile knowledge is non-existent but movies show me it has something to do with heat signature - which these don’t seem to have.
The AIM-9L doesn't lock on to the hottest thing, it takes an IR picture of the scene and follows the targeted "blob" in the image that's generated. Additionally it has laser proximity fusing so it knows when it is close to the shape it is tracking. By not simply picking the hottest thing in a scene you can't hide in front of the sun anymore, and the effectiveness of flares is reduced.
The only thing needed to generate a "blob" good enough to target is sufficient ΔT between the scene and the targeted object.
The objects, and they have been curiously consistent with calling them "objects", definitely have sufficient ΔT compared to the background sky if they are made of any solid material that has been exposed to sunlight for any period of time.
Balloons could be a clever counter to what the US is doing with Low Earth Orbit satellites recently. SpaceX is launching tons of spy/missile defense satellites over China as part of the Space Development Agency: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Development_Agency China has been complaining to the United Nations about it. https://press.un.org/en/2022/gadis3698.doc.htm More details: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Star…
SpaceX has launched 8 Starshield satellites. Nobody knows what they do but they are probably testbeds for platform and space link communications. There are SDA launches planned for March and June. I wouldn't expect to see spy satellites from the SDA; the NRO has always controlled those. I could believe small spy satellites if launched from NRO. There haven't been any details on how missile defense will work from spac…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not how democracy works. That's how sheep farming works.
No, that’s called immature ideological purity. Like it or not, state secrets are a necessary function of any civilization.
That's not a "necessary function of any civilization," that's dereliction of duty to the people who elected the leaders.
Random question - anyone know how a sidewinder missile hits these objects (whatever they are)? My missile knowledge is non-existent but movies show me it has something to do with heat signature - which these don’t seem to have.
The AIM-9X is infrared imaging based rather than heat signature based. The pilot resolves that contrast between the object and sky before firing the missile and missile targets the object based on the image.
Random question - anyone know how a sidewinder missile hits these objects (whatever they are)? My missile knowledge is non-existent but movies show me it has something to do with heat signature - which these don’t seem to have.
The missiles seek and track based on heat differences . To an IR sensor the sky is typically pretty "cold" and just about anything in the sky is relatively "hot". Once the missile is locked onto the relatively hot signature against the cold background the sensor stares at it and adjusts the missile's trajectory to intercept it (and blow up). Countermeasures like flares try to trick a missile's sensor into thinking th…