All of a sudden balloons everywhere. Were they always there, and people are just now noticing it, or is this something new?
Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
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Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#82This time, an F-16 sufficed.
Shame they can’t just gun them down with a tucano. This all seems like a large waste of money.
Have you ever seen the budget for the department of defense? Whatever they're doing here is less than the pocket change they lose in the Pentagon seat cushions.
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Do you know what sets it off? Seems like it wouldn't be from impact as these balloon materials couldn't be comparable to say hitting another plane, right?
All modern missiles use a proximity fuse that selects the optimum position relative to the target to detonate, it isn't based on contact. One thing to consider is that the warhead is not in the nose -- that is where the sensors are -- but further back on the missile. These warheads often us an annular (ring-like) blast pattern, hence why positioning and orientation relative to the target at detonation time is important to maximize damage.
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#84Balloons 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…
Something that puzzles me is how you specifically target China with a satellite. They can't be geostationary unless they're over the equator.
First off, I don't buy the underlying premise because the US has been launching satellites with global coverage for 50 years... I don't see why China would wait until now to respond.
But for your question, with LEO satellites you don't really target specific countries. They cover every country within a given latitude range. A round LEO orbit that goes over the US must also go over China.
However you don't need geostationary orbits to target a given part of the globe. Molniya orbits do the same thing more or less and work better if you want coverage further away from the equator. They were popularized by the USSR and the US and China use them to varying extents.
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#85Have we shot anything down over CONUS since early on in the Cold War?
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#86From Huron in we have to demand answers
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Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#87Great distraction from internal problems.
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots and lots of satellites that keep passing overhead and you compose the images to abstract away the fact they came from multiple physical satellites. Idk how many companies/govs have this capability but: https://www.palantir.com/offerings/metaconstellation/
There's only one company with that capability and that's the only organization in the world ever to achieve first stage (and soon all stage) reusability for LEO launches. Because to achieve that you need to put a lot of stuff in orbit and the only way to affordably do that is cheap (reusable) launches.
I don't believe that's true. There are quite a few companies with tons of satellites in space. Walmart put up an array in 1987.
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#89On the one hand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_balloon >Between 900 and 1,300 locations around the globe do routine releases, two or four times daily. On the other hand, weather balloons are not silver-gray and cylindrical. A Google image search shows them almost always white and spherical to teardrop shape and pretty much unmistakably a balloon.
The cylindrical description fits what could be hung from a balloon, however.
And it just so happens that most meteorological payloads tend to be cylindrical/small boxes.
So it is possible that trigger-happy NORAD is shooting down a lot of perfectly harmless stuff now.
Re: Military shoots down another high-altitude object, over Lake Huron: officials
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Do you know what sets it off? Seems like it wouldn't be from impact as these balloon materials couldn't be comparable to say hitting another plane, right?
The AIM-9X uses an IR proximity fuse.