is there c code running in that baloon? with dependency to stdlib, possibly compiled with gcc or clang? did they use vim to write the code for it? can they ssh to it? what kind of code is running there? I'm soo curious!!
U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
31–40 of 171 posts
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#32Has anyone seen a better photo of the balloon?
This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time
It's an interesting plane to use when considering the USSR shot down a U-2 in 1960. This history even rhymes: the US initially claimed the U-2 was a weather device like China did with this balloon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_U-2_incident
If the Chinese say they can fly their balloons, can we fly our planes at the same altitude?
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#33Pretty interesting platform. Looks to have around 16x300W solar panels, so roughly 4.8KW. A lot but no unreasonable given it has 4 electric turbines and it would take a lot of grunt to influence a balloon of that size especially given air density altitude. If it is a civilian craft it's either government or maybe one of the big Chinese universities. Supporting the spy angle is the pretty obvious connectivity (looks t…
weather patterns, intercept radio signals, way closer up photography are some reasons
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#34Was this "selfie" literally taken handheld with a cell phone by the person in the shot? Surely they wouldn't bring personal phones into the cockpit- and wouldn't they be wearing gloves anyway?
I haven't seen the new Top Gun, but I do remember a scene from the old one where they took a polaroid camera along with them in the cockpit. I don't know how realistic that was, but it seems plausible. Certainly I know of tons of soldiers who carried personal cameras to Iraq back in the day. You'd think a U-2 would be pretty locked down as far as what pilots are allowed to have, but it wasn't exactly a super secret mission over a foreign country either.
It's an interesting question.
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#35Was this "selfie" literally taken handheld with a cell phone by the person in the shot? Surely they wouldn't bring personal phones into the cockpit- and wouldn't they be wearing gloves anyway?
Given this was officially released from the DoD, I'd strongly wager this photo op was planned in advance.
Which would make it very unlikely to be a personal cell phone or similar civilian device.
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#36Pretty interesting platform. Looks to have around 16x300W solar panels, so roughly 4.8KW. A lot but no unreasonable given it has 4 electric turbines and it would take a lot of grunt to influence a balloon of that size especially given air density altitude. If it is a civilian craft it's either government or maybe one of the big Chinese universities. Supporting the spy angle is the pretty obvious connectivity (looks t…
Pricey? China is an $18T economy.
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time
> This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists. There are almost certainly much better pictures. This is just the pilot's selfie. The U-2 is built to take pictures. USAF: "The U-2 is capable of gathering a variety of imagery, including multi-spectral electro-optic, infrared, and synthetic aperture radar products which can be stored or sent to ground exploitation centers. In addition, it also suppo…
I doubt a U-2 camera could focus on another plane; I'd assume it's quite specialized for ground observation.
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the only picture of the balloon fully intact that exists The reason we sent a U2 Spy plane of all things after it is because it’s about the only plane we have still in service that can fly all the way up to 60,000 ft where the balloon was at the time
The F-15 can regularly climb over FL600 and, under special conditions, has exceeded 100K above MSL.
In level flight or in a zoom climb? It's one thing to build up speed and pitch up in an ballistic arc, it's another thing to fly level at altitude.
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
#39Does anyone who knows anything about solar panels have an estimate of how much electricity that could produce?
“We do know from US military officials that the balloon itself was around 60 metres in height and that the payload was around the size of a “regional jet” such as the Embraer ERJ, which varies between 26 metres and 30 metres in length. The payload is thought to have weighed around 900 kilograms.” [1]
Edit: the photo linked in another comment provided a much better shot of the panels. There seem to be 48 panels oriented horizontally in packs of 3. So we are looking at probably 48x300W = 14kW of power.
1. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2358955-chinese-spy-bal...
Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri
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