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U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

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Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#41

Post by jkaptur »

CoolGuySteve wrote: post #32
cgb223 wrote: post #5

Earlier 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

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?

The Chinese shot down a number of U2s as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_Squadron

You can see one of them at the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, but it's in pretty rough shape (understandably).

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#42

Post by Alupis »

cgb223 wrote: post #5
arriu wrote: post #2

Has 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

> 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

Additionally, flying high requires flying fast, generally.

The U2's huge wingspan allows it to fly much slower at these altitudes, and with much more ease and efficiency than say, an F-15 or F-22 as some other commenters have suggested being capable of shadowing the balloon at FL600+.

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#43

Post by walrus01 »

jpgvm wrote: post #30

Pretty 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…

> (looks to be Ku-band satellite or similar)

It's impossible to tell from looking at it in a photo taken from that distance what band a parabolic aimed (pan/tilt motorized) geostationary satellite antenna of that type is. Unless you're close enough to measure the diameter of the feed horn. Small size means it's unlikely to be C-band as not enough gain unless you want to waste a huge section of transponder space at BPSK modulation and ultra low bps/Hz ratio. It could be X, Ku, high Ku, Ka, etc.

Also extremely likely a craft like that has L/S-band more omnidirectional low data rate command and control radio talking to something in orbit. Basically same idea as L/S-band Inmarsat but operated on military satellites. Obviously the Chinese government won't be using Iridium.

Somewhere I think there are also some laid off ex Google Loon project engineers who are having a good laugh about this whole thing.

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#44

Post by pageandrew »

jpgvm wrote: post #30

Pretty 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…

This balloon would never come down? I imagined that eventually, it would come down on its own. Isn't it bound to leak helium at some small rate?

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#46

Post by foofoo55 »

cgb223 wrote: post #5
arriu wrote: post #2

Has 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

The F-22 service ceiling is 60,000 ft so it can get up there too. The U2, however, flies relatively slow (I would think that the U2 internal cameras were designed for a long focal length and for objects below the aircraft. I wonder if they made modifications for balloon photos.

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#47

Post by throwawaylinux »

jpgvm wrote: post #30

Pretty 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…

It can loiter much longer over a site than a satellite which is the obvious thing a balloon does better.

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#48

Post by jvanderbot »

jpgvm wrote: post #30

Pretty 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…

Cell phone snooping they say, but that seems easier from the ground.

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#49

Post by jpgvm »

pageandrew wrote: post #44
jpgvm wrote: post #30

Pretty 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…

This balloon would never come down? I imagined that eventually, it would come down on its own. Isn't it bound to leak helium at some small rate?

It would eventually yes, but not before circling the Earth a good few times. :)

Re: U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Missouri

#50

Post by jpgvm »

Invictus0 wrote: post #36
jpgvm wrote: post #30

Pretty 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.

For a balloon yes, generally speaking most balloons that can reach this altitude are weather balloons which are launched commonly but are cheap and disposable.

This platform is an order of magnitude larger and more capable than a normal weather balloon and thus much more expensive.

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