Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 171 posts

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

#131

Post by BuyMyBitcoins »

patapong wrote: post #126
libertyhouse wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This looks like it was the two seat trainer version of the U-2 which doesn't carry mission equipment like the SYERS sensor or a data-link.

Would they really send a U-2 plane to pass by the balloon just to take a selfie?

Just to take a selfie? The cynic in me thinks the DoD would totally value a photo-op enough to do this.

I’m not a jingoistic person but even I felt a tinge of awe and American pride when I saw the photo. The U2 is cool, and this photo depicts the US as in control of the situation in a way that we didn’t feel when this thing was in the news.

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

#132

Post by [deleted] »

prpl wrote: post #106
onepointsixC wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Supporting the spy angle is the pretty obvious connectivity (looks to be Ku-band satellite or similar) but it also doesn't really make that much sense... surely a satellite does what this does but better? China has no shortage of high quality spy satellites. Two things. It will be significantly better at ELINT, soaking up signals over which it floats. Second, at 60,000 feet it is at least an order of magnitude close…

That’s true but it assumes it can get within ~40 miles as the crow flies of an interesting target, even then you are going through a LOT more dense atmosphere for your photos.

[deleted]

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

#133

Post by fijiaarone »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #128
prpl wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s true but it assumes it can get within ~40 miles as the crow flies of an interesting target, even then you are going through a LOT more dense atmosphere for your photos.

The satellites still have to take photos through the atmosphere. All of the atmosphere, in fact.

Where an object at 60,000 feet would only have about 95% of the atmosphere below it.

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

#134

Post by simonh »

jonhohle wrote: post #80
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…

> The platform alone has ~100k of solar on it I’m unfamiliar with solar panels in this application, but would each panel really be $6,250? That’s >20x premium over panels used for terrestrial application for use on a platform that would have little dynamic load.

I’d have thought the aerospace or satellite grade panels, struts and mounting systems they’d be more likely to use would be quite a bit more expensive.

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

#135

Post by pixl97 »

scheme271 wrote: post #120
pixl97 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the path over Missouri coming from the west coast... I don't think prevailing winds work that way in the US.

The jetstream goes from west to east so depending on the particular path the jetstream takes a balloon could easily go from alaska to missouri.

Correct, but not Latin America as suggested by the parent.

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

#136

Post by themodelplumber »

Ankaios wrote: post #75
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…

Supporting the spy angle is the pretty obvious connectivity [...] but it also doesn't really make that much sense... surely a satellite does what this does but better? China has no shortage of high quality spy satellites. Balloons aren't "bad satellites" or "poor-man's satellites." Satellites and balloons each have different things that they are good at.

I was wondering if this might be able to xmit for any number of reasons, from fake cell tower to other kinds, maybe even a numbers station function.

Certainly the altitude differential and ease of navigation (presumed, mostly due to balloon having propellers vs. satellites having either much more costly navigation or none) raise this question.

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

#137

Post by coolspot »

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

Ironically, U-2 is itself a “weather plane”:

> When the U.S. government learned of Powers's disappearance over the Soviet Union, they lied that a "weather plane" had strayed off course after its pilot had "difficulties with his oxygen equipment". What CIA officials did not realize was that the plane crashed almost fully intact and that the Soviets had recovered its pilot and the plane's equipment, including its top-secret high-altitude camera.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2

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

#138

Post by imiric »

Cool photo, but it's ironic that an alleged spy balloon is being monitored from a spy plane. There's public outcry over China spying on the US, yet this same plane has been used to spy on many other countries for decades now. It's much more sophisticated, and not even state-of-the-art anymore.

This whole story feels sensationalized, and like a diversion tactic.

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

#139

Post by dhc02 »

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…

Small nitpick: 16 300W solar panels is not ~$100k, it's more like $3,000.

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

#140

Post by snypher »

mfkp wrote: post #82
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…

$100k of solar? 360w panels are sub-$300 at full retail prices. So that's under $5k of panels (unless you're including batteries in the calculation, but even then, it's maybe $10k).

Where are you finding these panels? Renogy is over $1/W and they have usually been price competitive
Post reply on HN