Would you like to spy with my beautiful balloon?

Discussion in 'The Red Room' started by shootER, Feb 2, 2023.

  1. shootER

    shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

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  2. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    And they refused to shoot it down because they didn’t want to damage anything on the ground in Montana. I didn’t know beef prices were that high these days.
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  3. MikeH92467

    MikeH92467 RadioNinja

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    This whole thing doesn't add up. :chris:
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  4. Tererune

    Tererune Troll princess and Magical Girl

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    It does seem very strange they cannot find a place to shoot it down over Montana. OTOH I am not sure what a balloon is going to see that a satellite would not.
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  5. We Are Borg

    We Are Borg Republican Democrat

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  6. The Original Faceman

    The Original Faceman Lasagna Artist

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    Are we certain they’re not spying on Canada?
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  7. shootER

    shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

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    Screenshot 2023-02-03 at 11-09-09 Jon Favreau on Twitter.png
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  8. We Are Borg

    We Are Borg Republican Democrat

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    Nothing to see here, except for some well-kept beavers. :?:
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  9. Diacanu

    Diacanu Comicmike. Writer

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    Fascists love to say "feckless" and "degenerate" a lot.
    Pay attention to that, might be important.
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  10. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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  11. shootER

    shootER Insubordinate...and churlish Administrator

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    Feckless is a great word because most people have to look up the meaning.

    Plus, fictional liberal President Jed Bartlet used it when he was cussing out god. :yes:

    FC247D03-DAE6-4978-8B71-9BF20D70923F.jpeg
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  12. Spaceturkey

    Spaceturkey i can see my house

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    I kind of like the take that a) China also launched three spy satellites last week with nobody saying meh
    and b) that by not neutralizing the balloon, America is signalling that they're already more than aware of it's capabilities and aren't all that bothered.
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  13. tafkats

    tafkats scream not working because space make deaf Moderator

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    I have to imagine we're nearing the point where we no longer actually give a shit who sees our stuff from above, because we just assume that everybody can and we keep our secrets in other ways.
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  14. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Cool, then we can fly drones over Area 51 and load them up with all kinds of instruments including ground penetrating radar.
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  15. tafkats

    tafkats scream not working because space make deaf Moderator

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    Yeah, probably.

    My guess is we'll continue to make pro forma attempts to stop it for a while, but everyone in the military and intelligence communities will just assume those attempts will be fruitless and act accordingly.
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  16. Order2Chaos

    Order2Chaos Ultimate... Immortal Administrator

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    It is pretty weird that China's even using balloons when they have very capable spy satellites.
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  17. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    More at the link.
    https://thehill.com/policy/defense/...inese-balloon-in-us-skies-is-such-a-big-deal/
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  18. Order2Chaos

    Order2Chaos Ultimate... Immortal Administrator

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    ... That's not how radar works, and if that picture that's floating around is accurate, looks like there's plenty of metal on those solar panels anyway. Balloons aren't typically seen on eg ATC radar because they move too slow and are filtered out, but they're present in the raw feed.

    This feels like a troll by China.
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  19. Ancalagon

    Ancalagon Scalawag Administrator Formerly Important

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    This is a legit question as I have no idea but are we sure that China does in fact have very capable spy satellites or could it be a case of the Bomber Gap or Missile Gap?
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  20. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    CFDBF31D-B7A0-41AF-822A-15F1AD6186FD.jpeg
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  21. Order2Chaos

    Order2Chaos Ultimate... Immortal Administrator

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    I don’t mean to say that they’re remotely comparable to us, but we’ve had spy satellites I’d call “very capable” for 40 years, maybe longer. I don’t think it’s realistic that they’re THAT far behind on sensors and optics, and I think we’re pretty certain they’re not that far behind on space tech. While Tiangong is only ⅓ the size of the ISS, comparable to Mir, it was built much more quickly than Mir or the ISS, and is pretty clearly more advanced than Mir. The Long March 5 can carry 15 tons to LEO, just shy of a Falcon 9’s 17, and we know Falcon 9 has carried spy satellites.
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  22. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    balloon.jpeg
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  23. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    I'd ask if you realized that the only way ground-penetrating radar can see stuff that's been deeply and carefully buried is by dragging the radar unit across the surface of the ground but we already know the answer to that question.

    Quite honestly, this seems pretty clearly to me a case of the Military-Industrial Complex whipping up fears so that they can get more money. NASA has been launching similar balloons, at least once a month, for decades now. All part of scientific research and the space program. Given how slavishly the Chinese are copying from the Russian and our space programs, it doesn't seem at all unlikely to me that they'd also be duplicating the atmospheric research via balloon that we are doing.

    In other news, an object that was once thought to be a UFO has been positively identified as a weather balloon. Imagine that.
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  24. Order2Chaos

    Order2Chaos Ultimate... Immortal Administrator

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    I was going to say that, except whoops, turns out there is such a thing as airborne GPR, albeit with much less fidelity.
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  25. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    Yes, which is why I used the qualifiers “deeply and carefully,” as those make a difference in what can be found and identified. Given that we invented the technology, I’m pretty sure we’ve developed ways to thwart it.

    And finding a large underground object doesn’t tell you what it is or what’s in it, just that it’s there. No way to tell if it’s a UFO hanger or a bomb shelter.
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  26. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    And there's another balloon.
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  27. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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  28. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Could China be testing us? Gordon Chang thinks so. He thinks they're preparing to invade Taiwan.
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  29. Tuckerfan

    Tuckerfan BMF

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    This guy?
    Pardon me if I don't listen to him.
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  30. Ancalagon

    Ancalagon Scalawag Administrator Formerly Important

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    Again, this is not my bailiwick.

    I just know that for Hubble our spy satellites had lenses so advanced NASA engineers couldn’t even have access to them. And that because of that there was a fuck up and then we had to have an entire series of Shuttle Missions to basically remove one scientific device and replace it with a contact lens.

    And then a couple decades later the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency or National Reconnaissance Office or whatever just gave NASA a couple old spy satellites that were never launched and were now obsolete and NASA was all like WTF?!? How you get them lenses!?!? You got them just sitting on the shelf gathering dust and DOD/NGIA/NRO was just like ‘So you want them or not?’

    So yeah. I am high on our own spy satellites and have questions about others.
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