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Legally, if I bring it down, can I keep it? What if I call the CIA and tell them "Hey, I spent $5K bringing it down, but I'll gladly sell you it for $10K"?
by spiritplumber 4y ago
Legally, if I bring it down, can I keep it? What if I call the CIA and tell them "Hey, I spent $5K bringing it down, but I'll gladly sell you it for $10K"?
- walrus01 4y agoIf you can get something to above 65k feet and conduct some sort of kinetic action against a small moving target for only 5k dollars I'm sure lots of us defense contractor UAV manufacturers would like to hire you or license your technology.
- sudosysgen 4y agoYou might be able to bring it down with a powerful enough laser, so a cheap weather balloon and a 50w laser plus a raspberry pi with adequate connectivity, four propellers for course correction, and some servos ought to do the trick for under 1000$.
- walrus01 4y agoI am no expert on the upper atmosphere but I think the wind speeds at those altitudes vastly outstrip the ability of anything with batteries and electric motors to adjust its course. The only way to change directions is to rise or fall into a differently moving stream of air current. This is how the Google project loon things were supposed to navigate?
- sudosysgen 4y agoPresumably both balloons are affected by the same air currents, right? So as long as you lift it up from the right spot it should be able to get within a few kilometers of the target, no?
- TheOtherHobbes 4y agoDoubtful. It's more like trying to steer a ship. There are currents, but also a lot of noise/turbulence.
- sudosysgen 4y agoThat's true, but it only needs to get within a few kilometers.
- Sai_ 4y agoDidn’t some guy freefall from something like 100k ft or something to a specific landing zone. Remember seeing a red bull video of the event. How did he manage to avoid high altitude winds blowing him off course? Think the name was Baumgartner or something like it.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- TylerE 4y agoAnd you power the laser with…?
- sudosysgen 4y agoA battery. A 50Wh battery should only weigh around 100g and would be able to power the laser for a good while.
- dylan604 4y agoyour laser doesn't need to do anything to the balloon and can be as weak as a laser pointer. just aim at the cameras and zap the sensors. assuming the ability to aim and hold would be achievable at this level. who cares if it's just floating there if it is blind?
- acdha 4y ago“Just aim” seems to be understating the challenge of hitting a tiny target through multiple miles of atmosphere and holding the same position long enough to damage the sensor. The laser alone seems like it would blow that $5k budget by a handy margin — not much economy of scale at that power level.
- dylan604 4y agoi said assuming with caveat of "at this level" edit, however, lasing a camera sensor doesn't need a lot of holding time. so just keep bouncing it around and hopefully, eventually you'll cover enough to render useless.
- acdha 4y agoRemember, I’m not saying it’s impossible - just a lot more expensive. I’m sure the U.S. military budget could include powerful lasers, precision sensors, and the software to keep focused on a small target at a long distance but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t at least two orders of magnitude more expensive.
- stickfigure 4y agoWith a portable generator, you can literally spend days aiming at the balloon. Eventually you're going to make contact with the sensors.
- acdha 4y agoYes, but damage is a function of power and time. If you can’t keep it on that a precise position you need to deliver far more power — there are links here to some research and they tend to be measured in seconds, which is a very aggressive target for something this far away through moving air. https://www.ilda.com/camera-sensor-damage.htm https://www.ilda.com/camera-sensor-damage.htm
- chasd00 4y agoIn the High power rocketry hobby, properly certified, $5k will get you high enough. Guidance is something else, I think you could do it, the knowledge is there and available. It would take many $5k test flights to get it working however.
- walrus01 4y agoSufficiently advanced hobby grade model rocketry with guidance system and kinetic effect payload might start to resemble an ITAR controlled missile technology item (and/or something the ATF would be interested in for USA domestic destructive device and munitions laws).
- solarkraft 4y agoThere are people building missiles as a hobby? Sounds fun.
- akiselev 4y agoYou can go see the most impressive ones launch at the annual BALLS event [1] in Blackrock desert several weeks after Burning Man. The FAA closes off the airspace around the desert which allows the really powerful rockets to fly. [1] http://www.tripolimn.org/events/balls/ http://www.tripolimn.org/events/balls/
- pengaru 4y agoThis makes me wonder what else of interest occurs in that desert throughout the year? Is there anything preventing someone from just camping there year-round to enjoy the spectacles?
- 323 4y agoNo, you'll get arrested. Even if it's Chinese, you're not allowed to mess with it, only the gov is.
- mcbits 4y agoHow about if it mysteriously, spontaneously fell down and you just retrieved it? Normal private property like someone's quadcopter, I would assume the owner still has rights to it (and possibly liability depending on how/where it fell). But foreign government property that's not supposed to be there in the first place?
- mcphage 4y ago> How about if it mysteriously, spontaneously fell down and you just retrieved it? Judges aren’t obligated to believe your bullshit.
- dylan604 4y agoexcept, the unbelievable thing would be that someone on the ground would have the ability to cause it spontaneously fall down. i'd hope the judge would put the larger burden of proof on the prosecutors here.
- NoZebra120vClip 4y agohttps://xkcd.com/1523/ https://xkcd.com/1523/
- cronix 4y agoShooting down an unmanned aircraft in skies where the FAA has jurisdiction (just about all in the US) is a felony equal to shooting a manned aircraft, even hobby drones. You might not want to alert them.