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Honest question... why did they have to shoot it down? Wasn't it better/safer/smarter to pull it down and study/analyze it? EDIT: Assuming it was possible to p

Honest question... why did they have to shoot it down? Wasn't it better/safer/smarter to pull it down and study/analyze it? EDIT: Assuming it was possible to pull it down. Was it?

closewith 4y ago
Pull it down with what?
- santiagobasulto 4y ago
  I have no idea, I'm not an expert at all. Was it COMPLETELY impossible to pull it down?
  - pigbearpig 4y ago
    It was at 60,000 FT, so yes, COMPLETELY impossible.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - loudmax 4y ago
    The balloon was very high in the upper atmosphere, above normal commercial airline flight and above the reach of helicopters. If balloon pulling is a regular occurrence you can set up infrastructure for it. Devise some different approaches and test them to see what works. If they waited that long, the balloon would have drifted out of US territory and the politics of downing an object over international waters would have been very sketchy. So yes, it's probably possible to engineer a solution to down a balloon using some non-destructive method, but there simply wasn't time to test it out and figure out what works.
  - krisoft 4y ago
    > Was it COMPLETELY impossible to pull it down? As a first approximation: yes. Nobody can pull it down because not even the tallest human is tall enough to reach it. By far. So that is the answer to that. On the other hand I assume you mean: Is it possible to pull it down with some machine? And the answer is yes, it is possible to pull it down with some machine. Entirely within the demonstrated abilities of humankind. If we want to, have enough money and time, we could make a machine which captures it, takes it to Mars, lands it there softly, dances the cha-cha-cha with it there, launches again back to Earth and lands it softly here. Entirely possible. Only a matter of time and money. It is not a question of impossibility. It is a question of how much time you have (remember it is drifting out of your airspace) and how much money you want to spend on it, and how certain you want to do it, and how safe you want to keep your personal and people on the ground while doing it.
- wpietri 4y ago
  Maybe they could rig a hook on the end of a 60,000-foot broom handle?
  - closewith 4y ago
    The AIB-1 (Air Intercept Broom)?
- willis936 4y ago
  Fulton comes to mind, but I really doubt it operates at 68,000 feet. Maybe there is a jet variant, but that might be something worth keeping secret. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery...
- pabs3 4y ago
  A heavily weighted net perhaps?
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    How are you getting one big enough to take down a balloon "the size of two to three school buses" to 60k feet?
  - CydeWeys 4y ago
    I'm assuming you're joking, but if you're not ... How the hell are you getting a heavily weighted net up to 60,000 feet?!
    - pabs3 4y ago
      Half-serious. A rocket/missile perhaps? :)
dan-robertson 4y ago
I wonder the same thing. I suspect the reason is that the payload is large no heavy and very high up which makes it hard to catch. The US used to catch rolls of film out of the air after they were dropped by satellites, but those were small and had parachutes, which probably made it easier.
frankfrankfrank 4y ago
Because not blowing it up would mean people would continue asking pesky questions and demanding evidence. But that would take down the real hot air balloon, the narrative.
- dahfizz 4y ago
  Did you watch the video? The payload clearly falls as one, intact piece. Its not like they blew it up with a nuke.
HWR_14 4y ago
It was shot down over shallow water to maximize the amount of wreckage they could study. Also, while international law is clearly on the US side shooting it down, I'm not sure if capturing it intact would be allowed. That might be air piracy or something. I am not an international lawyer.
- CydeWeys 4y ago
  > I'm not sure if capturing it intact would be allowed. That might be air piracy or something. I am not an international lawyer. 100% baseless speculation here. The US can, effectively, do whatever the hell it wants. Who's gonna tell us no? We invaded multiple sovereign countries over the past few decades and no one stopped us; you think anyone is gonna stop us doing anything to a balloon within our own airspace? And whatever happens afterwards is a matter for diplomacy, not international courts; there's no one who can enforce a ruling against the US (or China) like that. Welcome to the world of sovereign state actors, where might makes right.

Honest question... why did they have to shoot it down? Wasn't it better/safer/smarter to pull it down and study/analyze it? EDIT: Assuming it was possible to pull it down. Was it?

closewith 4y ago

Pull it down with what?

santiagobasulto 4y ago
I have no idea, I'm not an expert at all. Was it COMPLETELY impossible to pull it down?
- pigbearpig 4y ago
  It was at 60,000 FT, so yes, COMPLETELY impossible.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- loudmax 4y ago
  The balloon was very high in the upper atmosphere, above normal commercial airline flight and above the reach of helicopters. If balloon pulling is a regular occurrence you can set up infrastructure for it. Devise some different approaches and test them to see what works. If they waited that long, the balloon would have drifted out of US territory and the politics of downing an object over international waters would have been very sketchy. So yes, it's probably possible to engineer a solution to down a balloon using some non-destructive method, but there simply wasn't time to test it out and figure out what works.
- krisoft 4y ago
  > Was it COMPLETELY impossible to pull it down? As a first approximation: yes. Nobody can pull it down because not even the tallest human is tall enough to reach it. By far. So that is the answer to that. On the other hand I assume you mean: Is it possible to pull it down with some machine? And the answer is yes, it is possible to pull it down with some machine. Entirely within the demonstrated abilities of humankind. If we want to, have enough money and time, we could make a machine which captures it, takes it to Mars, lands it there softly, dances the cha-cha-cha with it there, launches again back to Earth and lands it softly here. Entirely possible. Only a matter of time and money. It is not a question of impossibility. It is a question of how much time you have (remember it is drifting out of your airspace) and how much money you want to spend on it, and how certain you want to do it, and how safe you want to keep your personal and people on the ground while doing it.
wpietri 4y ago
Maybe they could rig a hook on the end of a 60,000-foot broom handle?
- closewith 4y ago
  The AIB-1 (Air Intercept Broom)?
willis936 4y ago
Fulton comes to mind, but I really doubt it operates at 68,000 feet. Maybe there is a jet variant, but that might be something worth keeping secret. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_surface-to-air_recovery...
pabs3 4y ago
A heavily weighted net perhaps?
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  How are you getting one big enough to take down a balloon "the size of two to three school buses" to 60k feet?
- CydeWeys 4y ago
  I'm assuming you're joking, but if you're not ... How the hell are you getting a heavily weighted net up to 60,000 feet?!
  - pabs3 4y ago
    Half-serious. A rocket/missile perhaps? :)

dan-robertson 4y ago

I wonder the same thing. I suspect the reason is that the payload is large no heavy and very high up which makes it hard to catch. The US used to catch rolls of film out of the air after they were dropped by satellites, but those were small and had parachutes, which probably made it easier.

frankfrankfrank 4y ago

Because not blowing it up would mean people would continue asking pesky questions and demanding evidence. But that would take down the real hot air balloon, the narrative.

dahfizz 4y ago
Did you watch the video? The payload clearly falls as one, intact piece. Its not like they blew it up with a nuke.

HWR_14 4y ago

It was shot down over shallow water to maximize the amount of wreckage they could study. Also, while international law is clearly on the US side shooting it down, I'm not sure if capturing it intact would be allowed. That might be air piracy or something. I am not an international lawyer.

CydeWeys 4y ago
> I'm not sure if capturing it intact would be allowed. That might be air piracy or something. I am not an international lawyer. 100% baseless speculation here. The US can, effectively, do whatever the hell it wants. Who's gonna tell us no? We invaded multiple sovereign countries over the past few decades and no one stopped us; you think anyone is gonna stop us doing anything to a balloon within our own airspace? And whatever happens afterwards is a matter for diplomacy, not international courts; there's no one who can enforce a ruling against the US (or China) like that. Welcome to the world of sovereign state actors, where might makes right.