5 ms·

High Res Image of the Balloon [Tweet]

37 points by Element_ 4y ago

hrunt 4y ago
My favorite part of this photo is that the pilot captured the shadow of his own U-2 on the surface of the balloon. Here is the full image[0], and it was verified by the Pentagon. [0] https://d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net/Pictures/780xany/5/2/3/92523_u2balloonselfie_822356.jpg https://d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net/Pictures/780xany/5/2/3...
ghayes 4y ago
This tweet is a meme. I would suggest changing the article to Bloomberg or CNN’s coverage. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/spy-plane-pilot-takes-selfie-with-china-balloon-at-60-000-feet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/spy-plane... - Spy Plane Pilot Takes Selfie With China Balloon at 60,000 Feet https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/pentagon-china-balloon-selfie/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/pentagon-china-ballo...
- zoklet-enjoyer 4y ago
  Bloomberg https://archive.ph/ErVJy https://archive.ph/ErVJy
dendrite9 4y ago
The apparent propellers on it are interesting. I was under the impression the claim was an unpowered balloon just steered using vertical motion to get in the right air currents. The Drive has a link to a similar balloon spotted over Japan several years ago but without the large solar array, presumably to help power the motors? Or just to provide longer term power for a longer flight. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-the-chinese-spy-balloons-massive-payload https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-t...
- throwbadubadu 4y ago
  Steering with just vertical motion alone won't work unpowered as well? At that size the pump has quite something to do, and needs to be temperated. Here is a nice article from analysis, prior art, to some guesses about lot more details, just need your favorite translation tool: https://steadyhq.com/en/realitatsabzweig/posts/90669d9f-e2f2-4793-a213-be6570e77d80 https://steadyhq.com/en/realitatsabzweig/posts/90669d9f-e2f2... Power is needed for the pump to go up and down, eventual rudder/rotors, to keep hardware warm enough (!), and also large array because in contrast to Loon no transparent material but very reflective one, which has advantages but comes with more self-shading (counter with larger array). Also btw, propellers were present also on the later Loons already..
pragmatick 4y ago
So the pilot had a phone in the plane and made a selfie? Or is it just one of the many cameras in the plane and they decided to release just this one because it looks cool (and probably doesn't give away too much of the plane's capabilities)?
belter 4y ago
A claim of geolocation: https://twitter.com/obretix/status/1628511189582942209?cxt=HHwWgsC4_Y6T0ZktAAAA https://twitter.com/obretix/status/1628511189582942209?cxt=H...

37 points by Element_ 4y ago

My favorite part of this photo is that the pilot captured the shadow of his own U-2 on the surface of the balloon. Here is the full image[0], and it was verified by the Pentagon. [0] https://d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net/Pictures/780xany/5/2/3/92523_u2balloonselfie_822356.jpg https://d3lcr32v2pp4l1.cloudfront.net/Pictures/780xany/5/2/3...

ghayes 4y ago

This tweet is a meme. I would suggest changing the article to Bloomberg or CNN’s coverage. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/spy-plane-pilot-takes-selfie-with-china-balloon-at-60-000-feet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/spy-plane... - Spy Plane Pilot Takes Selfie With China Balloon at 60,000 Feet https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/pentagon-china-balloon-selfie/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/22/politics/pentagon-china-ballo...

zoklet-enjoyer 4y ago
Bloomberg https://archive.ph/ErVJy https://archive.ph/ErVJy

dendrite9 4y ago

The apparent propellers on it are interesting. I was under the impression the claim was an unpowered balloon just steered using vertical motion to get in the right air currents. The Drive has a link to a similar balloon spotted over Japan several years ago but without the large solar array, presumably to help power the motors? Or just to provide longer term power for a longer flight. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-the-chinese-spy-balloons-massive-payload https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/our-best-look-yet-at-t...

throwbadubadu 4y ago
Steering with just vertical motion alone won't work unpowered as well? At that size the pump has quite something to do, and needs to be temperated. Here is a nice article from analysis, prior art, to some guesses about lot more details, just need your favorite translation tool: https://steadyhq.com/en/realitatsabzweig/posts/90669d9f-e2f2-4793-a213-be6570e77d80 https://steadyhq.com/en/realitatsabzweig/posts/90669d9f-e2f2... Power is needed for the pump to go up and down, eventual rudder/rotors, to keep hardware warm enough (!), and also large array because in contrast to Loon no transparent material but very reflective one, which has advantages but comes with more self-shading (counter with larger array). Also btw, propellers were present also on the later Loons already..

pragmatick 4y ago

So the pilot had a phone in the plane and made a selfie? Or is it just one of the many cameras in the plane and they decided to release just this one because it looks cool (and probably doesn't give away too much of the plane's capabilities)?

belter 4y ago

A claim of geolocation: https://twitter.com/obretix/status/1628511189582942209?cxt=HHwWgsC4_Y6T0ZktAAAA https://twitter.com/obretix/status/1628511189582942209?cxt=H...