There are potentially thousands of balloon-like objects floating around at high altitudes. Before we get to aliens, perhaps we should consider these and the many other simple craft like them:
This sounds a lot like something an alien that arrived in a balloon-like object would say.
(Now I have to kill him)
Fellow earth inhabitants, let us please keep our primitive earth brains focused on realistic situations. Any discussion of aliens is ridiculous.
You’re making the assumption that they were hitting the balloon. They’re not much use for air to air combat.
Your username is disturbingly close to “Greetings, Earthlings!” rendered by a less-than-perfect universal translator.
Color me somewhat worried.
I posted earlier that they may send some legitimate weather balloons over so that they may say to the UN, “I told you so!”
Don’t be silly! If it were really aliens, they wouldn’t let us talk abo
(Shhh, use a more neutral word, such as neutralize, liquidate, or fertilizerize. They’re on to you!)
I don’t know if this has been mentioned in this long thread, but as I posted in another thread, I just found this article from November of 2022:
It looks like China has been open about the development of what looks to be the very type of balloon in question.
Well maybe they shouldn’t have posted a video of a balloon launch in 2018 of what looks like 3 hypersonic missiles.
Here’s a launch site for Chinese balloons, according to a Wall Street Journal article:
YouTube recommended a video of some nitwits asking questions about the new balloons, and, maybe seriously, thinking it could be aliens. Not all the coverage mentioned the balloon part as opposed to the payload, so they assumed the payload was flying by itself. Which I think would have been mentioned.
In the comments I notes that if these were aliens, they were the stupidest aliens ever.
So either we’re being invaded by aliens, or we’re entering a new steampunk age of airship warfare. We live in interesting times.
So now the US has two teams, one investigating UFO/UAP reports from the recent past, and one investigating apparent balloon incursions in the past few days.
There may not be any overlap in membership or objectives, but both investigations include at least some events that are probably the result of Chinese spy missions. The first report described at least 26 events as ‘drones or drone-like’, some of which seem to have been associated with Chinese spy ships.
This is the cold war of the future- increasingly sophisticated drones and spy balloons in a wide field of operations.
Balloons also move slower, allowing more time over a particular location. They’re also harder to spot, or at least were harder to spot.
I very, very much doubt it.
If - and that’s a big question - we are violating their airspace they have every legal right to shoot down whatever we are allegedly violating their space with.
We’re sort of stuck, here. If we don’t respond we invite more and more stuff to come into our airspace. If we do respond we’re “over-reacting”. Our response is neither “disjointed” nor “unhinged” even if it is not efficient.
We do need a cheaper effective way to down these things, though.
Yes, in fact one was used to observe the first balloon, the one shot down off the Carolinas, while it was crossing the country.
We are not, actually, “shooting down everything in sight”. There is a lot of stuff up in the air that most people remain blissfully unaware of.
Back when I was flying ultralights and Cessna 150’s I did have the occasional problem of flying too slowly to show up on air traffic control radar. In the Cessna this was solved with the use of a transponder. With the ultralights… well, just not allowed in that airspace for the most part (at least, not without prior permission, the details of which would be a major hijack here). The filters do make the job of traffic controller easier, otherwise the radar screen can look like some sneezed on it after splashing/spraying paint all over it. As I’ve said, there’s actually a lot of stuff up in the air.
If it was “hysterics” there would be a LOT more of these things being shot down. There’s some decision process as to which are worthy of lethal attention and which aren’t.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Yeah, I doubt it’s ET’s - I’d expect them to have much better ability to evade being spotted. Unless they want to be. But then I doubt they’d want to be spotted to be shot down.
It wouldn’t surprise me.
I suspect some of the shooting-down is prompted by the public and politics. The military can learn a lot of from watching something as opposed to destroying it, and I expect the USAF is better at evaluating threats from flying objects than I am.
The last time I went on a hot air balloon ride (near Phoenix, Arizona) the balloon was equipped with a transponder, two-way radio, and a pilot capable and willing to communicate with air traffic control. The risk is minimal. The authorities do know the difference between legit balloons and unknown objects of unknown origin/ownership. (I’m not so sure about some of the general public, but I digress…)
Go for it. I had a great time.
If you’re doing legit research AND actually keeping track of your stuff you can easily notify ATC/governments/relevant authorities along the flight path that “Hey, this is our stuff and this is what it is and pretty please don’t shoot it down. 'Kay? Thx.”
If you’re sneakin’ 'round you’re going to be viewed with suspicion and get a possible hostile response.
Unless you’re suggesting that the Chinese government was incapable of such notification despite this being down by everyone from licensed pilots to backyard rocketry clubs. It’s stupid easy to notify ATC in this country, and that’s by design.
Both true.
Which cold war pales in comparison to the one being fought every day within the internet. Which also goes unnoticed by most of the general public.