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Comment by consumer451 | Hacker News Reader

> Officials said the object was far smaller than the previous balloon, did not appear to be maneuverable and was traveling at a much lower altitude.

"Not maneuverable" and "previous balloon" so is it fair to assume that it's a balloon as well?

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John Kirby called it an object today during the White House press briefing. He also said it was the size of a small car, unlike the balloon from China that was the size of 2-3 buses. Finally, Kirby said that the object could not direct its own propulsion or direction and was at the whim of the wind.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/live/rHGWmyyb9nI?feature=share

No propulsion, wind-controlled, motor vehicle-equivalents... Yeah it's a balloon.

Maybe a weather balloon? No wonder they took it down. Those things are just looking for trouble!

Weather balloons are disposable, they rise and expand in the process until they burst - the maximum size is somewhere between 5 and 10 meters, between a large car and a white van. The payload tends to have a parachute and a phone number (the ones from the Weather Service do).

There was something about fear being the mind-killer. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam to the Red Telephone please - paging the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam!

The man does not misspeak.

No, it is just as likely to be a reporter's garbled understanding of an explanation. In mysterious matters wait until you have 2 or 3 datapoints before using a heuristic.

Agreed, but the "previous balloon" part may be unnecessary.

User dTal is on the same train of thought as I was regarding the "not maneuverable" part.

What other type of object exists which can fly and yet does not have the ability to maneuver?

ICBM

Airplane on autopilot with dead/sleeping pilot

Control surface problem (e.g. 737 elevator jackscrew excursion scenario)

(Just thinking out loud/adding ideas, not contradicting).

Hypersonic craft aren’t terribly maneuverable, to add an idea.

Jeez imagine if a country decided to launch the first nuclear strikes using their national carriers passenger air planes masquerading as civilian aircraft.

Multiple cities all at once.

"From Russia with Love"

Hell, don't even tell airline about it and send it at cargo, it is only checked at departure port (AFAIK).

Same really with cargo containers by ship.

I’m not sure how widespread it is, but some ports have radiological detectors.

Except they fly 2-3 hundred miles an hour and leak radiation we can detect from space…

If they are detectable yes the speed is an issue.

I haven’t seen info regarding detecting tracking unused nuclear weapons using sensors. Do you have a source?

parachute garbage hangs for some time at high altitude

Better question: why do we allow our government to answer our questions with riddles?

My favorite of those is a former press secretary Jen Psaki tried to retort a perfectly good question from a reporter asking if the White House will send much needed coronavirus tests to American households:

"Should we just send one to every American?" Psaki shot back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. [0]

Twitter dragged her so hard it was/wasn't even funny, and the next day the White House did just that. Thanks lady!

[0] https://theintercept.com/2021/12/21/anger-jen-psaki-helped-a...

Alien aircraft with functioning anti gravity system but inoperable propulsion system? :)

"This is some bullshit!"

(Resident Alien)

I’d love to use that heuristic but I need 1-2 more data points.

That's an interesting catch. Still, it's known that the previous object was a balloon, so I'd say it makes more sense to expect those words are shorthand for "previous object (which was a balloon)". This new object may still be a balloon, but those words aren't admission of that.

Not many other types of non-maneuverable flying craft.

Fair point; I doubt it's anything like a bottle rocket or whatever else. I guess it doesn't really matter either way since it's likely to be revealed what it was.

I wondered about this too. But even balloons are maneuverable in some sense, by changing their altitude. So maybe the meaning is more like "didn't maneuver in response to our presence".

> But even balloons are maneuverable in some sense, by changing their altitude.

Most balloons are not equipped to actively change their bouyancy.

Especially because the high altitude stuff are generally zero pressure balloons

You can use propellers to move up and down too. The buoyancy of a fixed amount of helium doesn't drop/rise much with altitude changes. It isnt like submarines. The needed vertical thrust to move a few thousand feet is minimal.

Would a smaller balloon fly lower? Seems likely.

I think the main issue of an object being really high up in the air is the lack of air density which, to achieve equilibrium, will get pulled apart (think: the opposite of being smashed). It's also extremely cold.

I assume a weather balloon can handle those issues though. [0]

[0] https://youtu.be/jaUgTwKu6vs

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