• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

An object "the size of a small car" has been shot down over Alaska. Confirmed by Pentagon.

Maiden Voyage

Gold™ Member
Anyone think that these could be sophisticated drones?
My money is on a Ms Frizzle class field trip.
the t GIF
 

RAÏSanÏa

Member
Imagine if these balloons were tests by china to see if they can detect the F22.. and the US just obliged them multiple times..
Imagine if these balloons were tests by China to find weaknesses in air defense and the US just stopped them multiple times.
 
Last edited:
Imagine if these balloons were tests by China to find weaknesses in air defense against ICBMs and the US just stopped them multiple times.
Knowing where they were intercepted in affect tells china where their weaknesses are. Also that one balloon crossed all the way to north carolina...
 
Last edited:

Toons

Member
I bet you this is some schmuck doing this for internet fame and just sending little balloons out. He'll come out and announce that he's the one who did it and then attempt to go off the grid to escape the military
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
You never want these things to be aliens.

They would be so far beyond us in tech that if they planned to “Serve Man” we’d be absolutely fucked.

And like a lot of earth explorers, they are probably out looking for resources to reap.
 

dave_d

Member
Lets do some math to figure how much you could lift with that. So I figure a typical small car is roughly 3 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1.5 meters high to give us 9 cubic meters. So that's 9000 liters. Lets see air is 22.4 liters per mol and gives us

9000/22.4 = 402molar volumes

To figure out lifting capability lets go with helium (atomic weight 4) so our difference is 28 -4 which means each molar volume lifts 24g/molar volume so doing more math

402*24 = 9643g of lift and converting that to ounces

9643/28 = 344

and then to lbs
344 /16 = 21.5 lbs

Ok, so a car sized balloon can lift about 21-22 pounds. I mean I guess with small enough electronics you could spy with that.
 

Draugoth

Gold Member
This makes me thing that China/Russia/etc is just launching a baunch of balloons to test the efficiency of USA Air defense



Other possibility is that people are just lauching a bunch of balloons in the sky
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom