Uncontrolled “Airborne Objects” in U.S. airspace are mostly junk.
Anyone can buy an unmanned scientific-research gas-filled balloon, perhaps like the ones the USA is spending $millions to shoot down.
Anyone can launch such a balloon well into the stratosphere as long as they adhere to safety rules. At altitudes around 60,000 to 100,000 feet, it is highly improbable that a weather balloon will interfere with anyone or anything.
By Micheal John
(Note: the author is a 9,000+ hour licensed fixed-wing and rotary-wing Commercial Pilot experienced in high and low altitude, specialty aviation services.)
These data imply that there is an unknown quantity of near-space abandoned balloon junk floating around in the upper troposphere and the stratosphere, just as there is thousands of pieces of junk in space orbits around Earth, according to Inmarsat.
There are many balloon types & shapes—as many shapes as a person can imagine.
Some of the Biden political drama is created misusing the U.S. Air Force. The highly political U.S. Pentagon and some USA entertainment networks like CNN, absurdly pretend the missile targets of the past weekend are mysterious and maybe ‘alien’ targets for America’s expensive fighter jets and missiles to shoot down.
Dale Carter, security director of The RINJ Foundation, a global women’s rights group has slammed down on the propensity of world leaders to promote war in 2023 as the Biden Administration has done in the past with Russia and attempts to do now with China.
“Men’s wars are a threat to every woman and girl,” says Ms. Carter. “American leaders play their war games over false claims, like Iraq’s WMD, from cozy bunkers to bring suffering and death to millions of women and children. Women and kids suffer most in wars.”
“The number one threat to women and children on the planet is men’s wars,” Ms. Carter emphasized recently at a seminar for new humanitarian recruits heading to missions in troubled-spot war-zones.
But there is a light in the dark forest of politicized generals and incompetent president’s jingoistic men. A top-notch woman newscaster lined up an interview with Fareed Zakaria, someone who for over a decade appears to be the most intelligent gentleman in American TV.
Fareed Zakaria now worries that, “When a nation goes into collective hysteria, bad things happen.” He suggests America needs to try and have “an adult relationship with China.”
Watch the interview:
Back to balloons. There should be no hysteria. There have been thousands of these things floating around since the Montgolfier brothers first sent one aloft at Versailles in 1783.
Some balloons require a license and a type certificate. They are called airships.
Airships come in many shapes. As recently as last May, some new type certificates for unusually shaped airships were issued in China.
“High Altitude Airborne Objects” take on many shapes and sizes. This picture shows hot air balloons in Cappadocia during the third International Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Festival in Nevsehir, Turkey on 23 July 2022. Photo credit: Mustafa Kaya/Xinhua. Photo is cropped from original. Art/Cropping: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
Thousands of Weather Balloons are sent aloft every day.
Canada’s environment services send weather balloons aloft daily. Over five dozen balloons and payloads soar per day. The balloons eventually burst at high altitude and the payload, batteries and all, come tumbling down to Earth littering the pristine environment wherever they land with no recovery effort according to Environment Canada.
Twice a day, every day of the year, weather balloons are released simultaneously from almost nearly a thousand locations around the world.
This includes 92 released by the National Weather Service in the U.S. and its territories. They can drift as far as 125 miles or more and rise to over 100,000 ft. ASL explains the U.S. National Weather Service of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The American balloons at sea level are about 6 feet in diameter (2 meters) and expand to ten times that before they burst as they climb to an altitude so high the expansion in the rarefied low-pressure air masses aloft, stretches the skin and the skin ruptures.
The data collecting payload of the American balloons has a small parachute and mailing instructions for their return to NOAA if found by the public. NOAA says they get about 20% back and reuse them if they are unharmed or damaged but easily repairable.
This Weather Balloon 3000 is claimed to be the unbeaten favorite of Stratoflights, a film production company based in Germany. With a payload of up to 3kg and a maximum burst altitude of 40,000m (24.8miles) it is truly a highflier.
Walmart sells some great weather balloons.
No license is required to launch a balloon in the United States but there are rules for launching these unmanned balloons. Manned balloons are a different story and require an airship pilot’s license in most of the world.
Some of the rules one can expect:
- Any Cellular Phones must be turned off (Airplane mode enabled) for any aircraft and/or balloon as soon as it leaves the ground.
- If the weight-to-size ratio of your payload is greater than 3.0 ounces/square inch (total weight of the payload divided by its smallest face), then the total payload weight must be less than 4 pounds.
- Any individual payload/package must be less than 6 pounds.
- Total payload of two or more packages carried by one balloon must be less than 12 pounds total.
- The balloon cannot use a rope or other device for suspension of the payload that requires an impact force of more than 50 pounds to separate the suspended payload from the balloon.
- No person may operate any balloon in a manner that creates a hazard to other persons, or their property.
- No person operating any balloon may allow an object to be dropped therefrom, if such action creates a hazard to other persons or their property.
- No person may operate any unmanned free balloon in a manner that creates a hazard to other persons, or their property.
- No person operating any unmanned free balloon may allow an object to be dropped therefrom, if such action creates a hazard to other persons or their property.
There are Many Types of Balloons
Hot Air Balloons
Some of the most extraordinary hot air balloons are launched by airship enthusiasts in China, France and Canada. Recently China issued new type certificates for specialized designs. Effective 13 May 2022, three China-developed special-shaped hot air balloons have acquired their type certificate from civil aviation authorities, the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) has said.
5-day Balloons Over Waikato Festival in Hamilton, New Zealand, 19 March 2022. Photo credit: Zhu Xi / Xinhua.
The Extraordinary Solar Balloons
Experimental black plastic solar balloon. Photo Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
Solar Balloon of France in the 1780s. Photo Credit: Académie de Dijon in France
Why solar Balloons?
“Traditional air travel has been a boon for mankind, but at a cost to Earth’s atmosphere. Take COP21, for example. Based on the track records of previous conferences, this year’s meeting is all but guaranteed to emit tens of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere—of which 85 percent can be linked to the air travel of 22,000 delegates, according to the New York Times. And that figure doesn’t account for the travel of approximately 18,000 journalists, activists, and others monitoring the talks. The United Nations says it will offset all carbon emissions from its staff’s travel. As for delegations from the 195 participating countries, offsetting programs are voluntary,” wrote Cassie Martin of MIT at COP21.
Since 1977, France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales has been developing the Montgolfière Infrarouge ‘MIR’ balloon for long duration scientific-research stratospheric operations. Designed with a reflective surface, the balloons stay aloft using only the heat from the sun during the day and the infrared radiation from the earth during the night. Photo credit: FCNE
How does MIR’s science work indefinitely to keep it in the air?
Solar balloons stay aloft using only the heat from the sun during the day and the infrared radiation from the earth during the night. They can stay airborne for as long as they maintain their integrity and payload to balloon mass ratio. That can be a long time and many trips around the world.
Airborne from launch on 15 February 2000 to end of flight on 28 April 2001. Solar Balloon MIR trajectory in multiple trips around the world. Photo credit: FCNE