Certainly one can think of obvious improvements - which I generally think is a sign that a tool has a lot of potential. I would put it somewhere between art and educational tool: I hadn't really thought that much about how far a balloon could drift in a given time period and this did kind of make me realize that they move pretty "fast" - around the world in 80 days? How about 80 hours.

Sometimes you just have time to make a think that has the potential to provoke further discussion and interest - which seems like what happened here.

It's fun and stimulates the imagination

definately modern art.

The question is the purpose

It is what you believe it to be (most of the time politically). People use it prove the theory. Other people use it to disprove. I can only see the fun with technicality on using the real data to simulate this.

Also, they said the balloon had "limited steering capability" which I assume means it could nudge itself in a direction or at least adjust it's altitude.

Look at https://www.aviationweather.gov/windtemp with the levels on the side for different altitude.

It is possible for the balloon to change its altitude and then pick up different wind directions and velocities.

https://x.company/projects/loon/

> To identify helpful wind patterns, Loon used advanced predictive models to create interactive maps of the skies. These maps allowed the team to determine the wind speed and direction at specific altitudes, times, and locations. The team then developed smart algorithms to help determine the most effective flight paths through the varying wind layers. With the aid of these algorithms, the balloons could accurately sail the winds over thousands of kilometers to reach a desired location and remain clustered around those destinations in order to deliver consistent connectivity below.

And https://x.company/blog/posts/drifting-efficiently-through-th... gets into it more.

> It is possible for the balloon to change its altitude and then pick up different wind directions and velocities.

I've tried multiple different levels from 090 to 520, and it seems the deviation within level is extremely minimal.

i.e. maybe a difference between 70deg and 75deg, but if it's going in the general direction of east, there's not an altitude to turn around or even sidetrack.

That's today with today's weather patterns, and you're only up to 52,000 feet. The spy balloon was working in the altitudes of 60,000 to 120,000.

Look at +6 hours at GPI (Glacier Park in Montana). At 34,000 its easterly at 24,000 its westerly.

Yeah, there's no way to adjust altitude with this simulation. It apparently assumes that it reaches some (unspecified ) altitude and just stays there?

Isn't it more like a zeppelin / blimp if it has any steering capability at all? I always thought that was the main difference to a balloon.

Airships like a Zeppelin or blimp have some propulsive component to them that let them navigate without the wind.

A balloon can only navigate by catching different winds at different altitudes. When you can control the altitude from 60,000 feet to 120,000 feet there is a significant amount of variation in the direction of winds.

https://www.govtech.com/question-of-the-day/what-is-now-stee...

https://blog.x.company/drifting-efficiently-through-the-stra...

You don't need a simulation. This has been done successfully from Japan with bombs hitched to it.

People were killed.

https://www.damninteresting.com/curio/ww2-japans-balloon-bom...

The key is to use high altitude balloons to catch the Jetstream and a system of timed weights for release.

Nice

no, not really

Nice , nice to get this information out. Nice ,nice people are finding something useful. Don’t be one of them ppl .. change your mindset

From the article:

> The news media cooperated with the military

Same as it ever was.

Can’t give an answer but my thought here is that this thing probably would like to be swept up before the news cycle turns and balloons aren’t a thing anymore. Looks and feels like something put together in a bit of a hurry (which is perfectly fine)

Never ask a geek, "why?", just nod your head and back away slowly.

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to consider if they _should_ ~ Dr. Ian Malcom, 1993.