Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso...
by mrdmnd on Friday February 24, 2023 @08:18PM
(#34932718)
ex-Loon engineer reporting in. Can confirm, I'm having a good chuckle.
Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso...
by walrus01 on Friday February 24, 2023 @08:25PM
(#34932765)
Is this something like what you guys would have built if given a mission statement as "spent a few million dollars to build a really long endurance platform, cost is no object" ?
Re:U-2 pilot's selfie above China's balloon taken over Misso...
by libertyhouse on Friday February 24, 2023 @11:10PM
(#34933796)
Most likely TIANLIAN satcom
It's impossible to tell from looking at it in a photo taken from that distance what band a parabolic aimed (pan/tilt motorized) geostationary satellite antenna of that type is. Unless you're close enough to measure the diameter of the feed horn. Small size means it's unlikely to be C-band as not enough gain unless you want to waste a huge section of transponder space at BPSK modulation and ultra low bps/Hz ratio. It could be X, Ku, high Ku, Ka, etc.
Also extremely likely a craft like that has L/S-band more omnidirectional low data rate command and control radio talking to something in orbit. Basically same idea as L/S-band Inmarsat but operated on military satellites. Obviously the Chinese government won't be using Iridium.
Somewhere I think there are also some laid off ex Google Loon project engineers who are having a good laugh about this whole thing.