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CompetitiveYou2034 t1_j73mstz wrote

Important question regarding the Chinese spy balloon.

How does it report back info?

Surely it was not planned to store the info, and then continue round the world, or return flight over the Arctic or the Pacific Ocean!

We should physically capture it to determine it's communication method(s), encryption, etc.

If this was truly quote a civilian meteorological platform that went off course, the Chinese can have no complaint to our examining it.

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aggasalk OP t1_j73t0nl wrote

probably just radio signals through satellites, which you'd think would be used whatever the purpose (military, scientific)

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UpintheExosphere t1_j73r5kp wrote

Actually, some stratospheric research balloons do just store info and then are recovered after they descend. It really just depends on the balloon. They may not be able to transmit very far and signal is lost after a certain point, or maybe the data is too large for the amount of bandwidth, etc.

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