While it might seem like the Chinese spy balloon incident has ended for now, the reality is the geopolitical consequences of this saga are still ongoing.
Why? Simple: It’s cheaper. Why spend hundreds of millions of dollars building and launching a satellite into orbit—not to mention millions more for upkeep—when you can just fill a latex balloon with helium, tie a camera to it, and send it on its merry way? With minimal modifications, such a balloon can also be made to travel to a lower or higher altitude, giving itself even more flexibility in how close it is to Earth and for how long it wants to hover there.
“Balloons are cheap and somewhat guidable—though sometimes blown in unexpected directions by unexpected winds,” Johnson said. He added that spy satellites typically contain “every conceivable bell and whistle” in terms of cameras and listening devices. As such, they’re a veritable resource sink just to maintain—let alone launch into orbit.
Of course, this wasn’t necessarily the case with the Chinese spy balloon spotted last week. While the reason why the balloon was so low in the sky—and therefore observable to people on the ground—is still a mystery, some do believe that the balloon might have veered off of its intended path, resulting in the geopolitical egg on Beijing’s face. This also highlights a very clear flaw in this type of technology: It’s very much dependent on weather conditions and airstream systems.
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