> The sidewinder missile + F-22 flight time costs are an order of magnitude greater than the total cost of launching one balloon.
This seems like conjecture. Is there any reliable data on how much said balloon cost?
This seems like conjecture. Is there any reliable data on how much said balloon cost?
It's conjecture for me to presume the sky is blue without looking out of my window, but it's a safe bet on days with good weather.
Unless this balloon -- or whatever it was -- was diamond-bedazzled and platinum-plated and filled with alien technology it's a safe bet that it was a fair amount cheaper to produce/launch/maintain than sortieing one of the most expensive and exclusive modern aircraft in the world and shooting off a missile that costs 600k/ea -- and that's not even considering collateral costs associated to the action.
This seems like what amounts to a training program to me, unless a lot more start coming.
That’s all before bringing up that the person I quoted claimed off-hand that it’s an order of magnitude difference. They’re probably rather similar in cost.
Anything needing bus-sized solar array gonna have some fancy equipment on board. All of that needs engineering to not fail at the temperature range up above and code to make it do what is needed