High-Altitude Balloons Designed to Self-Destruct when Off-Course

The recent shooting down of the High-Altitude China Balloon, got me thinking; Manufacturers of high-altitude balloons, have been known to build-in a self-destruction protection if the balloon veers of course. For example. if the balloon veers off course by >1km, a self-destruction sequence is initiated, to ensure no sensitive data gets into the wrong hands. This type of test is easily supported with a GNSS Simulator.

Why did something like this not happen?

Any input from the PNT community about how to protect a high-altitude balloon OR how to protect sensitive data on the ground or surrounding area from being captured?

Discussion encouraged…

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I read this interesting article in Ars Technica: Why would the Chinese government be flying a large stratospheric balloon? | Ars Technica

Probably that the self-destruction mechanism failed in that case.

At Orolia, we have helped the NOAA to to test the RTK systems of their atmospheric balloons with the Skydel GNSS Simulator!

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@serge.malo Or perhaps that was precisely the flight path the balloon was meant to take.

As we have heard in the news, several weather balloons entered US airspace a few years ago. Now comes the news that the Pentagon failed to detect them.

It is not difficult to imagine that a foreign power may have been emboldened by previous attempts and sought to repeat the mission.

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