(CNN) US military shoots down high-altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday.

(CNN) US military shoots down high-altitude object over Lake Huron on Sunday. Quoting,

The object was shaped like an octagon with strings hanging off it and did not appear to be carrying anything.

The octagonal shape renews interest in a balloon structure that may contain integral antennas:

  • An octagon imposes a weight penalty over a spheroid, so there must be a good reason.
  • Kapton, a favored plastic for planar antennas,  is inelastic and only moderately flexible.
  • Design of a highly specified antenna on a curved, dimensionally unstable substrate is hopeless.

A suspended capsule containing active electronics may have been deliberately dropped.