1 General: So what have you learned about the Martian?
1 Young Adam: Martian? There's no such thing as Martians.
2 General: What about the flying saucer that crashed in the desert?
3 Young Jamie: That was no flying saucer. It was just a weather balloon!
4 General: It was? Really? Oh man, I'm glad you told me. I had reporters all ready for a big story. I better go tell them the truth.

Things would be a lot easier if we just made weather balloons shaped like flying saucers.

Or aliens made flying saucers shaped like weather balloons.

Or something.

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2023-10-28 Rerun commentary: Interestingly, we could be the ones sending balloons to float in the skies of alien worlds.

The Soviet Union Vega 1 and Vega 2 probes sent to Venus in 1984 dropped balloons into the atmosphere of the planet, both of which floated and transmitted data for two days.

There are also several proposed balloon missions:

• The Titan Saturn System Mission by NASA-ESA plans to launch a balloon into the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
• The ARCHIMEDES potential European Space Agency mission plans to explore the atmosphere of Mars.
• NASA has tentative plans for so-called SIRMA missions to both Jupiter and Saturn, to drop balloons into the atmospheres of the gas giants.