Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
08-01-2024
NASA Selects the MAGGIE Solar-Powered Aircraft for the 2024 NIAC Program
Graphic depiction of Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE). Credit: Ge-Cheng Zha
NASA Selects the MAGGIE Solar-Powered Aircraft for the 2024 NIAC Program
Since 1998, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program has fostered innovation by accepting new and unconventional proposals from the scientific community. Those selected are awarded funding to conduct early-stage technology studies that could lead to applications that help advance the agency’s scientific and exploration objectives. In a recent press statement, NASA announced the 13 concepts it has selected for Phase I development, which will receive a combined award of up to $175,000 in grants to assess the concepts’ feasibility and develop the technology further.
This year’s selectees range from a sample return from the surface of Venus, a fixed-wing aircraft for Mars, a swarm of probes to travel to Proxima Centauri and explore its system of exoplanets, and more. One of the more eye-catching is the Mars Aerial and Ground Global Intelligent Explorer (MAGGIE) proposed by Ge-Cheng Zha, a Professor of Aerodynamics at the Univeristy of Miami and the President of Coflow Jet LLC. The concept calls for a compact, fixed-wing, solar-powered aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL).
A collage of illustrations highlighting the novel concepts proposed by the 2024 NIAC Phase I awardees. Credit: (clockwise, from upper right) Benner/Zhang/McQuinn/Romero-Calvo/Eubanks/Carpenter/Bickford/Romero/Calvo/Cabauy/ Landis/Rothschild/Zha/NASA
Through the NIAC, NASA maintains a strong tradition where game-changing proposals submitted by the public became missions that made crucial contributions. As NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free said in the statement:
“The daring missions NASA undertakes for the benefit of humanity all begin as just an idea, and NIAC is responsible for inspiring many of those ideas. TheIngenuity helicopter flying on Mars and instruments on the MarCO deep space CubeSats can trace their lineage back to NIAC, proving there is a path from creative idea to mission success. And, while not all these concepts will fly, NASA and our partners worldwide can learn from fresh approaches and may eventually use technologies advanced by NIAC.”
According to Zha’s proposal paper, the inclusion of the CoFlow Jet (CFJ) deflected slipstream technology means that MAGGIE will be capable of cruising at Mach 0.25 (~300 km/h; 190 mph) with a cruise lift coefficient (CL) of 3.5 – nearly an order of magnitude higher than conventional subsonic aircraft in Mars’ thin atmosphere. A fully charged battery would last 7.6 Martian days (sols), giving MAGGIE a range of 179 km (111 mi) at an altitude of 1,000 m (3280 ft). The total range of MAGGIE for an entire Martian year – which works out to 668 sols or 687 Earth days – is 16,048 km (9972 mi). As Zha told Universe Today via email, the proprietary CFJ technology consists of three elements:
“First, CoFlow Jet (CFJ) active flow control enhances lift coefficient, which is needed to overcome the low air density on Mars (1% of that on Earth). Conventional lift coefficient will not be able to lift a useful payload. Second, CFJ removes flow separation or stall. Due to the low air density on Mars, the Reynolds number is very low, which makes the Aircraft prone to flow separation and stall. If the aircraft stalls, the aircraft will crash, and the game is over.
“Third, CFJ enables deflected slipstream, which is the flow pulled by the propeller. It can turn the flow 90 deg downward so that the VTOL aircraft does not need to tilt the propellers upward at hover. The propeller will remain at the forward-facing position like the at cruise. The CFJ is used in the flap to turn the flow. It makes the VTOL aircraft much simpler than conventional aircraft.”
Image of the Mars Ingenuity helicopter.
Credit: NASA
The mission profile envisioned here would consist of three atmospheric and geophysical investigations. These would explore how long Mars had a magnetic field, the source of methane signals detected by the Curiosity rover in the Gale Crater, and in-depth mapping of the subsurface water ice observed around Mars’ mid-latitudes.Its reliance on solar energy also means that the mission (barring an accident) could remain operational indefinitely. In short, MAGGIE would be able to perform the first global-scale atmospheric mission of Mars and would be the first concept to enable the ongoing exploration of the Red Planet.
“It has a global scale range. It can go anywhere on Mars,” said Zha. “All the previous rovers can only explore a point on Mars. Their ranges are very limited. MAGGIE can not just do the examination on the ground surface, but also examine the atmosphere since it flies.”
The professor also noted how his concept pays homage to the Ingenuity helicopter, which effectively demonstrated the potential for airborne missions on Mars. MAGGIE, he claims, would be similarly engaging to the public because of its audacious nature and the variety of environments it could explore, study, and image. In keeping with the proud tradition of NASA Spinoff, Zha also noted how developing this concept for investigating extraterrestrial environments will have applications for VTOL technologies here on Earth:
“Currently, there is a big movement on Earth to develop eVTOL for urban air mobility. They all need to use tilt rotors, tilt wings, and lift-plus-cruise. It is heavy, draggy, and inefficient. Using the same technology of CoFlow Jet deflected slipstream of MAGGIE, we can improve the efficiency of the eVTOL on Earth significantly.”
Titan’s “Magic Islands” Could Be Floating Blobs of Organic Solids
When the Cassini spacecraft returned radar scans of the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, the results were mindblowing. It revealed giant lakes or seas of liquid methane, a complete absence of waves and what seemed to be islands in the giant bodies of water. Now a team of scientists think they may be blobs of organic molecules that form in the atmosphere, collect in the lakes and float around!
The bus sized space probe Cassini was launched in October of 1997. The journey took the craft 3.5 billion km using gravitational slingshots following launch from Venus (twice), Earth and Jupiter before arriving in July 2004. The mission at Saturn lasted for 14 years when Cassini dived into the atmosphere of Saturn on 15 September 2017. While it was there it orbited Saturn a total of 290 times, explored many of its moons and discovered seven more.
Artist impression of Cassini Space Probe
A particularly interesting part of the mission was the Huygens probe that hitched a ride aboard Cassini with Titan as its destination. Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, the second largest moon in our Solar System and larger even than our own Moon and the planet Mercury. It’s also the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and large, stable bodies of water on its surface.
Natural color image of Titan taken by Cassini in January 2012. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
The atmosphere of Titan has a neat trick, it transforms gasses like methane and nitrogen (of which there is plenty in the atmosphere) into organic compounds. The team, led by Xinting Yu from the University of Texas studied what happens to those compounds when they reach the surface of the Moon.
Surpisingly, they found that the compounds reach the surface as solids, even on the lakes. Just what happens then was what the team were interested to explore. If they were structured like a sponge, mostly full of empty space then they would simply float. If on the other hand they were solids, they may still float depending on their composition, otherwise they will just sink to the lake bed.
One mysterious feature of the Titanian (if that’s even a word) lakes that was picked up ws temporary bright spots seen by radar. They were dubbed ‘magic islands’ because they seemed to be only temporary features. The team found that the only plausible explanation for the observations was that the solid material landing on the surface.. and by chance, in the lakes, must be porous in nature giving it the ability to float.
Supernova remnant N132D lies in the central portion of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy about 160,000 light-years away. XRISM’s Xtend captured the remnant in X-rays, displayed in the inset. Although bright in X-rays, the stellar wreckage is almost invisible in the ground-based background view taken in optical light. Credit: Inset, JAXA/NASA/XRISM Xtend; background, C. Smith, S. Points, the MCELS Team and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
XRISM, the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint NASA/JAXA mission led by JAXA. The X-ray space telescope began its mission in low-Earth orbit on September 6th, 2023. Science operations won’t begin until later this year, but the satellite’s science team has released some of the telescope’s first images.
XRISM is a stop-gap telescope. Our existing X-ray observatories, XMM Newton and Chandra, are aging, and their missions will end soon. Their replacement, the European Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA), won’t launch until 2035, leaving a years-long gap with no X-ray telescope coverage. Japan’s Hitomi X-ray observatory was meant to succeed XMM Newton and Chandra, but it failed a few weeks after launch.
Even though XRISM is intended as a fill-in mission, it’s still very powerful and will deliver robust scientific observations.
“XRISM will provide the international science community with a new glimpse of the hidden X-ray sky,” said Richard Kelley, the U.S. principal investigator for XRISM at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We’ll not only see X-ray images of these sources but also study their compositions, motions, and physical states.”
Some new images from the telescope show just how powerful this ”stop-gap’ observatory is.
XRISM has two instruments: Resolve and Xtend. Resolve is a microcalorimeter spectrometer, a cryogenic instrument that’s kept at barely above absolute zero. When a photon hits it, it warms the detector by a specific amount related to its energy. “By measuring each individual X-ray’s energy, the instrument provides information previously unavailable about the source,” NASA explains.
Xtend is an X-ray CCD camera with a higher resolution than its predecessor on the failed Hitomi observatory.
The first image from XRISM at the top of the page is of a supernova remnant (SNR) in the Large Magellanic Cloud called N132D. The remnant is almost unseeable in the optical light image but is bright in X-rays. XRISM is a spectrometer and it created the most detailed X-ray spectrum of N132D ever.
XRISM’s X-ray spectrum of N132 reveals the presence of Silicon, Sulfur, Argon, Calcium, and Iron. The numbers indicate the number of electrons lost, or the ionization state, required to produce each peak. These elements originated in the remnant’s progenitor star and blasted out into space when it exploded as a supernova. Image Credit: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Resolve and Xtend
The progenitor star was about 15 times as massive as the Sun and exploded when it depleted its hydrogen and collapsed in on itself. The wreckage, the supernova remnant, is about 3,000 years old and is still expanding. These remnants are important because they spread heavy elements throughout the galaxy, heat the interstellar medium, and accelerate cosmic rays. Their shockwaves can even compress nearby gas and trigger new star formation.
Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist at Goddard, explained how XRISM will help us understand SNRs.
“These elements were forged in the original star and then blasted away when it exploded as a supernova,” said Williams. “Resolve will allow us to see the shapes of these lines in a way never possible before, letting us determine not only the abundances of the various elements present but also their temperatures, densities, and directions of motion at unprecedented levels of precision. From there, we can piece together information about the original star and the explosion.”
Measuring the chemical composition of objects is important in astrophysics, and XRISM is proving to be even better than expected at that task.
“Even before the end of the commissioning process, Resolve is already exceeding our expectations,” said Lillian Reichenthal, NASA’s XRISM project manager at Goddard. “Our goal was to achieve a spectral resolution of 7 electron volts with the instrument, but now that it’s in orbit, we’re achieving 5. What that means is we’ll get even more detailed chemical maps with each spectrum XRISM captures.”
Xtend, XRISM’s X-ray imager, plays an important role in the observations. Its large field of view means it can observe an area about 60% larger than the full Moon. The science team released an Xtend X-ray image of Abell 2319, a nearby galaxy cluster that’s the object of frequent study.
XRISM’s Xtend instrument captured galaxy cluster Abell 2319 in X-rays, shown here in purple and outlined by a white border representing the extent of the detector. The background is a ground-based image showing the area in visible light. The pink is X-ray light from gas that permeates the cluster heated to millions of degrees. By measuring it with XRISM, astronomers can measure the mass of the entire cluster, an important point in understanding it. Image Credit: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Xtend; background, DSS
The purple in the image is gas that is leftover from billions of years of star birth and death. XRISM will tell astronomers what elements are present and how abundant they are, especially elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, called ‘metals’ in astronomy. These XRISM observations will help us understand how the Universe has become enriched in metals over its 13+ billion-year history.
Astronomers have observed Abell 2319 with the Chandra and identified different substructures in the intracluster medium (ICM.) They found cold fronts between masses of cooler and warmer gases and even finer substructures within the fronts. It all hints at more complexity than previously thought, triggered by mergers between galaxies and groups and interactions with the cluster’s AGN. Abell 2319 is currently undergoing a major merger event, and since XRISM is more powerful than Chandra, it should reveal even more details about the merger.
But alongside the success represented by these first images, XRISM is facing its first challenge. An aperture door that protects the Resolve detector before launch hasn’t opened. This means that photons below 1,700 electron volts can’t reach the detector. XRISM personnel have made several attempts to open it but haven’t yet been successful. If it remains closed, then the mission won’t detect photons below 1,700 electron volts, while it’s designed to measure photons as low as 300 electron volts. This problem, however, doesn’t affect Xtend, and the XRISM team is still working on a solution.
Though the XRISM mission is primarily a partnership between NASA and JAXA, the ESA and the Canadian Space Agency are also involved.
An aperture that protects the Resolve instrument is stuck closed, meaning XRISM can’t operate at its full electron volt detection range. Xtend, which has its own aperture, is unaffected. Image Credit: By ESA – https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/08/XRISM_in_a_nutshell, CC BY-SA 3.0 igo
“It’s so exciting to see XRISM already carrying out such marvellous scientific observations, even though it is not yet fully calibrated,” says ESA Director of Science Carole Mundell. “It shows the potential this mission offers to our science communities for groundbreaking discoveries in the study of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe.”
Project 8200 Exposed: Unearthing the CIA’s Psychic Quest for Alien Base
Project 8200 Exposed: Unearthing the CIA’s Psychic Quest for Alien Base
In the shadowy corridors of Cold War espionage, where the United States and the Soviet Union vied for global supremacy, a lesser-known but equally intriguing battle was waged. This battle didn’t involve traditional weapons or soldiers but the human mind’s uncharted territories. Project 8200, a clandestine CIA initiative, epitomized this era’s peculiar mix of hard science and fringe exploration as it sought to employ psychic abilities to uncover alien bases purportedly hidden deep underground.
The Genesis of Psychic Spying
The 1970s marked a period when America, reeling from the cultural and political upheavals of the ’60s, was willing to explore unconventional military and intelligence tactics. The CIA, intrigued by reports of Soviet experiments in psychic espionage, initiated its own program to explore remote viewing — the practice of projecting one’s consciousness to remote locations to gather intelligence.
This initiative, which would later evolve into Project 8200, recruited individuals with purported psychic abilities. These individuals were tasked with using their powers to spy on Soviet installations and, quite accidentally, stumbled upon something even more extraordinary — alien bases concealed within Earth’s remote landscapes.
Mount Hayes: The Psychic Revelation
The turning point for Project 8200 came when one of the remote viewers, by a twist of fate, found himself projecting his consciousness to Mount Hayes in Alaska. This remote mountain, far from any civilization, was not just an ordinary peak but allegedly a covert extraterrestrial base. As the psychic delved deeper, he claimed to see non-human-built structures and sophisticated technology, far beyond human capabilities.
VIDEO:
The Why Files – Project 8200 Exposed | CIA Psychics Find Alien Bases Underground
This revelation was just the beginning. Further psychic investigations purportedly uncovered additional alien bases in Mount Perdido in Spain, Mount Inyangani in Zimbabwe, and Mount Ziel in Australia. These sites were described as hubs of high technology and energy, possibly serving as monitoring stations or relay points for an unknown extraterrestrial purpose.
The Science and Skepticism
Skeptics might dismiss Project 8200’s findings as fanciful at best. After all, remote viewing is a highly contested field, with many scientists questioning its validity. However, proponents argue that the consistency of psychic reports and the detailed descriptions of technology and locations lend some credence to the claims. Furthermore, the project’s existence reflects a period when the boundaries of science and pseudoscience were fluid, and the hunger for any strategic advantage in the Cold War led to some of the era’s most outlandish and fascinating explorations.
The Legacy of Project 8200
The supposed discovery of alien bases by CIA psychics is more than just a tale of Cold War eccentricity. It’s a narrative about the human quest for understanding, the desire to know what lies beyond our current capabilities, and the eternal question of whether we are alone in the universe. Project 8200 may not have provided definitive answers, but it certainly expanded the dialogue around these profound questions.
As we continue to explore space and the potential for extraterrestrial life, the legacy of Project 8200 reminds us that sometimes the search for the unknown takes us to the most unexpected places — even within the depths of our own minds. Whether or not alien bases exist tucked away in Earth’s remote landscapes, the very idea challenges us to keep an open mind about the possibilities of the universe and our place within it.
Five UFOs Over Area 51 Military Firing Range! Gov Release, UFO Sighting News.
Five UFOs Over Area 51 Military Firing Range! Gov Release, UFO Sighting News. 👽👀🛸
If you ever see an airliner jet flying at this angle, get out of the way, its about to crash, these 5 UFOs identified by the US gov as passenger jets are not, I debunked the US gov theory.
Date of recording: May 31, 2023
Location of sighting: Area 51 old military firing range
Now this video release by the US gov just came out this week and it shows five cigar UFOs flying at the same angle, side by side in military formation over a western US military firing range, and guess what? The screams out Area 51! Thats right, it's the biggest and oldest firing range in that area. Also I believe that these UFOs are alien technology in the hands of the USAF. Why? Because Area S4 is within Area 51, and Area S4 is where they learn to use alien technology and scientist Bob Lazar said he saw 8 UFOs and he worked on one of them personally. Apparently some military person recorded this video and everyone else in the military tried to dismiss it as passenger jets. Guys, this is 100% proof that the USAF has whole fleets of alien built spaceships in that hands of USAF pilots.
UFO that's shaped like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars leaves experts baffled
UFO that's shaped like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars leaves experts baffled
Boffins have spent six years probing the sighting in the village of Brandon, northeast of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham with boffins labelling it an 'unidentified object of some sort'
ByIsobel Dickinson
Boffins have spent six years probing the sighting
(Image: Jam Press)
A UFO shaped like the Millennium Falcon could actually be from a galaxy far, far away, experts say.
They launched an investigation after Christine Iskander, 63, spotted the bright object and took a snap on her iPhone. Boffins have spent six years probing the sighting in the village of Brandon, north east of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham in 2017.
Philip Mantle, a former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association, drafted in top experts to probe the sighting. He said: “Although on the surface this photo doesn’t look like much, when it has been enlarged it almost looks like the Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars.
“Add to this the witness’ description you have to label this as a genuine UFO.
Jason Gleaves, an ex-RAF and BAE Airbus division employee, who studied the photo in depth, said: “Upon analysing the original image, it appears to have defined structure.
Christine Iskander grabbed her phone and took a picture(Image: Jam Press)
“No known conventional aircraft can accelerate vertically from a standing hovering position without sound.”
Speaking at the time, Christine said: "It was blinding, looking at it directly. It looked like a very brilliant white star to the naked eye.
"I thought it may be a helicopter at first but there was no sound...Seconds after taking the photo the object shot straight up and then disappeared before I could get another photo.
It was compared to the Millennium Falcon(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
"The picture shows something quite different to what my eyes saw."
To her amazement when she enlarged the picture, the object appeared to resemble Han Solo's famous smuggling starship from the hit Star Wars movies, starring Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
It first appeared in the original Star Wars film in 1977, and re-appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi.
UFO that's shaped like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars leaves experts baffled
UFO that's shaped like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars leaves experts baffled
Boffins have spent six years probing the sighting in the village of Brandon, northeast of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham with boffins labelling it an 'unidentified object of some sort'
ByIsobel Dickinson
Boffins have spent six years probing the sighting
(Image: Jam Press)
A UFO shaped like the Millennium Falcon could actually be from a galaxy far, far away, experts say.
They launched an investigation after Christine Iskander, 63, spotted the bright object and took a snap on her iPhone. Boffins have spent six years probing the sighting in the village of Brandon, north east of Bishop Auckland, Co Durham in 2017.
Philip Mantle, a former director of investigations for the British UFO Research Association, drafted in top experts to probe the sighting. He said: “Although on the surface this photo doesn’t look like much, when it has been enlarged it almost looks like the Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars.
“Add to this the witness’ description you have to label this as a genuine UFO.
Jason Gleaves, an ex-RAF and BAE Airbus division employee, who studied the photo in depth, said: “Upon analysing the original image, it appears to have defined structure.
Christine Iskander grabbed her phone and took a picture(Image: Jam Press)
“No known conventional aircraft can accelerate vertically from a standing hovering position without sound.”
Speaking at the time, Christine said: "It was blinding, looking at it directly. It looked like a very brilliant white star to the naked eye.
"I thought it may be a helicopter at first but there was no sound...Seconds after taking the photo the object shot straight up and then disappeared before I could get another photo.
It was compared to the Millennium Falcon(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
"The picture shows something quite different to what my eyes saw."
To her amazement when she enlarged the picture, the object appeared to resemble Han Solo's famous smuggling starship from the hit Star Wars movies, starring Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill.
It first appeared in the original Star Wars film in 1977, and re-appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi.
Allow me to start with a confession: although the topic of UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, previously called UFOs) has always fascinated me, my reaction to confronting much of the related literature—beyond the safe harbour of a few serious authors—has been one of considered dismissiveness. In my view, a significant portion of the published material could benefit from greater rigor, empirical grounding, theoretical clarity, and logical reasoning. This field often appears to diverge from the standards of intellectual precision and level-headed analysis that hold in academia. However, recent developments over the past six or seven years invite us to re-examine the subject from a more open and inquisitive perspective.
Because there are so few—if any—consensus launchpads for such a polemical topic, I must explicitly justify each step of my thinking and, thus, cover a lot of ground in this long essay. I shall start, below, by motivating the validity of the mystery: UAPs are no longer just tall and questionable tales shared on social media, accompanied by grainy, out-of-focus cellular phone footage. Enough has been officially acknowledged since 2017 that the topic is now undoubtedly deserving of serious treatment. After laying foundations for my argument, I will then proceed to elaborate on what I currently consider to be the most level-headed and plausible account of the phenomenon. And to anticipate a question you are bound to be already asking, no, I don’t think it is aliens from Zeta Reticuli; the facts may be a lot more surprising and closer to home than that.
SURPRISINGLY MUCH HAS RECENTLY BEEN DISCLOSED
In 2017, several videos of UAPs—soon to become known as the ‘Pentagon UFO videos,’ as they were recorded by infrared cameras in military aircraft—were circulating widely on the Internet. At around the same time, the story behind the videos was covered in a now-seminal report by The New York Times.
Years later, in the summer of 2023, US Navy pilots involved in these incidents provided public testimony to Congress, under oath, adding detail and background to the odd images. Asked whether the UAP he saw with his own eyes moved in a way that defied the laws of physics, Commander David Fravor replied: “The way we understand them [i.e., the laws of physics], yes.” He then confirmed that the UAPs were not only captured on camera, but also tracked by radar from three different vessels: “The Princeton tracked it. The Nimitz tracked it. The E2 tracked it.” Asked to describe how the UAP maneuvered, CDR Fravor said, “Abruptly, very determinant. It knew exactly what it was doing. It was aware of our presence and it had acceleration rates—I mean, it went from zero to matching our speed in no time at all.” Finally, asked if any human technology could emulate the UAP’s flight characteristics he observed, he said: “No, not even close.” Navy F-18 pilot Ryan Graves—another military witness giving sworn testimony—described a UAP sighted from 50 feet away as “A dark gray or a black cube inside of a clear sphere,” something that cannot be conflated with a drone or ordinary aircraft.
Still in 2023, United States Air Force officer and former intelligence official David Grusch became a UAP whistle-blower. In interviews with various media outlets, he claimed that several defense officials had confirmed to him that the US government maintains a secretive UAP crash-retrieval and reverse-engineering program, and is in the possession of several technological craft with Non-Human Intelligence (NHI) provenance.
Mr. Grusch, too, provided sworn testimony during the congressional UAP hearing of July 2023. Asked whether the US has the bodies of the pilots of the recovered UAPs, he said: “As I have stated publicly already … biologics came with some of these recoveries.” Pressed on whether these “biologics” were nonhuman, he confirmed without ambiguity: “Nonhuman, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.” Mr. Grusch understands that the penalty for lying under oath is jail, and offered several times during his testimony to confidentially—as required by law—provide specific details to lawmakers.
Up until 2017, the profitable UAP rumor mill was fed mainly by ‘anonymous sources,’ filmed with their faces and voices concealed, and telling vague stories largely impossible to verify independently. Even when one of those anonymous sources eventually identified himself—Mr. Robert Lazar—his credentials and even college education could never be verified. This has changed now: the names and credentials of the individuals mentioned above are not in doubt; they are who they say they are. And their ranks and roles put them in a position to plausibly know what they claim to know. These individuals are willing to testify under oath in public hearings and confidentially provide evidence to members of Congress. All this, while notprovingthat UAPs are of exotic origin, does lend credibility to UAP speculation.
Even the former head of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office of the US Department of Defence—Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, a man widely reviled in the UAP community as a prejudiced gatekeeper working against UAP disclosure—has made very consequential revelations during an official NASA press briefing: there are seemingly metallic spheres out there that, somehow, move and maneuver without any signs of propulsion or flight control surfaces. He proceeded to show a declassified video of one such a sphere, as recorded by an MQ-9 ‘Reaper’ military drone, one of the most sophisticated sensor platforms in the world today. The sphere shown moves fast, in a controlled, non-ballistic trajectory. Dr. Kirkpatrick then stated that this is just “a typical example of the thing we see most of; we see these all over the world.” That the spheres are described as making “very interesting apparent maneuvers” is significant, as it rules out balloons and ordinary drones. That they are seen frequently and all over the world also rules out elaborate, expensive hoaxes.
Prejudiced gatekeeper or not, Dr. Kirkpatrick has thus officially acknowledged that there are concrete UAPs “all over the world,” for which there is no prosaic account thus far. They have been recorded by a variety of military-grade sensors, not just cell phones. That Dr. Kirkpatrick’s revelations have not become headline news in every mainstream media platform across the world is emblematic of the apathy and cynicism—the ‘don’t-look-up syndrome’—that has been assailing Western societies in recent years.
CROSSROADS
As a culture, we’ve thus reached an impasse. On the one hand, the meager amount of data that has been declassified or leaked isn’t enough for us to derive any firm conclusions regarding the nature of the phenomenon. On the other hand, enough has been begrudgingly but officially acknowledged that we can’t dismiss the phenomenon under prosaic accounts either. The best we can do is thus to take the data seriously, but not extrapolate from it without basis.
In this spirit, I submit to you that the following tentative premises are justifiable: firstly, there is an engineered technology in our skies and oceans that is not human. The counterargument to this is, of course, that UAPs may be top-secret but very human military devices, often called ‘black technology.’ Yet, this seems to contradict much of what has been disclosed since 2017. The following passage from the testimony of CDR Fravor to Congress illustrates the point: Representative Ms. Nancy Mace asked, “Many dismiss UAP reports as classified weapons testing by our own government. But in your experience as a pilot does our government typically test advanced weapons systems right next to multimillion-dollar jets without informing our pilots?” To which CDR Fravor responded: “No. We have test ranges for that.”
Moreover, if UAPs such as the metallic spheres were black technology the US Department of Defence were trying to keep secret, it is hard to imagine why Dr. Kirkpatrick—an official of that very department—would publicize their existence and even declassify a video showcasing their size, form, flight capabilities, etc. Also, the fact that UAPs often seem to defy our understanding of physics doesn’t line up with the black-technologies hypothesis, as it would require not only the engineering to be secret, but also the very advancement of the human understanding of physics. This isn’t impossible, but isn’t very plausible either. Finally, it is difficult to imagine why such game-changing black technologies—which would have to have been around for at least as long as the UAP phenomenon itself—were never used in large and conspicuous scales to advance the geopolitical interests of any nation.
Secondly, if there is non-human technology in our skies and oceans, then there must be Non-Human Intelligences (NHIs) active on our planet, engineering and controlling the UAPs. This does not imply that the NHIs are extra-terrestrial; it means simply that they aren’t human.
As implausible as these two premises may sound in this particular historical junction, the data, if taken seriously, does not seem to allow for prosaic alternatives. So whatever hypotheses we entertain, they will perforce stretch our credulity. Indeed, to insist on prosaic explanations we must disregard the data. The latter is not necessarily invalid—it isn’t incoherent to imagine that all the data are the spurious fabrications of some sprawling disinformation campaign stretching over decades—but it certainly doesn’t advance the discussion. It thus seems more productive, at this point, to bite the bullet of what the data suggests—at least hypothetically—and then check whether we can make sense of it in a manner that renders the data less vexing.
Before we can try that, however, we first need to understand the key characteristics of the phenomenon we are trying to account for.
THE HALLMARKS OF THE PHENOMENON
Although the disclosure process is relatively young, having publicly started only in 2017, the phenomenon itself seems to be at least as old as humanity. Ancient mythology, religious and otherwise, contains narratives largely consistent with today’s UAP observations. And serious researchers—the most prominent, competent, and reliable of which, in my view, is French astronomer and computer scientist Dr. Jacques Vallée—have been collecting data on it, applying statistical analyses to such data, and deriving conclusions from such analyses for decades now.
Two key conclusions from Dr. Vallée’s work are particularly pertinent to our challenge here. The first is that, based on countless witness reports, the phenomenon does not seem to make any distinction between physical and psychological effects; it produces both, as if they were mere facets of one and the same causative mechanisms. The boundaries we draw between the mental and the physical don’t seem to be observed by the phenomenon, which transits casually back and forth across the dividing line. Dr. Vallée acknowledges the undeniable physical aspect of the phenomenon—it can be filmed, tracked by radar and other sensors, emits measurable energy, often leaves physical footprints and vestiges behind, etc.—but adds that at least part of what the witnesses experience is “staged”: the UAP sometimes evokes archetypal, symbolic imagery directly in the witness’ mind to convey a feeling-laden metaphorical message, which transcends the objectively measurable characteristics of the phenomenon.
Though Dr. Vallée had already come to this conclusion decades ago, recent investigations into secret US Department of Defence programs on UAPs, by journalist Ross Coulthart, seem to confirm it (see pages 265-267 of Mr. Coulthart’s 2021 book,In Plain Sight). Stanford Professor Dr. Garry Nolan, perhaps the most respectable scientist to actively research the phenomenon, acknowledged Mr. Coulthart’s reporting on the matter. He went on to recount a specific UAP case that illustrates, perhaps better than any other, the UAPs’ ability to directly manipulate human perception: “[this is a] story that Jacques Vallée brought to me, of a family in France, driving down the highway. This was like in the last five or ten years [from June of 2022]. And they had a glass-topped car. They look up and they see a UFO, you know, basically paralleling them down the highway. The mother looks around and sees that no other individuals nearby are freaking out about this thing above them. The children in the back take out their cell phones, take a picture of it. They get home and they look at the pictures on their camera, and they don’t see an object [of the kind they thought they had witnessed]; they see a little star-shaped thing about thirty or so feet above, and I have the picture. That doesn’t look anything like a drone. … I think it has like seven spokes and a central hole of some sort. So, you’re left with this: they saw a giant craft, but the picture shows that it was nothing [like it] there. Nobody else could see it. So, even if it was an object that was there, others weren’t capable of seeing it, so it was manipulating vision” (my emphasis).
behavior of UAPs is not consistent with the extra-terrestrial hypothesis (see chapter 9 of his book, Dimensions). Dr. Vallée estimated that, in a period of just twenty years, there have been about three million UAP landings. This is not consistent with visitations by beings from another planet for the purposes of surveying the Earth or researching its inhabitants (orders of magnitude fewer visits would have sufficed for these purposes); instead, the UAPs’ behavior is precisely what one would expect if they were from here—and were simply going about their business. After all, there are many rare—and some not-so-rare—animal and plant species that human beings encounter a lot less frequently than 150.000 times per year, and they are undeniably terrestrial. In his interview with Mr. Coulthart, also Dr. Nolan expressed the view that UAPs are not extra-terrestrial.
TWO DISTINCT PHENOMENA?
Although the two characteristics discussed above generally apply to most of what we colloquially label ‘UAP,’ ‘UFO,’ or ‘alien’ encounters, there are reasons to entertain the possibility that we are dealing with at least two distinct phenomena here. If so, it is crucial that we do not conflate the two, otherwise, any viable account of one phenomenon may be discarded merely because it is not suitable for—or even contradicts—the other, leading to an insoluble impasse.
One clearly discernible class of observations, which I shall henceforth refer to as ‘nuts-and-bolts’ UAPs, entails physical craft that can not only consistently be seen, filmed, and tracked by radar, but also—if we are to believe Mr. Grusch’s informants and other sources in a position to plausibly know—stored in hangars for decades, drilled into, analyzed under a scanning electron microscope, etc. The bodies of their occupants can also—again, if we are to believe the sources—be kept in freezers and harvested for biochemical analysis. This means that the phenomenon in question has a physical aspect as consistent and stable as our own body and the car in our garage. Moreover, these ‘nuts-and-bolts’ UAPs are more frequently observed in the proximity of military exercises and installations, particularly nuclear installations (this has been the case for decades, the recent Pentagon UFO videos simply reiterating the pattern). They don’t seem to be interested in teaching us anything, but simply in monitoring human activity that could lead to large-scale destruction and compromise the planet’s habitability (incidentally, this is exactly what one would expect if the NHI in question is terrestrial).
Unlike the above, another class of observations entails encounters in one’s bedroom, at school, during one’s commute back from work, and other ordinary, random situations unrelated to military activity. These are the so-called ‘high strangeness’ events, encompassing the ‘alien contactee’ and ‘alien abduction’ cases. The craft and beings observed don’t have a consistent physical aspect but are, instead, elusive, appearing and disappearing, taking on an absurd variety of incongruous forms and behaviors. They leave either none or scarce, ambiguous physical traces, such as spontaneous nose bleeds, ordinary cysts found in places where the witness claims to have been implanted with alien technology, marks on the ground consistent with a variety of causes, and so on. This ambiguous physical evidence is better described as synchronistic—i.e., coincidental in a meaningful way—as opposed to causal. The observations are elusive, illogical, and shapeshifting like a dream. They seem focused on a form of deliberate, symbolic communication with the witness, aimed at conveying a teaching of some kind, as opposed to arising from chance encounters. Like a vision, they can’t be photographed.
I am not dismissive of this ‘high strangeness’ class of observations. As a matter of fact, I have written an entire book—Meaning in Absurdity—in which I try to account for it. I believe these visions are real as such; they are part of a natural feedback mechanism intrinsic to the human mind, which seeks to dislodge it from ossified worldviews that, despite having become stable, no longer serve the advancement of our understanding of ourselves and nature. The visions in question emerge from collective, phylogenetically ancient layers of the human mind shared by all of us, which, for being incapable of language and conceptual reasoning, communicate to the executive ego through dream-like, immersive metaphors. They should be taken seriously, just not literally.
But I do not think that the ‘high strangeness’ phenomenon is the same as the ‘nuts-and-bolts’ UAPs. Conflating the two, in my opinion, may make it impossible to account for either, as no one account will be consistent with the sometimes mutually contradictory characteristics of both. For this reason, and because I have explored the ‘high strangeness’ phenomenon in previous work, I shall henceforth exclusively discuss the ‘nuts-and-bolts’ UAP phenomenon.
IF TERRESTRIAL BUT NOT HUMAN, THEN WHO?
The idea that the intelligence behind the UAPs is terrestrial and ancient is itself not new. Dr. Hal Puthoff calls it the “ultra-terrestrial” hypothesis. He raises the possibility that remnants of a pre-Diluvial high-tech human civilization—think of the Atlantis myth—may have survived at the end of the last ice age and remain active today, though discreet in their activities.
The problem with this hypothesis is that any truly high-tech civilization—unless it has moved underground very early, which may not be plausible due to difficulties related to the space required for industrial and logistical infrastructure, difficulties with waste management and pollution, etc.—leaves vast and long-lasting footprints on the terrain and environment, such as mining holes, landfills, urban infrastructure, artificial pollutants such as microplastics, etc. These footprints, though degraded, would have remained conspicuous enough over the period of only several thousand years since the last ice age. Yet, we find no such traces predating our own civilization.
Because high technology development requires—at least at first—extensive industrial infrastructure, any ancient civilization capable of technology as advanced as that in UAPs will almost inevitably have had to go through steps of industrialization and resource extraction analogous to ours, and then some. It will have had to go through phases of urbanization, mining of metals and burning of hydrocarbons, the construction of vast industrial parks, logistical/transport infrastructure, and so on. If the intelligence behind UAPs is terrestrial, it will thus need to be ancient enough for the associated footprints to have been almost completely erased by natural weather and geological processes. Yet, it will also need to be recent enough to already have had access to fossil hydrocarbons to fuel the early stages of its industrialization process. Are these seemingly conflicting constraints reconcilable?
They are, as per the so-called “Silurian Hypothesis” first proposed by Gavin Schmidt and Adam Frank in a 2018 paper on the International Journal of Astrobiology. The idea is as follows: our planet has existed for about 4.5 billion years, with life on it for about 4 billion years. The genus Homo, to which we belong, has been around for less than 3 million of those 4 billion years; the blink of an eye in geological terms. And modern humans—Homo sapiens—for just 2 or 3 hundred thousand years. There is, thus, plenty of time and opportunity for other non-human species to have arisen on Earth, developed to a level of technology far beyond ours (imagine where our own science and technology will be in a mere thousand more years, if we don’t kill ourselves before that), and then to have effectively vanished due to one or more of the myriad possible civilisation-ending cataclysms that could end our own (climate change/collapse, comet/asteroid impact, pandemics, solar storms, thermonuclear war, etc.).
Any sign of abandoned urban and industrial infrastructure is unlikely to survive a period of only a few million years, due to weather erosion. Synthesized chemicals, alloys and other compounds, technological artifacts, as well as terrain signatures such as mining holes, are ultimately unlikely to survive the constant recycling of the Earth’s crust through plate tectonics. What is now the Earth’s crust will eventually sink into the molten asthenosphere and mantel beneath, where it will be reforged, just to eventually re-emerge through volcanic activity as a brand-new crust. As a rough estimate, if we assume an average plate movement of a few centimeters per year, it could take only tens of millions of years for large swathes of the Earth’s crust—especially the ocean crust but, to a more limited degree, also the continental crust—to be recycled in this manner. No conspicuous remnants of an ancient, technological, nonhuman civilization would likely survive all this.
The question now is, when were fossil hydrocarbons first available in large enough quantities to fuel the initial growth of an ancient industrial civilization? Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Frank estimate that this was already the case in the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago, which leaves us with a window of hundreds of millions of years for industrial NHIs—multiple different ones—to have developed on Earth.
Notice that my claim here is not that it is likely that high-tech nonhuman civilizations have emerged on Earth before us; I cannot evaluate the probabilities involved. My claim is that, based on what we know, such civilizations are not impossible or inconsistent with the geological record. On the contrary: as Dr. Schmidt and Dr. Frank point out, the record shows several periods of global warming consistent with large-scale industrialization.
Now, since we cannot visit an NHI city today, it is necessarily the case that, if such ancient terrestrial civilizations ever existed, they have largely died out—at least as far as the surface of the planet is concerned. This, however, is not implausible: as we know from our own case, civilizations can start, reach high-tech levels, and then be annihilated in a mere few thousand years. Indeed, although our civilization is still going, we are painfully aware of how easily and quickly it can be brought to a swift end tomorrow, in a thermonuclear war, asteroid impact, climate collapse, or a more deadly pandemic than the one we have just survived, etc.
Yet, it is unlikely that all members of our species would die in a planetary catastrophe. There is a good chance that few but enough of us would survive in shelters and preserve a minimum level of knowledge to keep some of our technology going, especially if we get some advance notice of the impending doom. In as little as a decade or two from now, for instance, we will likely have mastered the technology of small-scale, portable, clean nuclear reactors that can be buried in a backyard (or a cave) and provide effectively unlimited energy. Portable 3D printing technology is reducing our reliance on centralized, large-scale manufacturing facilities. Our computers, which were once the size of buildings, now live in our pockets. If we extrapolate these trends for another mere century or two, it is reasonable to imagine that technological miniaturization and portability will allow our civilization to survive at a reduced scale in, for instance, underground shelters. It is thus not unreasonable to imagine, purely speculatively, that the same could have been the case for ancient NHIs hypothetically behind today’s UAPs.
Any culture once exposed to the magnitude of a planetary catastrophe will have a historical trauma transmitted down the generations through myth and storytelling, similarly to—but much more acutely than—how flood stories have survived since the end of the last ice age. Such a culture will be wary of the planet’s surface, for the latter is a notoriously exposed and volatile region: it undergoes far more extreme temperature swings than, say, the deep oceans and underground caves; it is prone to severe weather that can ruin crops and flood entire cities; it is exposed to irradiation from solar storms and other cosmic events, which can ruin technology and life; it is extremely vulnerable to comet and asteroid impact, as the dinosaurs found out; etc. And since such a post-apocalyptic culture would have been reduced to relatively few members, their requirements for living space would also be relatively modest. Depending on the surviving level of their technology, they could have made a home for themselves underwater or underground. A few generations of (directed) adaption—genetic and cultural—to such an environment would render the planet’s surface perhaps as alien and inhospitable to them as the Mariana Trench is to us. They would be okay with allowing the monkeys to run amok on top of the roof (provided that the monkeys don’t start a thermonuclear war and compromise the entire house), but would rather stay safely indoors.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WEIRD MIND MANIPULATION STUFF?
Science fiction has inculcated in our culture the notion that communication with another, completely different species is a matter of translation or word-swapping; something akin to what we do to convert Chinese text into English. Indeed, we now have a completely manufactured sense of the plausibility of such an idea. But it is naïve.
Ordinary translation presupposes two important things: a shared cognitive structure (templates of thinking) and shared empirical references. The latter is easy to see: if both you and I have already had the experience of seeing and driving a car, then to understand each other we just need to learn what word the other uses to denote that experience. However, things are more subtle when it comes to shared cognitive structures, as they operate based on abstractions, not direct empirical experiences. For instance, think of the concept of ‘flow’: it can be used to denote a concrete empirical experience, such as watching a river flow. But it is also used in much more abstract ways: we say that ‘time flows’ even though we can’t see time, let alone its flow; we speak of the ‘flow of ideas’; we say that ‘we are in the flow’; and so on. ‘Flow’ is an abstraction that refers to sequential, somewhat ordered changes of state, something entirely bound to our human mode of cognition. To understand ‘flow’ one needs to share the basic cognitive templates that gave rise to the concept in us to begin with. Without these shared templates, it is impossible to merely translate the word.
All humans share these basic cognitive templates by the mere fact of being members of the same species. In other words, we think alike because we are alike. Some linguists—such as Noam Chomsky—go as far as to say that the basic structure of all human languages, which he refers to as the ‘Universal Grammar,’ is biologically encoded in the human cognitive system. Although Chomsky’s opponents argue that language is merely invented and shared by convention, it is still necessarily the case that the underlying foundations of whatever is invented reflect cognitive modalities the inventor shares with all other members of their species. It is this commonality that enables what we call ‘translation’ across human languages, and we tend to take it entirely for granted.
But NHIs, by definition, don’t share such commonality with us. After all, they belong to a different species. Their cognition will almost certainly unfold with vastly different patterns and modalities. Even their logic may bear little resemblance to our own Aristotelian axioms. Moreover, their cultural context is bound to be entirely different from ours, leading to different empirical references: originally, they may not have had a cognitive category for, say, ‘car’ or understand the concept of a wheeled vehicle (for instance, if they are an aquatic species). It is naïve to expect that NHIs could learn our language as easily as a Chinese person can learn English. The underlying cognitive structures and references won’t line up; why should they?
Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that we and NHIs can never communicate. What it does mean is that achieving this feat will require an effort to enter each other’s cognitive inner space—literally. In other words, before they could communicate with us, they would have to gain direct access to, and manipulate, our abstract mental processes. This is not something that can be casually achieved in the way I can pick up Italian during a holiday.
To really appreciate the difficulties we have to go beyond whales—close relatives of ours—and imagine that, say, praying mantises—ancient insects much less related to us than whales—would have some form of language, and that we would try to communicate with them. Now we’re getting closer to the mark, for the cognitive templates and inner logic of insectoids are bound to be very largely incommensurable with ours. The challenge here is not mere translation; to speak ‘Insectoidish’ one would have to enter the cognitive space of insectoids—i.e., enter their mind.
Intellectual-level communication between more advanced terrestrial NHIs and us will require direct access to our cognitive processes. They will have to directly modulate our own abstract references and modes. In other words, they will have to convey their ideas to us by prompting our own mind to articulate those ideas to itself, using its own conceptual dictionary and grammatical structures. And because their message—a product of their own cognition, incommensurable with ours—is bound to not adequately line up with our grammar and conceptual menu, this articulation will perforce have to be symbolic, metaphorical; it will have to point to the intended meaning, as opposed to embodying the intended meaning directly, or literally.
There is plenty of clinical precedence for this in the literature of depth psychology. Analytical Psychology, for instance, maintains that the deeper, evolutionarily ancient, instinctive layer of our mind, for not having the language capabilities of the executive ego, speaks to us in dreams and visions through symbols, and metaphors. It can’t tell us in English, for instance, that time is flowing while we procrastinate, prompting us to act. So it may, instead, trigger and modulate a dream in which we, say, accidentally drop our backpack in a fast-flowing river and watch helplessly as it floats away. If the deeper layer of our mind, for being phylogenetically primitive, is incapable of articulating the conceptual abstractions ‘time,’ ‘flow,’ and ‘procrastination,’ it can still point symbolically to its intended meaning; it can still confront us with imagery that evokes the same underlying feeling—a sense of urgency—that would have been evoked by the statement, “time is flowing while you procrastinate.” This is what intellectual-level communication looks like when the interlocutors do not have commensurable cognitive structures. And this is how we may expect NHIs to communicate with us, if they have the technology required to reach directly into our minds and manipulate our cognitive inner space.
Notice the similarity between this and the ‘high strangeness’ class of observations: both entail symbolic communication by means of direct manipulation of our inner cognition. In the latter case, the communication is between deeper and shallower—primitive and modern, respectively—layers of our mind, taking place naturally and spontaneously. In the former case, the communication—likely mediated by technology—is between an NHI and a human, taking place in an artificial and deliberate manner. But both are metaphorical, akin to dreams and visions. This similarity is part of the reason why we feel tempted to conflate the ‘nuts-and-bolts’ and ‘high strangeness’ classes of observations.
In conclusion, I submit the hypothesis that, when UAPs manipulate our perceptions during an encounter, they are, in fact, attempting to communicate in the only way they can. Analogously, if you are hiking on a remote trail and come across a wild bear—another terrestrial species with a cognitive structure different from ours, which we encounter by chance as they go about their business in their own habitat—the bear, too, will communicate with you in the only way it can: through meaning-evoking body posture and sounds; and you will even understand it. The difference is that UAPs are better, more nuanced, and more sophisticated at the task.
HOW CAN WE CONFIRM THIS HYPOTHESIS?
For every useful, truly scientific hypothesis, there must be an experiment or a passive observation under controlled conditions that can either confirm or contradict it. As we’ve seen in the foregoing, the hypothesis in question is that the NHI—or NHIs—behind the ‘nuts-and-bolts’ UAP phenomenon is(are) ancient but terrestrial. We’ve discussed the characteristics of the phenomenon that motivated the hypothesis to begin with: (a) the frequency of UAP encounters, which suggests that they are from here and we meet them as they go about their business, just as we meet a bear in a trail; and (b) their interest in human activities that may jeopardize the habitability of this planet, such as nuclear installations and military exercises. But these characteristics aren’t conclusive. So just what could be conclusive?
If it is true, as Mr. Grusch claimed in his testimony to Congress in July 2023, that the US government has “biologics”—that is, the bodies of crashed UAP pilots—then a biochemical analysis of these biologics, if not conclusive, would at least be very indicative of whether they are terrestrial or not.
All terrestrial life we have studied in detail thus far, despite their drastic morphological differences—think of the differences between an amoeba, a praying mantis, and a cat—share the exact same biochemistry: they have two-stranded DNA with sugar-phosphate backbones and four nucleobasis (cytosine, guanine, adenine, and thymine) that form two possible base-pair configurations. Despite their extreme morphological differences, all terrestrial life thus looks the same when observed ‘under a microscope with sufficient magnification,’ so to speak.
Yet, the functions performed by this very specific biochemistry are multiple-realizable: there are many other conceivable ways in which these functions could be performed based on different biochemistry. The fact that all life we’ve studied thus far shares such specific biochemistry means simply that we all have a common ancestor dating back to an abiogenesis event: the rise of life from non-life. That event has defined the biochemistry we have all inherited. But it could just as well have been quite different; there is no a priori reason why biochemistry must be the way it is in us.
Indeed, a different event of abiogenesis—there is no a priori reason why life must have arisen from non-life only once on Earth either—could have set a different biochemistry; one still capable of storing the organism’s body plan, of constructing the organism’s building blocks (proteins, in our case), of metabolizing, and of passing the organism’s body-plan to the next generation via reproduction; yet one different from ours. This is acknowledged in biology in the hypothesis of a “shadow biosphere”: there may, in fact, be organisms on Earth with biochemistry different from ours, because they may be descendants from a different abiogenesis event; we haven’t detected them yet because we haven’t done a detailed biochemical analysis of most organisms on the planet.
If even terrestrial organisms, which arose and evolved on this very planet, could have biochemistry distinct from ours, it stands to reason that organisms evolved on another planet, with different environmental conditions and chemical composition, are very unlikely to have the exact same biochemistry we do. That would require an implausible coincidence of literally cosmic proportions, even under the assumption of convergent evolution at the level of the phenotype (i.e., body form).
Therefore, if the biologics in the freezers of the powers-that-be have the same biochemistry we do, I believe it is safe to assume that they are terrestrial; they are our older cousins—likely forever traumatized by earlier planetary cataclysms—and certainly not aliens.
Another prediction of the ‘ultra-terrestrial’ hypothesis is this: the materials—say, the metals—used in the UAP craft should have isotope ratios compatible with an earthly origin, as opposed to one outside the solar system. If the powers-that-be are in possession of such craft, this shouldn’t be a difficult test to perform.
Together, the two test results suggested above, if mutually consistent, should be conclusive.
CONCLUSIONS
The hypothesis I put forward is that, if the ‘nuts-and-bolts’ UAP phenomenon and the Non-Human Intelligence(s) behind it are real, they are unlikely to be extra-terrestrial. Instead, they may consist of remnants of industrial, technological NHIs that evolved on Earth up to 350 million years ago. We cannot find conspicuous archaeological or geological footprints of such civilizations because, according to the so-called ‘Silurian Hypothesis,’ not only weather erosion but also the regular recycling of the Earth’s crust through plate tectonics, erase them. The anthropocentric notion that nothing intelligent has arisen on our planet in the billions of years for which no conspicuous evidence would have remained on the geological record is unjustified. There has been plenty of time and opportunity for many technological, industrial, but non-human civilizations to have arisen and disappeared from the surface of the Earth.
Though I understand that many may consider this hypothesis disturbing at some level, it does not require anything fundamentally beyond natural processes we know to exist: we know that intelligent life can arise on this planet, given its environmental conditions; we know that industrial civilizations can arise, develop, and go extinct in a period no longer than a few thousand years, which is the blink of an eye at a geological scale; we know that our own technology today would have looked like magic to the Great Goethe, only 200 years ago; we know that intelligent species that evolved the ability to act according to an abstract ethical code can operate under a policy of non-interference towards less evolved life (just think of human wildlife researchers); and so on. The present hypothesis requires nothing more than the foregoing. As such, there is nothing unnatural or truly extraordinary about it. If it violates our sensitivities, then this informs us about our sensitivities, not about the plausibility of the hypothesis in a naturalist framework.
Notice, however, that the hypothesis proposed here presupposes the UAP data disclosed thus far to be authentic, and not the result of a sprawling disinformation campaign. In the latter case, the key motivations and empirical ground for the speculations in this essay would be void, and the hypothesis should be disregarded in its entirety.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am very grateful to Dr. Hal Puthoff, Dr. Garry Nolan, Rob van der Werf, and Paul Stuyvenberg for the generous feedback provided on earlier drafts of this essay.
Bernardo Kastrup is a Dutch philosopher, computer scientist, and the executive director of the Essentia Foundation. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and another in computer engineering, and has worked as a scientist in some of the world’s foremost scientific laboratories. His main interests are metaphysics and philosophy of mind. He lives in Veldhoven, Netherlands. This essay originally appeared on Kastrup’s personal website.
Historic color photos of Uranus and Neptune are actually the wrong colors, and a recent study used new data and a lot of math to set the record straight.
In Voyager 2’s full-color photos of the ice giants, Uranus looks pale blue, while Neptune has a deeper, more vivid shade. That’s because Voyager 2’s cameras actually photographed each planet several times, each in a single color, and NASA teams here on Earth combined those single-color shots into the multi-hued composite images we see today. In the process, they enhanced the images to make certain features, like Neptune’s bands of clouds, stand out more. As useful as that was for planetary scientists, it also skewed our perception of what these two long-neglected worlds actually look like.
“Even though the artificially saturated color was known at the time among planetary scientists – and the images were released with captions explaining it — that distinction had come lost over time,” says Irwin in a recent statement to the press.
Irwin and his colleagues used data from Hubble and the VLT to correct the images — a little like space-age art restoration — and solve a decades-old mystery about why Uranus changes colors (stop laughing). They published their work in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
This figure shows the original Voyager 2 images, with Neptune in deep, high-contrast blue, and the actual appearance of the two ice giants.
PATRICK IRWIN
ICE GIANTS SHOW THEIR TRUE COLORS AT LAST
Irwin and his colleagues used data from a spectrograph (an instrument that splits light into the individual wavelengths that make it up) on the Hubble Space Telescope and one on the evocatively-named Very Large Telescope, perched on a mountaintop in Chile. The spectrograph data basically provided a list of which specific wavelengths, or colors, were present in every pixel of their images of Uranus and Neptune. By comparing that data to the [date] Voyager 2 images of the ice giants, the team managed to rebalance the historic images, creating versions that show the planets in more realistic colors.
The two worlds turn out to be close to the same color: a light greenish blue. Neptune has a slightly bluer tint thanks to a thinner layer of haze in its upper atmosphere, but not nearly as blue as it looks in the composite images from Voyager 2.
“Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ color, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue,” says Irwin.
When NASA crews processed the Voyager 2 data, they turned the contrast on Neptune’s image all the way up to make bands of clouds and storms easier to see. That’s a bit like turning up the contrast in a video game so you can see better in weird lighting; you spot details you might otherwise have missed, but you’re not seeing anything in its “true” color. In Neptune’s case, turning up the contrast also turned our image of the planet a deep, vivid blue. It’s a very pretty blue, but it’s not what Neptune would really look like if you were peering out the window of a passing spaceship.
WHY DOES URANUS TURN GREEN?
In the process of working out what color the ice giants actually were, Irwin and his colleagues also solved a decades-long mystery about Uranus. They now know why Uranus sometimes turns green (seriously, stop laughing; we mean it).
Earth’s axis is tilted at about a 23-degree angle, which is why we have seasons. Uranus, on the other hand, is at closer to a 90-degree angle; it’s basically lying on its side while it spins. The planet's 98-degree axial tilt means that each pole points directly at the Sun during its summer solstice and directly away from the Sun during its winter solstice (instead of just sort of leaning one way or the other, as our relatively well-behaved planet does).
At each solstice, Uranus looks greener than it does during the rest of its 84-Earth-year-long Uranian year. And for decades, planetary scientists have been trying to work out why.
Irwin and his colleagues noticed that, based on the spectra from Hubble and the VLT, there’s less methane in Uranus’s atmosphere at the poles than near the equator. But what methane is floating around at Uranus’s poles tends to be ice crystals, drifting in a chilly (and smelly) haze in the upper atmosphere. And those ice crystals reflect a lot of light, which accounts for the seasonal color change.
Methane absorbs red light and reflects blue-green light. So for the parts of the long Uranian year when one pole, swathed in sparkly methane ice clouds, is pointed at the Sun, the whole planet seems to sparkle with greenish reflected light.
And that’s why Uranus turns green (and smells like farts)
Zijn mythen gewoon fantasieverhalen? Mensen hebben een grote verbeeldingskracht. Toch ontstaan verhalen, mythen en legendes niet altijd simpelweg uit de creativiteit van een bevoorrechte geest.
Wat als het waar is? In het geval van oude legendes en mythen is het mogelijk dat de verbeelding met de werkelijkheid speelde. Fenomenen en gebeurtenissen die destijds niet zo gemakkelijk te verklaren waren, werden anders geïnterpreteerd. Laten we samen uitzoeken wat de wetenschappelijke en historische basis is achter enkele (zeer bijzondere) legendes uit de oudheid.
De zondvloed Niet alleen in de Bijbel, maar ook in tal van andere mythische tradities in het Oosten en de klassieke wereld, waren er verhalen over een vreselijke storm die de aarde 40 dagen lang hevig deed schudden.
Hoe verklaart de wetenschap het? Dit verhaal is het onderwerp geweest van verschillende hypothesen. De meest erkende is dat het verwijst naar een overstroming die in 5000 voor Christus het gebied trof dat overeenkomt met de huidige Zwarte Zee.
De ark van Noach De zondvloed, volgens de bijbelse traditie, werd door God gestuurd om mensen te straffen. Slechts één van hen kon worden gespaard, Noach. Dankzij Gods wil, bouwde hij een groot schip waarin hij een mannetje en een vrouwtje van alle levende dieren verzamelde. Die zouden de planeet opnieuw bevolken zodra de vloed voorbij was.
Wat zit er achter dit verhaal? Mensen gaven zichzelf in die tijd verklaringen voor dingen die ze nog niet konden begrijpen. Bijvoorbeeld voor de ontdekking van visfossielen op hoge bergtoppen. In de oudheid kon dit alleen maar het werk van een god zijn geweest. Wie weet kwamen mensen daarom met het verhaal van Noach op de proppen? Nu weten we echter dat het vinden dan visfossielen op bergtoppen het resultaat is van aardplaten tektoniek.
De Chimaera De Ilias is een epos dat wordt toegeschreven aan de Griekse dichter Homerus. Hierin werd ook de de mythe van de Chimaera vereeuwigt. Een vuurspuwend monster met een slangenstaart en een leeuwenkop. Het monster werd verantwoordelijk gehouden voor de periodieke verwoesting van de kusten van het huidige Turkije.
De realiteit die waarschijnlijk op deze mythe is geïnspireerd Achter de mythe van een vuurspuwend monster, kunnen volgens sommige geleerden de eeuwige vuren schuilgaan die vandaag de dag nog steeds te zien zijn op de berg Chimera in Turkije. De vuren worden aangedreven door methaangas dat uit de rotsen gutst vlakbij de archeologische opgravingen van Yanartaş. Hoogstwaarschijnlijk werden de vuren in de oudheid door zeelieden gebruikt als oriëntatiepunt. Als ze dit vanaf hun boten zagen, zou dit hebben bijgedragen aan het ontstaan van de mythe.
Orakel van Delphi Pythia was de priesteres die verantwoordelijk was voor het reciteren van de antwoorden van het orakel van Delphi. Ze kon dit alleen doen toen ze een staat van mystieke extase bereikte. Dit werd veroorzaakt door de dampen die uit een rots ontsnapten, althans dit is wat de Griekse historicus en filosoof Plutarchus ons vertelt.
De meest erkende hypothese over de oorsprong van de 'zoete dampen' De 'zoete dampen' die Plutarchus noemde, zijn het onderwerp geweest van talrijke studies en verhitte debatten. Wat bekend is, is dat de tempel gewijd aan Apollo in Delphi zich in een actief seismisch gebied bevindt. Er zijn twee breuklijnen onder gevonden. De meest erkende hypothese is dat een aardbeving langs de breuklijn de gassen veroorzaakte waarnaar de Griekse auteur verwijst.
Maar wat voor gas? Wat voor soort gas het was en of het hallucinogene eigenschappen had, daar zijn wetenschappers het niet over eens. Degenen die de aardbevingshypothese ondersteunen, geloven dat deze gassen de gassen waren die normaal in deze gevallen worden uitgestoten, zoals koolstofdioxide en zwavelzuur. Andere wetenschappers spreken van een mix van methaan en ethyleen.
De mythe van Atlantis Volgens de mythe, 'achter de Zuilen van Hercules' (die voor de Grieken het einde van de wereld vertegenwoordigden) werd een legendarisch eiland bewoond door zeer machtige halfgoden: Atlantis. Het einde van dit koninkrijk zou echter op één dag komen. Het zou vernietigd worden door een catastrofe nadat het tevergeefs had geprobeerd de stad Athene binnen te vallen.
Wat zou de inspiratie zijn voor deze legende? Velen zijn het erover eens dat dit verhaal geboren zou kunnen zijn na de uitbarsting van een vulkaan, Thera, in het gebied waar Santorini tegenwoordig staat.
Van Griekenland naar Hawaï Volgens de mythe werd de Kilauea-vulkaan bewoond door de vuurgodin Pele. Een onstuimige, opvliegende en wraakzuchtige godheid. Wraak zou het motief zijn geweest voor een van haar meest extreme acties: een heel bos in brand steken en een man in de vulkaan gooien, omdat hij niet voor haar koos, maar haar zus. De zus van de godin Pele was wanhopig en groef onvermoeibaar in de vulkaan om haar geliefde te vinden terwijl ze de lucht vulde met vonken en vulkaansteentjes.
De gevolgen van de uitbarsting van Thera Deze natuurramp, die ongeveer 3500 jaar geleden plaatsvond, was verantwoordelijk voor de ineenstorting van een deel van het eiland. Het veroorzaakte verschrikkelijke tsunami's en een gaswolk die hoogstwaarschijnlijk leidde tot het verval van de Minoïsche beschaving van het nabijgelegen Kreta.
Uitleg De historische hypothese en het ontstaan van deze oude 'soapserie' verwijst naar de eindeloze uitbarsting in de 15e eeuw. Uiteindelijk werd 430 vierkante kilometer bos op het eiland getroffen en duurde het 60 jaar. Het wanhopige graven van Pele's zus zou de verklaring zijn die mensen zichzelf gaven over de vorming van de Kilauea-caldera vulkaan.
Namazu, de aardbevingsmeerval Een populaire Japanse legende betreft een gigantische meerval genaamd Namazu. Hij ligt verborgen onder de oppervlakte van Japan. Vastgehouden door de god Kashima, dankzij een gigantische steen op zijn kop. De gewelddadige aardbevingen die Japan doen schudden, zouden plaatsvinden wanneer, Namazu fladdert en zijn vinnen schudt als hij wil ontsnappen aan de controle van Kashima.
Wat is de wetenschappelijke basis van de legende? Het is bekend dat Japan op de verbindingslijn van verschillende tektonische platen ligt. Het land heeft talrijke vulkanen en wordt doorkruist door breuklijnen met een hoge mate van seismische activiteit. De meerval zou, volgens de populaire traditie, een dier zijn dat in staat is aardbevingen te voorspellen. Al deze oorzaken hebben hoogstwaarschijnlijk geleid tot het ontstaan van de legende.
Het meer dat doodt Een Kameroenese legende zegt dat, tijdens een tijdperk waar veel mensen het land verlieten, de mensen van de Bamessi besloten om andere mensen te verwelkomen. Mensen van de Kom, een andere stam die ze voor een periode bij hen lieten wonen. De mensen van de Kom waren echter te vruchtbaar. Na verloop van tijd waren er te veel. Daarom overtuigde de koning van de Bamessi zijn volk ervan dat ze een bedreiging vormden. Ze smeedden een complot om alle mannetjes van de Kom te doden.
De wraak van de koning en de betovering Uit wraak zei de leider van de Kom tegen zijn zus dat hij zelfmoord zou plegen. Zijn bloed zou een meer vol vissen vormen. Hij waarschuwde dat de mensen van de Kom daar uit de buurt moesten blijven. De mensen van de Kom verlieten het land. Het meer bleef bij de Bamessi. Op de visdag explodeerde het meer en doodde de mensen die in de buurt waren.
Het is echt gebeurd Op 21 augustus 1986 werden meer dan 1.700 mensen en 3.500 dieren gedood in de buurt van het vulkanische meer Nyos. Dit als gevolg van de uitdijing van een dodelijke wolk van kooldioxide. De vulkaan waar het meer in ligt, is een slapende vulkaan. Het is waarschijnlijk dat onder normale omstandigheden het water de CO2 afremt, maar onder specifieke omstandigheden stijgt het gas bij het bereiken van een kritiek punt. Dan verspreid het zich in de vorm van een enorme wolk van giftig gas. Of nu eerst de mythe werd geboren en het daarna realiteit werd? We zullen het nooit weten.
Kratermeer in Oregon (VS) Een andere legende over een meer is die van Crater Lake. Een vulkanisch meer gelegen in de caldera van Mount Mazama. Volgens de mythe zou dit het toneel zijn geweest van een bloedige strijd tussen de god van de onderwereld, Llao, en die van de lucht, Skell. Het gevecht tussen de twee goden zou, na aanvallen met stenen en vlammen, geëindigd zijn met het instorten van de vulkaan en de val van Llao. Dankzij de daaropvolgende regens zou het huidige meer zijn gevormd.
De realiteit Als we de strijd tussen de goden buiten beschouwing laten, wordt in de legende herhaalt wat er bijna 8000 jaar geleden gebeurde: er was een angstaanjagende vulkaanuitbarsting, de krater van de vulkaan stortte in en de regen vulde het bassin.
De legende van Rapuanate Volgens een legende op de Salomonseilanden werd een jongeman genaamd Rapuanate smoorverliefd op een vrouw van het eiland Teonimanu. Helaas werd zijn broer ook verliefd op haar en koos ze voor hem. Om wraak te nemen, stortte Rapuanate het land van zijn geliefde met een spreuk in zee
Historische waarheden Het was een aardbeving die het eiland Teonimanu deed zinken. Het is een van de vele verzonken eilanden in dit deel van de Stille Oceaan. Door de aardbeving zou het eiland in de oceanische diepte van de Filipijnen zijn verdwenen. Toch is het verhaal van de familie-soap misschien interessanter om door te geven.
EXCLUSIVE: Marine vet breaks 14-year silence to make astonishing claim that his six-man unit saw a hovering octagonal UFO being loaded with WEAPONS by unmarked US forces who threatened them at gunpoint while serving in Indonesia in 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Marine vet breaks 14-year silence to make astonishing claim that his six-man unit saw a hovering octagonal UFO being loaded with WEAPONS by unmarked US forces who threatened them at gunpoint while serving in Indonesia in 2009
Former Marine Michael Herrera tells DailyMail.com that he saw a UFO being loaded with weapons while serving in Indonesia in 2009
Herrera claims an Air Force lieutenant colonel told him, 'You're not allowed to talk about what happened. You will go to prison, or you will die'
He says he was emboldened to break his 14-year silence by new UFO whistleblower protections and in April testified under oath about his wild story
A former Marine claims he and five comrades saw a flying saucer being loaded with weapons while serving in Indonesia in 2009 – and was threatened at gunpoint by unmarked US forces at the scene.
The wild story comes after an Air Force whistleblower from the government's UFO office joined growing numbers of intelligence officials claiming the US has recovered and is even reverse-engineering crashed or landed 'non-human' spacecraft.
Michael Herrera was a 20-year-old rifleman sent on a Navy humanitarian mission during the 2009 Sumatra earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region.
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, he claims that while guarding an airdrop of aid supplies outside the city of Padang in October that year, his six-man unit stumbled across a hovering octagonal craft in apparent use by clandestine US forces.
Former Marine Michael Herrera tells DailyMail.com that he saw a UFO being loaded with weapons while serving in Indonesia in 2009. He was just 20 at the time
'The craft was rotating in a clockwise motion while changing colors. It had an audible hum to it, like the sound of a transformer or a guitar amp. It was an octagonal shape with a pyramid at the top of it that was black,' Herrera said
After 14 years of silence, Herrera was emboldened by new UFO whistleblower protections and in April testified under oath to the government's UFO investigation team, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), as well as a Senate committee.
He provided his unblemished four-year service record, and texts about the incident with an alleged fellow witness – who refused to talk, saying it was 'not worth my life or jeopardizing my family'.
Peripheral aspects of his account were verified by DailyMail.com using military sources. But Herrera, 33, does not have documentation or photos of the incident itself.
Herrera says he was emboldened to break his 14-year silence by new UFO whistleblower protections and in April testified under oath about his wild story
The Denver native joined the Marines fresh out of high school. He had been serving for less than two years when he was deployed to the Philippines as a member of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to help distribute aid in the wake of a typhoon.
When a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Sumatra on September 30, 2009, his 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, Echo Co. 2nd Platoon was rerouted to help guard helicopter aid drops around Padang City, beset by violence from local insurgents.
Around October 8 he and five marines were dropped off at a clearing in the north eastern part of the city by a CH-53 chopper, and hiked 900ft up a ridge to take their positions for the incoming supply drop, Herrera said.
It was then he spotted a strange object in the jungle on the other side of the hill.
'I could see something moving and rotating. It was changing colors between a very light matte gray to a very dark matte black,' he said. 'It stuck out like a sore thumb.'
Oddly, he said, they had not been given radios, so instead of calling it in they edged down the hill in formation to investigate, while Herrera snapped photos and video on his Panasonic camera.
'The thing was massive, the size of a football field,' Herrera told DailyMail.com.
'The craft was rotating in a clockwise motion while changing colors. It had an audible hum to it, like the sound of a transformer or a guitar amp. It was an octagonal shape with a pyramid at the top of it that was black.
'It had 'scales' that were on the outside of the craft that covered the whole craft. It had seams and sharp edges which I suspect to be man-made. Nothing on it was smooth. It had some panels on the vertical edges that were like Vantablack.'
He claims that his six-man unit stumbled across a hovering octagonal craft and they were threatened at gunpoint by unmarked US forces at the scene. A rendering of the scene is above
Herrera claims an Air Force lieutenant colonel told him, 'You're not allowed to talk about what happened. You will go to prison, or you will die'
An aerial view of the damage from a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Sumatra, Indonesia, on September 30, 2009,. Herrera's unit was rerouted to help guard helicopter aid drops around Padang City, beset by violence from local insurgents
According to AARO's statistics of UFO reports between 1996 and 2023, only 1% are polygons (like an octagon), 2% disk-shaped, while 52% are orbs or spherical.
However, an object shot down in February over Lake Huron, Michigan by F-16 fighter jets – after their first missile missed – was described as 'octagonal' by congress members briefed on the incident.
Herrera claimed that when he and his five comrades got within 150 feet of the craft, they were ambushed by eight men wearing all-black camouflage, bullet-proof vests, wielding M4 rifles with high-end night vision attachments given to elite US troops.
'They had their weapons drawn on us,' he said. 'We could audibly hear their weapon safety levers flipping off safe.'
'Who the f*** are you guys? What are you doing here?' two of them yelled with American accents, he said.
'They said we weren't supposed to be there, and that they could kill us.'
As the men continued to threaten them, took the marines' weapons, dumped their ammunition and scanned their military IDs, Herrera said he saw others loading 'large weapon cases' and other containers from modified Ford F350 trucks onto a platform beneath the craft.
'When the last two trucks finished unloading and drove off, the lower part of the platform rose off the ground to about 10 feet and the craft lowered to meet it and it came together into one piece,' he said.
'On the corners of the craft, it had lights that were changing between blue, red, yellow and green.
'It rose off the ground and a little past the trees, then shot off to our left towards the ocean at around 4,000mph.
'We can't believe this is f***ing happening. From a dead stop, it didn't make any sound like a sonic boom, it didn't disturb the trees like rotor wash would. We could see coconuts on the trees and none of them were disturbed.'
Herrera said the eight unmarked soldiers gave them back their unloaded guns and marched them back over the hill, 'still telling us how they could kill us.'
'Once we got over the hill they told us to get the f*** away from here and don't look back.'
Herrera left the Navy in October 2011, his certificate of release showing four years of active duty and medals for 'national defense service', 'global war on terrorism service', 'humanitarian service', 'sea service deployment' and a 'sharpshooter rifle badge'
The six marines ran back to the aid drop site and were scolded by their gunnery sergeant for returning early, Herrera said, adding that they all kept quiet about the disturbing encounter.
'I was f***ing scared,' the veteran said. 'I was thinking: I could have been killed, how the hell am I going to explain this?'
Back on the USS Denver, Herrera's unit were debriefed by a rear admiral he didn't recognize. He said it was odd to have such a high-ranking officer there, and again none of them mentioned the saucer and unmarked troops.
A few days later they were docked in Subic Bay in the Philippines, the marine said. After an evening of drinking with his colleagues, he returned to find his camera's card and battery removed from his locked locker, along with his five comrades' phones missing.
In early December 2009 he was back at Camp Hansen in Okinawa, Japan. He was told to report to the office, where he found an Air Force lieutenant colonel in full uniform but no name tag.
'He starts telling me, 'You're not allowed to talk about what happened, not to your chain of command, not even a general,' Herrera said. 'You will go to prison, or you will die.'
'He told me to keep my mouth shut and slid a paper to me which was an NDA. The only thing I can recall is that it said 'TS/SCI', Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information. And it had Indonesia on it.'
The rifleman said he signed and was told to 'get the f*** out of there'.
'I ran back to the barracks and haven't talked about it ever since. It's something I've kept secret for almost 14 years. But I've thought about it every single day.'
He left the Navy in October 2011, his certificate of release showing four years of active duty and medals for 'national defense service', 'global war on terrorism service', 'humanitarian service', 'sea service deployment' and a 'sharpshooter rifle badge'.
Herrera made several million dollars as an entrepreneur and now runs a private security company called Valkyrie Eye.
New UFO whistleblower protections enacted in December prompted the ex-marine to finally tell his story.
Former senior Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch gave an on-camera interview alleging that the US government possesses multiple crashed 'non-human' craft
New UFO whistleblower protections enacted in December prompted the ex-marine to finally tell his story. A Pentagon chief told a first-of-its-kind NASA hearing that unidentified metallic orb UFOs have been spotted 'all over the world'
Last year's annual military funding bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), included a new clause allowing whistleblowers to report previously undisclosed UFO 'material retrieval, material analysis, [and] reverse engineering' programs to the Pentagon's AARO team without fear of prosecution for violating their security oaths and non-disclosure agreements.
Herrera said in 2017 he met UFO activist Dr. Steven Greer at a conference, and Greer helped persuade him to talk and connected him with congressional and AARO staffers earlier this year.
Herrera is also planning to tell his story at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC on Monday organized by Greer, alongside four other UFO witnesses.
The ex-marine claims his five former comrades are too scared to come forward.
In a May 3 text message, one wrote: 'this is asking to[o] much of me and it's not worth the risk.'
'It's not worth my life or jeopardizing my family. I know we go way back, but this is asking to[o] much. You need to get out of whatever you are in and don't get me involved with this mess. My career isn't worth helping you. Don't ask me to do this s**t ever again.'
DailyMail.com verified the sender was a marine serving in the same unit in 2009.
'It sounds a bit like science fiction, but it actually is science fact,' Greer told DailyMail.com. 'These breakthroughs have been kept very, very secret, much to the detriment of the American people and the planet.
'We feel it's very important that the public understand this is not just a silly story about Little Green Men. This has very significant implications for the environment, for energy independence, for global poverty.'
Greer and his organization, the Disclosure Project, gained international attention as well as derision in 2001 when he gathered 20 retired Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration and intelligence officers at the National Press Club to tell their stories of extraordinary UFO and alien encounters.
The 2001 conference did not spark congressional hearings as Greer hoped.
Leslie Kean, an investigative journalist who was the first to bring Air Force whistleblower David Grusch forward to make his bombshell claims in her story in engineering news site The Debrief this week, said she was skeptical of Greer's approach in an interview with the New Yorker in 2021.
'There were some good people at that conference, but some of them were making outrageous, grandiose claims,' Kean said. 'I knew then that I had to walk away.'
Grusch has also reportedly released a statement distancing himself from Greer, after Greer claimed that he met with the senior military intelligence official in March 2022 in Culpeper, Virginia.
'I took my job very seriously, and early on, I allowed various individuals that alleged they had information to speak their truth as part of my evaluation process,' Grush reportedly said in a statement published on Twitter by UFO researcher Vinnie Adams this week.
'I emphatically request that Steven Greer cease using my name to promote his personal agenda.'
The former ER doctor spent the two decades following his 2001 press conference collecting UFO witnesses, and has now assembled a database of 746 people in or related to the US government.
Some have detailed and compelling stories and have even testified to AARO. Others are merely senior officials who made public statements acknowledging the possibility of UFOs having non-human origins. According to the database, 76 have passed away.
He will also be unveiling a 'Disclosure Project Intelligence Archive' with 'over 5 terabytes of government documents, whistleblower testimony and specific locations of illegally operated UFO projects,' according to a press release.
Greer has become a controversial figure even among UFO enthusiasts, making disputed claims and charging up to $3,500 for group sessions where he purports to teach and perform summonings of extraterrestrials using psychic powers.
A video of one of his 'contact' events in Vero Beach, Florida on January 27 2015 shows a light appearing over the Atlantic ocean which Greer attributed to aliens.
A July 2020 article by the Washington Examiner questioned whether it was in fact faked with a flare dropped from a Beech 76 Duchess plane that was flying offshore at that time.
Prominent figures have chided Greer over his statements, including late sixth man on the moon Edgar Mitchell who said Greer would 'overreach his data continuously', and former CIA director James Woolsey who wrote that a 1993 'briefing' Greer claimed he gave Woolsey was merely a 'distorted account of a dinner party'.
Greer called the allegations 'ridiculous and untrue', and said his Monday press conference was about the witnesses, not him.
'I would give anything to have someone else do this so I don't have to. But I don't see that happening,' he said.
'I just say the track record of what we've done over 30 years stands on its own.'
On June 12, 2023, Dr. Steven M. Greer, a renowned founder of the Disclosure Project, presented a compelling three-hour UFO conference. This conference featured whistleblowers who shared their astonishing testimonies. For 33 years, Dr. Greer has dedicated himself as a volunteer to the Disclosure Project. His most recent event before this was held 22 years ago on May 9, 2001, where 22 individuals from various government sectors participated.
In this long disclosure event, Dr. Greer presented his investigations on secret programs, and he was joined by six courageous whistleblowers who shared compelling information about covert operations. Among them was Michael Herrera, a former United States Marine, who shared an astonishing account from 2009 where he and five comrades saw a giant UFO being loaded with weapons while serving in Indonesia. During this incident, they were threatened at gunpoint by unmarked US forces at the scene.
Herrera was assigned to the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines, described as the most decorated infantry battalion within the Marine Corps. This battalion was part of Operation Ketsana, a humanitarian mission in the Philippines in 2009. Herrera’s unit was affiliated with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, primarily conducting maritime operations across Southeast Asia in partnership with the seventh naval fleet.
Herrera was on the USS Denver and went to help after a big tsunami and earthquake hit Padang City in Indonesia. It was surprising because it was Herrera’s first time doing a mission like this. When Herrera and his team got there on October 8, they got some important information. They found out that some of President Obama’s family might be there. They knew it was a dangerous place because of the threat from terrorist activities prevalent in Indonesia.
Their job was to keep the area safe and give people things they needed like medical supplies, food, water, and shelter. Herrera was picked to be one of the main people for this job. When they landed in Padang, it was all broken and damaged. Everything looked bad with fires and floods everywhere. They quickly went to a higher place so they could see better and plan. They had to be ready for anything.
Herrera and his team, armed with M16A4 rifles, advanced about 300 meters, maintaining a tactical column formation. Their primary goal was to maintain situational awareness, be prepared for potential engagements, and execute their mission amidst the harrowing conditions.
The Mystery Craft in the Jungle
Herrera had a camera and was taking pictures of a damaged area from a high spot. But he noticed something strange: a weird object in the jungle. This thing looked different from the trees around it. It changed colors from light gray to dark black and spun around. This was so memorable for Herrera that he could not forget it for 14 years. He and his team took pictures and videos of this odd object.
‘The craft was rotating in a clockwise motion while changing colors. It had an audible hum to it, like the sound of a transformer or a guitar amp. It was an octagonal shape with a pyramid at the top of it that was black,’ Herrera said
As they got closer to the strange object, Herrera and his team saw a group of soldiers. These soldiers looked American — a group of soldiers or, as Herrera described them, a “Rogue military force.” What made this encounter even more unsettling was their distinctly American appearance and gear. These were not just any soldiers; they were equipped similarly to elite Special Operations units, dressed in black camouflage and donning OTVs.
Finding these soldiers made things even more confusing. Why were they there? Were they part of a secret mission? Or something even stranger? Herrera’s story made people think a lot about what really happened that day. His story mixed a strange flying object, its odd behavior, and meeting mysterious soldiers. This made people wonder about secret things happening in the world.
As the tension escalated, Herrera and his team were on high alert. These soldiers looked like U.S. Special Forces but acted differently. Their clothes, weapons, and tools showed they were well-trained. Even though Herrera and his team were outnumbered, they stayed calm. They did not talk to the strange soldiers and moved away carefully. Their main goal was to keep safe and learn more about the unknown flying object and the mysterious soldiers.
Many questions arise about this strange meeting. Maybe these soldiers were doing secret missions without permission? Or were they guarding the strange flying object? Herrera thought maybe they were there to protect the craft and was curious about where it came from.
The flying object Herrera saw had unique features. He noticed its color changes and its pyramid-like top. It also made a sound like a guitar amp or a machine.
“They had no insignias on, they had no ranks,” Herrera began, describing the unidentified soldiers who confronted him and his team. The soldiers’ attire and equipment far surpassed the standard-issue gear Herrera and his unit possessed. Their M4A4 rifles were enhanced with Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights (ACOGs) and PEC 16 IR illumination devices, indicating advanced capabilities and possibly specialized training.
Things got intense quickly. Herrera remembered these soldiers yelling at him and his team. They made scary threats, suggesting they could harm them severely or even make them disappear. The soldiers were very thorough. They checked everyone’s identity carefully, using devices that looked like they were scanning their military cards. This made Herrera believe they were very organized and knew what they were doing.
Herrera also saw some trucks that looked suspicious. The trucks had special containers, and there were rumors that these might be used for illegal activities, like smuggling people. This worried Herrera because the area was already facing many problems.
The strangest part was when Herrera saw an odd flying object. It appeared suddenly and then left quickly without making any noise or causing any disturbance. Herrera and his team were shocked and did not know what to make of it.
“So as we’re going back between these guys, as well as what’s going on in the background at that time, there were four of these trucks which were f-350s.” However, it was what these trucks were transporting that took center stage in Herrera’s recounting.
He described the craft in vivid detail: “It floated right above the tree line.” He emphasized its unique shape, stating, “On each corner, it emanated a light. It was either red, yellow, green, or blue – only those four colors. I can distinctly remember.” This octagonal craft, with its mesmerizing lights, seemed to defy conventional understanding, as Herrera continued to describe its departure.
“As soon as it was able to break that tree line,” Herrera recounted, “it shot over to the left, basically where the ocean was, at a speed so fast I would estimate probably three, four, five thousand miles an hour – instantaneous like that.” The craft’s rapid movement, devoid of any discernible sonic boom or disturbance, left Herrera and his team in a state of shock and bewilderment.
From Herrera’s story, it sounded like he saw something very strange and unexpected. He did not understand what it was, and it left him with many questions. His story highlights the mystery of what he saw and suggests that there is a lot more to learn about such strange occurrences.
After this weird encounter, Herrera was approached by someone from the Air Force. This person, even though not wearing a name tag, made Herrera sign a paper promising not to talk about what happened. The paper had confusing terms on it, and Herrera was left puzzled and scared about what might happen if he spoke up.
As Herrera concluded his account, he made a compelling plea to Washington, urging political figures to address the situation. “There are people who are either being hurt or killed by this,” he emphasized, highlighting the gravity of the events he witnessed.
According to DailyMail, Herrera left the Navy in October 2011, his certificate of release showing four years of active duty and medals for “national defense service,” “global war on terrorism service,” “humanitarian service,” “sea service deployment” and a “sharpshooter rifle badge.” He made several million dollars as an entrepreneur and now runs a private security company called Valkyrie Eye.
Video/Photo Evidence
In this interview with Jimmy Chruch on FADE TO BLACK Radio, Herrera said that during the operation, he had a Panasonic camera capable of capturing both stills and videos. Throughout their mission, he took several photographs and videos, capturing the devastation and potentially more. Herrera concealed this vital evidence in his dump pouch, which seemed to go unnoticed by the individuals overseeing the mission.
When Herrera and his team got back to their ship, strange things started happening. As they gave back their weapons, they felt worried. They were scared about what might happen if their bosses found out about their strange experiences.
After their tough trip, Herrera and his team went to Subic Bay in the Philippines for a break. They tried to relax and have fun. But when Herrera went back to his ship, he found his camera in his locker. Sadly, the battery and memory card were gone. When he tried to use it again, it did not work. Herrera felt upset because he realized how important the missing camera parts were to his story.
Herrera shared more about what he learned from his experience. He talked to people who told him about secret groups that do bad things. These groups hurt people and try to keep their actions hidden. But Herrera also met some good people who wanted to tell the truth about these secret operations.
During an event with Dr. Greer, Herrera thought the containers they saw might have drugs. But someone from the group told him they were not drugs. This new information made everyone wonder: What were they really hiding? Why was it so secret? And how does this affect Herrera and his team?
Herrera said that these mysterious people have been doing secret stuff since the 1990s. Most of them come from JSOC, which is like the top experts in the military. He was careful when talking about them to keep things secret and protect people’s identities.
He remembered when these mysterious folks reached out to him. Instead of asking for his contact details, they gave him theirs. This made Herrera curious. He wanted to know why they did not harm him during a mission in 2009.
Herrera met these secretive people in a safe place out West. When he got there, they had strict rules to make sure no one was listening in on their talk. What Herrera learned surprised him.
He originally thought their main thing was illegal drug deals. But it turned out to be something even stranger. They seemed interested in people from certain backgrounds or groups, like the Bureau of Indian Affairs. These people were seen as spiritually wise and not influenced by mainstream beliefs, making them important for what the group was doing.
“They screen individuals with specific conscious abilities and higher consciousness. They particularly focus on people from third-world countries since these individuals haven’t been indoctrinated by television and lack certain resources. Consequently, their minds aren’t as clouded, making them more spiritually adept. Additionally, they recruit individuals from the Bureau of Indian Affairs for similar reasons: these individuals are spiritually more adept and have a higher level of consciousness, making them suitable participants for these programs.”
Herrera describes a group that works everywhere, not just in one country. They keep their actions hidden and use very advanced machines. To most people, these machines might look like they come from outer space, but they’ are made by humans. Because no one knows much about them, they can act fast and quietly.
A surprising thing Herrera says is that this group sometimes shoots down crafts that seem to be from outer space. They do this a few times every year. They also have strong weapons that can destroy other countries’ copied machines. Herrera tells stories of private planes that accidentally go into their area and get shot down. No one knows what happened to these planes or the people inside.
“They shoot down two to three ET crafts a year, retrieve them, and then take them away for analysis or whatever they do with them. Additionally, they shoot down aircraft from other agencies for reverse engineering purposes. Most of the time, these retrieved crafts are destroyed; they don’t return them. They often blow them up or discard them.
The airspace isn’t always open 24/7; it’s restricted, especially during operations or testing. When restricted, it’s limited up to 60,000 feet. Regrettably, some private aircraft have suffered tragic consequences because they didn’t divert their course. These planes were targeted with advanced weapons, which aren’t just experimental — they’re regularly used. After such incidents, they dispose of the wreckage, and bodies, and issue missing persons reports. They are adept at keeping their secrets, and that’s how their operations function.”
Herrera talks about a building that looks normal from the outside but is full of secret work inside. Even though it looks old and worn out, inside, it is busy with top-secret tasks. Most people working there come from places with lots of problems, like war or poverty. For them, the place might seem like a dream compared to what they had before.
The Quest for the Unknown: Congress’s Top Secret UFO Meeting
The Quest for the Unknown: Congress’s Top Secret UFO Meeting
In the hallowed halls of Congress, where history is made and secrets are often kept, a gathering like no other is set to occur. A select group of lawmakers will step away from the public eye into the shadowy realm of the classified, diving into an issue that has long captured the imagination and skepticism of many: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), more commonly known as UFOs.
Behind closed doors, away from the bustle of Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee is preparing for a briefing that promises to peel back layers of mystery surrounding alleged UFO crash retrievals and reverse-engineering programs. This isn’t just another meeting; it’s a moment that could redefine our understanding of the unknown.
At the center of this intrigue is Thomas Monheim, the US Intelligence Community’s Inspector General, tasked with the weighty responsibility of shedding light on allegations so explosive that they sound like the plot of a science fiction novel. Yet, for the committee members, this is no fiction. It’s a quest for truth in a saga that has spanned decades.
Imagine the scene: a room secured for top-secret discussions, where the air is thick with anticipation. Representatives, usually seen debating policies and laws, are now on the edge of their seats, waiting to confront the enigma of UFOs. They are not just politicians in this moment; they are representatives of humanity’s insatiable curiosity, standing on the precipice of potentially groundbreaking revelations.
The story leading up to this moment is as intriguing as the meeting itself. David Grusch, a former high-ranking US intelligence official, has hurled accusations that sound like they belong in a blockbuster movie: crashed UFOs, recovered non-human beings, and a government seemingly more interested in secrecy than discovery. These allegations have set the stage for a confrontation between the desire for transparency and the impenetrable world of classified intelligence.
But skepticism looms large. Voices from within the intelligence community suggest this briefing might be more about the appearance of disclosure than the revelation of earth-shattering secrets. An insider’s perspective, as reported by DailyMail.com, hints at a carefully choreographed dance of information sharing, where the real truth remains just out of reach.
As the date of the briefing approaches, the air in Washington is electric with speculation and hope. Will this meeting blow open the doors of secrecy, or will it leave more questions than answers? The representatives, each with their own beliefs and doubts, know the weight of the responsibility they carry. They are not just seeking answers for themselves but for a public hungry for the truth.
In the end, this top-secret UFO meeting is more than just a discussion about unexplained aerial phenomena. It’s a testament to humanity’s unending quest to understand the unknown, to look beyond our Earthly confines and ponder our place in the cosmos. Whether the outcome is revelation or frustration, this meeting will undoubtedly add another fascinating chapter to the ever-evolving story of our search for the truth about UFOs.
As the world watches and waits, one thing is clear: the quest for knowledge and the courage to confront the unknown are, in themselves, a journey worth taking.
ESA Gives Us a Glimpse of its Future Space Exploration Plans with a Cool New Video
The European Space Agency (ESA) has made incredible contributions to space exploration and space-based science. Last year, the agency launched the Euclid space telescope, which will survey the Universe back to 3 billion years after the Big Bang to measure cosmic expansion and the influence of Dark Energy. After more than a decade of development, theAriane 6 launch vehicle conducted its first full-scale dress rehearsal, which included an engine fire test. In arecent video, the ESA showcased its plans for the future, which include some new launch vehicles and engine technology.
As the ESA describes it in the statement accompanying the video’s release, “brand-new rockets are set to take flight, some reusable, some carbon-neutral, with hybrid propulsion, two and three stages, small, large, crewed and uncrewed, to Earth orbit and deep space, the journey continues.” The video provides a rundown of the technologies the ESA has in the works, which includes footage of hot fire tests and other milestones being accomplished at ESA facilities and those of their commercial partners.
Upon review of these new concepts and technologies, some priorities become apparent. Looking to the next decade and beyond, the ESA is committed to ensuring independence in design, manufacture, and launch capabilities. They are also pursuing reusable rocket technology for both engines and launch vehicles, reducing the carbon footprint of spaceflight and servicing the commercial space sector (especially where constellations of small satellites are concerned).
In-House Assembly
SPECTRUM:This two-stage orbital launch vehicle, developed by Isar Aerospace, is specifically designed for small and medium satellites. The vehicle is manufactured at the Isar facility to allow for flexibility with the design and mission profiles. Spectrum has nine ISAR Aquila engines on its first stage and a single Aquila on its second. These engines rely on a combination of liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid propane fuel. The rocket can reportedly transport 1000 kg (2200 lbs) to LEO and 700 kg (~1545 lbs) to Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
Space Rider: This reusable uncrewed robotic laboratory, currently being developed by the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Switzerland, and the Portuguese Space Agency, will allow for technology demonstrations and research in pharmaceutics, biomedicine, biology, and physical science. It will be launched to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) using the new four-stage Vega-C, where it will remain for up to two months conducting experiments within its cargo bay. At the end of its mission, it will return to Earth and land on a runway to be refurbished for its next flight.
MIURA-1:Next up is the suborbital launch vehicle fully designed and developed in-house by Spanish aerospace provider PLD Space. Designed for microgravity research, this rocket can transport up to four experiments to space and return them to Earth, with a total payload capacity of 100 kg (220 lbs). The vehicle relies on a single TEPREL-B liquid bipropellant engine that burns kerosene and LOX propellant.
RFA One:This 3-stage rocket is another launch vehicle entirely developed in-house by Austrian aerospace company Rocket Factory Augsburg. The first stage relies on nine Helix ORSC engines optimized for sea level that rely on LOX and RP1 fuel and are equipped with thrust-vector control (TVC). The second stage relies on a single Helix Vac engine built in-house using additive manufacturing. The launch system also has a Redshift Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV) that ensures accurate delivery to the desired orbit, with payloads of 1300 kg (2866 lbs) to SSO and 300 kg (660 lbs) to a Lunar Transfer Orbit (LTO).
Susie with cargo bay open @ArianeGroup
Reusability
Prometheus and Themis:Next up is the Prometheus engine and Themis launch stage, both courtesy of ArianeGroup. The former is being developed as part of an ESA program in collaboration with the French Space Agency (CNES) with support from the German Aerospace Agency (DLR). This low-cost, potentially reusable engine runs on LOX and liquid methane and will serve as a precursor for next-generation European launchers used in the post-2030 time frame. Similarly, Themis is an ESA rocket prototype and demonstrator that will test retrieval and reuse technologies.
SUSIE:Short for Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration, SUSIE is a reusable upper stage concept capable of autonomously transporting cargo to LEO or performing crewed missions with up to 5 astronauts. ArianeGroup is currently developing the vehicle to be launched with the Ariane 6 rocket on future ESA missions.
Propulsion
M10 Engine: This engine is under development by a consortium led by the Italian space propulsion company Avio with the help of commercial partners from Belgium, Czechia, Switzerland, France, Austria, and Romania. The M10 will be Europe’s first LOX/methane engine and stage that will help pave the way for next-generation launchers (like the Vega-E), thus ensuring increased competitiveness by European small launchers.
SL1: The Small Launcher-1 is being developed by HyImpulse, a German aerospace company specializing in hybrid propulsion. The three-stage smallsat launch vehicle is equipped with twelve hybrid rocket motors that rely on a combination of LOX and Paraffin wax, a low-cost option that allows for greater safety and flexible launch operations. The SL1 will be the first European launch vehicle capable of launching satellites with a payload of up to 500 kg (1100 lbs) to dedicated Earth orbits.
Green Technology
Orbex Prime: This two-stage launch system is the work of Orbex, a UK-based orbital launch services company specializing in low-carbon, high-performance micro-launch vehicles. This two-stage micro-launcher is carbon-neutral, relying on bio-liquid natural gas (BioLPG) to power its seven engines. Most of its propulsion subsystem is built using additive manufacturing (3D printing), while the main structure and tanks are composed of carbon fiber/graphene composites. With a payload capacity of 180 kg (~400 lbs), this micro-launcher will service the growing small satellite (smallsat) market.
XL: Developed by UK-based launch vehicle manufacturer Skyrora, the XL is a three-stage, light-class launch vehicle intended to send payloads to SSO or Polar Orbit. Powering the first and second stages are nine and one Skyforce engines (respectively) that run on LOX and a kerosene fuel made from waste plastic (Ecosene).
These concepts align with several emerging trends, cutting-edge technologies, and priorities that characterize the modern space age. In addition to reducing costs and increasing access to space, there is the growing role of commercial space and the need for collaboration between the public and private sectors. On top of that, there are significant concerns that so many launches per year will mean more emissions, thus significantly contributing to climate change – hence the need for carbon-neutral manufacturing and fuel options.
De Indiase ruimtesonde Aditya-L1 heeft zaterdag de baan rond de zon bereikt na een reis van vier maanden. Premier Narendra Modi sprak op sociale media van een "mijlpaal" voor het ruimtevaartprogramma van zijn land.
Een Indiaas ruimtevaartuig dat de zon moet observeren, heeft na een maandenlange vlucht door de ruimte zijn bestemming bereikt. Premier Narendra Modi van India presenteerde dat op sociale media als een nieuwe mijlpaal voor het ruimtevaartprogramma van zijn land.
(ANP / Associated Press)
De Aditya, "zon" in het Hindi, werd in een zogenaamde 'halo-baan' geplaatst in een sector in de ruimte die ongeveer 1,5 miljoen kilometer van de aarde is verwijderd.
De sonde werd in september gelanceerd en heeft een reeks instrumenten aan boord om metingen en observaties uit te voeren aan de buitenste lagen van de zon. Aditya moet voortdurend heldere beelden van de zon doorsturen, om zo meer te weten te komen over de eigenschappen van zonnevlammen, de straling van de zon en de dynamiek van zonnewinden.
De Indiase minister van Wetenschappen en Technologie Jitendra Singh schreef op de sociale media dat de sonde zijn einddoel bereikt had "om de mysteries van de band tussen de zon en de aarde te ontrafelen".
"Dit is een bewijs van de niet aflatende toewijding van onze wetenschappers", schreef ook premier Modi. "We zullen nieuwe wetenschappelijke grenzen blijven verkennen om de mensheid te helpen".
De Amerikaanse Nasa en het Europese ESA hebben al eerder ruimtesondes gelanceerd om de zon te bestuderen, maar voor India gaat het om een primeur. India is ook het eerste Aziatische land dat zijn sonde in een baan rond de zon brengt. Ook Japan en China lanceerden dergelijke missie, maar hun sondes hebben hun doel nog niet bereikt.
Het Indiase ruimtevaartprogramma ISRO heeft al eerder successen geboekt. India werd vorig jaar het eerste land dat met succes een ruimtevaartuig liet landen op de zuidpool van de maan. Rusland deed toen ook een poging om daar een onbemand toestel te laten landen, maar die mislukt.
EXCLUSIVETop secret UFO meeting in Congress to reveal 'classified' details of illegal crash retrieval program - and US intelligence insider tells DailyMail.com what they believe will really happen behind closed doors
EXCLUSIVE - Top secret UFO meeting in Congress to reveal 'classified' details of illegal crash retrieval program - and US intelligence insider tells DailyMail.com what they believe will really happen behind closed doors
Top spy watchdog Thomas Monheim, the US Intelligence Community's Inspector General, is slated to brief the House Oversight Committee on UFOs this Tuesday
The 'members only' UFO briefing will reportedly require 'Top Secret' clearances
But a source familiar with operations at the IC IG's office tells DailyMail.com, 'I would be very shocked if they hear the same things the Intel committees heard'
While Americans wait in anticipation for possible new details, a source with direct knowledge of standard operations inside the US Intelligence Community's Inspector General's office (IC IG) told DailyMail.com that the meeting will be 'only for show.'
'The IG, when he goes and briefs Oversight, his job, between you and I, is going to be to make them feel as though they're getting information,' this source said, 'and basically tell them nothing.'
Although some House Oversight members intimated last November that they have now acquired 'permission' to view the classified version of Grusch's formal IC IG complaint, this source said: 'I do not expect that to occur.'
Tuesday's secret briefing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) will be conducted by the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General (IC IG), headed by Thomas Monheim (above). An intel insider told DailyMail.com the hearing will amount to 'nothing'
While Tuesday's Oversight hearing will be held at the 'Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information' (TS/SCI) level, inside a 'Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility' (SCIF), DailyMail.com understands that a direct look at Grusch's classified IC IG complaint is unlikely
Grusch's allegations were first made in detail via this classified formal complaint, a 'Disclosure of Urgent Concern(s); Complaint of Reprisal' filed to the IC IG's office in May of 2022, according to The Debrief.
But this past June, Grusch made public the unclassified, broad strokes of his charges in an explosive series of interviews, first with The Debrief, then cable news channel News Nation and soon after in sworn testimony to the House Oversight committee.
'I made the decision, based on the data I collected, to report this information to my superiors and multiple inspectors general,' Grusch continued, under oath, 'in effect becoming a whistleblower.'
'Given the significant penalties for making false statements to an inspector general,' as ex-Defense Department official Marik von Rennenkampff, wrote in The Hill, 'it is extremely unlikely that multiple high-level, highly-cleared officials would falsely claim to have first-hand knowledge of myths and rumors.'
Explosive charges, made by former high-ranking US intelligence official David Grusch (center) before Congress, have accused both the US military and its defense contractors of stonewalling on evidence of crashed UFOs, recovered 'beings,' and even UFO-related deaths
But the classified details of that whistleblower complaint, while disclosed to cleared lawmakers on the House and Senate's intelligence committees, has yet to be made available to lawmakers with the House Oversight committee.
DailyMail.com's US intelligence community insider said this is to be expected.
'The statute doesn't give their committee cognizance over David [Grusch]'s complaint,' this source said. 'Oversight, they have nothing to do with Intel.'
'The statute gives HPSCI [the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and SSCI [the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] cognizance,' this source explained in a telephone interview.
Attorney Daniel Sheehan says whistleblowers with knowledge of a classified UFO 'reverse-engineering' program have opted to testify to the Senate intelligence committee, in part over their reported mistrust of the Pentagon's dedicated UFO office and its first director Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick. Above, a page from the US Air Force's Project 1794, declassified in 2012
The revelations came amid an invite-only UFO gathering at Stanford University. But many speakers at the exclusive event expressed worry over the risk of social and economic upheaval. One former CIA scientist said that Washington insiders had deeply weighed both the positive and negative ramifications of declassifying America's top secret UFO programs in 2004. They came to believe that risks of UFO 'disclosure' were just too great.
'So that's kind of an internal 'food fight' for Capitol Hill,' according to this intelligence community insider. 'That's not really our problem, you know? That's theirs — and they're very territorial.'
Nevertheless, Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna told assembled reporters late last November that plans were in place for she and other House Oversight members to finally review the classified details of Grusch's IC IG complaint.
'Referencing Grusch, I know that there was many questions in regards to what was happening with his current IG report,' Representative Luna said, 'and whether or not we were able to receive access to that information.'
'We were previously denied this,' Rep. Luna continued, stating, 'we have now received permission from him directly to go back into the SCIF to review that information.'
But while Tuesday's Oversight hearing will be held at the 'Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information' (TS/SCI) level, inside a 'Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility' (SCIF), DailyMail.com understands that a direct look at Grusch's classified IC IG complaint is unlikely.
'I don't think there's going to be a whole lot to come out of this,' the anonymous IC IG insider told DailyMail.com.
'What I expect to occur — and I could be completely wrong — is you're going to see those people [House Oversight] walk out into the hallway and give a press conference saying that they're mad that they can't get access to it.'
Over the past year, a bipartisan group of Oversight Committee members, led by Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett has sought more details on UFOs: activities that included last July's open hearing and a closed-door meeting this fall with representatives of the Department of Defense's own Office of the Inspector General.
Reps. Luna and Burchett have joined other lawmakers in what's been called the 'Congressional UAP Caucus,' in reference to the more contemporary term-of-art for UFOs: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
Few from House Oversight or the UAP caucus, however, which includes reps Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), Jaimie Raskin (D-Md.) and others, have gone into detail on the expected material to be covered in Tuesday's top secret UFO hearing.
For his part, Rep. Burchett said via a spokesperson that 'the event,' which was originally scheduled for January 12, 2024, 'will be a classified members-only briefing with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (ICIG), Thomas Monheim.'
'It is open to members of the House Oversight Committee, but if other House members or senators are interested they may notify the Committee and would be welcome to attend.'
'David Grusch will not be in attendance,' Rep. Burchett's spokesperson told UFO researcher Douglas Dean Johnson. 'We do not have a SCIF scheduled for a briefing with David Grusch currently, but the UAP Caucus is continuing to push for one.'
A source with direct knowledge of standard operations inside the IC IG's office told DailyMail.com that Tuesday's meeting will only help lawmakers 'feel as though they're getting information.' Above, another page from the US Air Force's Project 1794, declassified in 2012
Whether it proves to be momentous or not, Tuesday's classified hearing follows months of pitched backroom battles on the Hill over a bipartisan bill that would have formalized a 'controlled disclosure plan' to release the US government's UFO secrets.
Ohio representative and UFO skeptic Mike Turner told News Nation the original 64-page bill was 'poorly drafted' complaining that 'no one has even raised it' with him.
But, in an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Grusch called out Turner, accusing him of 'blocking' the bill on behalf of his defense contractor donors.
The legislation was originally to be modeled on the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, passed in response to public debate following Oliver Stone's 1991 film about the daylight killing of a sitting US president.
But the work of that Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) was itself stonewalled and remains incomplete, suggesting that even a robustly proposed UFO panel modelled on that board would have faced similar limitations.
Late in the debate on this Schumer-Rounds UAP Amendment, Reps. Luna, Burchett and other members of the 'UAP Caucus' criticized the bill, with Rep. Burchett ultimately proposing an alternative bill that was curiously only one-page long.
Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett, who serves on the House Oversight committee, led this past summer's open UFO hearing on July 26th - which he said had been undermined by Pentagon and US Intelligence Community efforts to 'continuously block things'
According to the DailyMail.com's well-placed US intelligence community source, who is intimately familiar with the policies and mandates of the IC IG's office, House Oversight's Tuesday hearing will likely be marred by similar curiosities.
'I don't know what they're doing,' the source told DailyMail.com.
Attorney Thomas Monheim, the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community, this source believes, will likely feel compelled to walk a tightrope between keeping multiple competing congressional committees satisfied.
'He's in charge of what he's going to tell them,' the source said.
'I would be very shocked if they hear the same things the Intel committees heard,' the source elaborated, 'not because he doesn't want to tell them — because they're Congress — but because HPSCI and SSCI have probably said to him, 'Hey! We are your committees of jurisdiction, not Oversight.''
The US intel community insider suggested that the House UAP caucus, and others interested in transparency on UFOs and 'non-human intelligences,' would be better served by redirecting their attention toward lawmakers on those intel committees.
'David [Grusch] briefed HPSCI and SSCI because that's what the statute allowed him to do,' the source told DailyMail.com
'David spent hours and hours and hours and hours with SSCI,' the source said. 'And then hours and hours and hours and hours with HPSCI.'
'All the staffers that he briefed were all cleared TS/SCI. They all had to have compartmented read-ins. It was a big deal.'
'It's not [House] Oversight that's going to do anything, you know? It's 'What is SSCI doing?' and 'What is HPSCI doing?'' the intel insider opined.
'Who's going to hold their feet to the fire?'
Have details about Tuesday's UFO hearing? Please get in touch with the author at matthew.phelan@mailonline.com or matthew.d.phelan@protonmail.com
The world's UFO hotspots are revealed - as Pentagon admits hundreds of objects have been spotted 'all over the world'
The US government is notoriously secretive when it comes to sharing what it knows about extraterrestrial life.
But in a possible bid for transparency, the Department of Defense has released a new document disclosing the 'world's UFO hotspots'.
It includes a map disclosing where the most sightings of unidentified objects have been recorded, based on reports between 1996 and 2023.
The map discloses where the most sightings have been recorded based on reports between 1996 and 2023 - naming Japan and the coasts of the US as particular hotspots
Among them Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, the east and west coasts of the US including California, as well as parts of the Middle East.
Uranus and Neptune Are in Fact Similar Shade of Greenish Blue, New Color-Corrected Images Reveal
Uranus and Neptune Are in Fact Similar Shade of Greenish Blue, New Color-Corrected Images Reveal
Uranus and Neptune, the so-called ice giants, are the most distant giant planets in our Solar System. Our knowledge of these worlds was revolutionized by the flybys of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft on January 24, 1986 and August 25, 1989, respectively. Since these Voyager encounters, our perception of the visible appearance of these worlds comes primarily from images reconstructed from observations from Voyager 2’s Imaging Science System (ISS), which recorded images in several separate filters, running from ultraviolet to orange. In those images, Uranus appears pale green, while Neptune appears darker blue, and this perception of the relative colors of these planets has become commonly accepted. But a new study has revealed that the two ice giants are actually far closer in color.
Voyager 2/ISS images of Uranus and Neptune released shortly after the Voyager 2 flybys in 1986 and 1989, respectively, compared with a reprocessing of the individual filter images in this study to determine the best estimate of the true colors of these planets.
Image credit: Irwin et al., doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3761.
“Although the familiar Voyager 2 images of Uranus were published in a form closer to ‘true’ color, those of Neptune were, in fact, stretched and enhanced, and therefore made artificially too blue,” said University of Oxford’s Professor Patrick Irwin.
“Even though the artificially-saturated color was known at the time amongst planetary scientists — and the images were released with captions explaining it — that distinction had become lost over time.”
“Applying our model to the original data, we have been able to reconstitute the most accurate representation yet of the color of both Neptune and Uranus.”
This means that STIS and MUSE observations can be unambiguously processed to determine the true apparent color of Uranus and Neptune.
The astronomers used these data to re-balance the composite color images recorded by the Voyager 2 camera, and also by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
This revealed that Uranus and Neptune are actually a rather similar shade of greenish blue.
The main difference is that Neptune has a slight hint of additional blue, which the model reveals to be due to a thinner haze layer on that planet.
The study also provides an answer to the long-standing mystery of why Uranus’ color changes slightly during its 84-year orbit of the Sun.
The authors came to their conclusion after first comparing images of the ice giant to measurements of its brightness, which were recorded by the Lowell Observatory in Arizona from 1950 to 2016 at blue and green wavelengths.
These measurements showed that Uranus appears a little greener at its solstices (i.e. summer and winter), when one of the planet’s poles is pointed towards our star.
But during its equinoxes — when the Sun is over the equator — it has a somewhat bluer tinge.
Part of the reason for this was known to be because Uranus has a highly unusual spin.
It effectively spins almost on its side during its orbit, meaning that during the planet’s solstices either its north or south pole points almost directly towards the Sun and Earth.
This is important because any changes to the reflectivity of the polar regions would therefore have a big impact on Uranus’ overall brightness when viewed from our planet.
What astronomers were less clear about is how or why this reflectivity differs.
This led the researchers to develop a model which compared the spectra of Uranus’ polar regions to its equatorial regions.
It found that the polar regions are more reflective at green and red wavelengths than at blue wavelengths, partly because methane, which is red absorbing, is about half as abundant near the poles than the equator.
However, this wasn’t enough to fully explain the color change so the researchers added a new variable to the model in the form of a ‘hood’ of gradually thickening icy haze which has previously been observed over the summer, sunlit pole as the planet moves from equinox to solstice.
Astronomers think this is likely to be made up of methane ice particles.
When simulated in the model, the ice particles further increased the reflection at green and red wavelengths at the poles, offering an explanation as to why Uranus is greener at the solstice.
“This is the first study to match a quantitative model to imaging data to explain why the color of Uranus changes during its orbit,” Professor Irwin said.
“In this way, we have demonstrated that Uranus is greener at the solstice due to the polar regions having reduced methane abundance but also an increased thickness of brightly scattering methane ice particles.”
“The misperception of Neptune’s color, as well as the unusual color changes of Uranus, have bedevilled us for decades. This comprehensive study should finally put both issues to rest,” said Dr. Heidi Hammel, a researcher at the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).
The results appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Patrick G.J. Irwin et al. 2024. Modelling the seasonal cycle of Uranus’s colour and magnitude, and comparison with Neptune. MNRAS 527 (4): 11521-11538; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stad3761
Exposed: Four underground alien bases found by remote viewer
Exposed: Four underground alien bases found by remote viewer
During the 1960s and 70s, the United States and the Soviet Union fought the Cold War on many fronts. In the 1970s, America and Russia engaged in a new type of warfare: psychic warfare. During this period, the CIA was actively recruiting and training people with a natural talent for remote viewing. Remote viewing is projecting your consciousness to anywhere on Earth and beyond.
In 1973, prior to going to work for the CIA, remote viewer Pat Price, who was “discovered” by SRI International in the early days of Stargate, a US government sponsored remote viewing research and intelligence-collecting program, provided a lengthy unsolicited report regarding what he believed to be underground UFO bases.
Pat Price, entirely by accident, found himself at Mount Hayes in Alaska. Mount Hayes is in the middle of nowhere. There's no civilization for miles. But something was calling him to the mountain.
Then he looked inside the mountain. There was a base hidden inside Mount Hayes. Then he saw - this was not a base built by humans.
Mount Hayes was one of four mountains that Pat Price said contained a secret alien UFO base. The others are Mount Puro in Spain, Mount Inyan Gani in Zimbabwe and Mount Zeal in Australia.
Now, Project 8200 was a remote-viewing effort conducted in 1982 and 1983 that attempted to corroborate information provided by Pat Price a decade earlier.
Several of the next generation Stargate remote viewers working for Project 8200 that time, saw or felt the presence of extraterrestrials and subsequently provided with information from other sources, project 8200 confirmed the bases are real and are intentionally hidden and working together. The bases are occupied but not always and they're used for observation and relaying information and energy to an object in deep space.
Not only Pat Price provided the CIA with surprisingly accurate intelligence information until his (suspicious) reported death in 1975, but also the results of project 8200 were never officially reported to higher authorities.
But some of the information has been available in public domain.
In a recent investigative report, a team of UFO experts and forensic analysts embarked on a global journey to shed light on some of the most perplexing and unexplained UFO encounters. With a focus on several shocking pieces of video footage, these professionals used cutting-edge technology and forensic techniques to determine the authenticity of these sightings and to understand the characteristics of the mysterious objects captured on film.
At the heart of the investigation is the detailed analysis of high-definition video footage provided by individuals like Michael, the camera operator. The team, equipped with advanced software, meticulously dissected each frame, examining the motion and behavior of the pixels to create visual maps. These maps were instrumental in identifying any inconsistencies in the objects’ movements, with motion vectors indicating the direction and speed of the supposed UFOs. Such rigorous analysis aimed to rule out any possibility of manipulation or fabrication in the footage.
The report highlighted several intriguing encounters, including one where an object performed an astonishing barrel roll around a military aircraft before shooting down to the ocean’s surface and then re-emerging at an incredible speed. In another instance, experts analyzed footage from a Chilean Navy helicopter, revealing an object emitting a turbulent trail, the nature of which sparked controversy and debate among the investigators.
VIDEO:
The Most Shocking UFO Video Footage Revelations | Contact
The involvement of military personnel and references to government agencies like Chile’s CEPFA (Committee for the Study of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena) underscored the global and serious nature of UFO investigations. These agencies, dedicated to unraveling the mystery of UFO sightings, collaborate with experts to scrutinize every detail, seeking to understand whether these unidentified objects pose a threat or might be evidence of extraterrestrial existence.
As the investigation unfolded, the experts confronted the challenge of distinguishing between advanced human-made technologies and genuinely unexplained phenomena. With each piece of analyzed footage, they moved closer to understanding the incredible speeds and maneuvers that these objects demonstrated, far beyond the capabilities of known human-made aircraft.
The report concluded with a call for continued investigation and vigilance. While the forensic analysis provided valuable insights, many questions remained unanswered. The experts acknowledged the need for more advanced tools and collaborative efforts to explore these mysterious sightings further. As the quest for understanding continues, the intriguing possibility that we are not alone in the universe seems ever more plausible.
De NASA werkt al een tijdje aan de Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). Die nieuwe, efficiëntere raketmotor moet ruimtereizen veel goedkoper maken.
De ontwikkeling van een nieuw soort aandrijving, de Rotating Detonation Combustion, kan echt bruikbare hypersone raketten een stap dichterbij brengen. De NASA heeft nu nieuwe tests uitgevoerd met een motor die grofweg dezelfde techniek gebruikt; niet om vijanden genadeloos uit te schakelen, maar om een trip naar Mars flink te verkorten.
Explosiereeks
De test met die Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) werd uitgevoerd op het NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. De nieuwe raketmotor werkt op basis van een serie brandstofexplosies die zich rond een cirkelvormig kanaal (annulus) bewegen. Brandstof en een oxidatiemiddel worden daarbij via kleine openingen of smalle spleten in dat kanaal gespoten en tot ontbranding gebracht. De energie die daardoor vrij komt brengt de volgende brandstofexplosie op gang. De hete gassen worden door de inkomende brandstof en oxidator uit het kanaal geduwd en zorgen voor de voortstuwing.
Als de motor eenmaal is gestart, houden de detonaties zichzelf dus in stand. Een mooi en simpel ontwerp dat gebaseerd is op de pulse jet of pulse detonation engine. Dat ontwerp is eind negentiende eeuw al door de Rus Nikolai Afanasievitsj Telesjov bedacht. De Duitsers werkten dat idee vanaf 1934 verder uit en dat leidde tot de Argus As 109-014, de pulsmotoren waarmee V1-raketten werden aangedreven.
Nadeel van zo’n pulserende straalmotor is dat hij bijzonder lawaaiig is, dat hij flink wat trillingen veroorzaakt, veel brandstof verbruikt en niet geschikt is voor supersone snelheden. Prima dus voor een soort domme kruisraket in oorlogstijd, maar niet voor veel andere, vreedzamere toepassingen.
Stuwkracht
Die problemen zijn kennelijk met RDRE opgelost en het resultaat is een motor die tijdens de meest recente test 251 seconden lang een vermogen van 25.810 newton leverde, een flinke verbetering van een test uit het begin 2023 toen de stuwkracht nog bleef steken op 17.800 newton.
Doordat de aandrijving een stuk zuiniger is, wordt het goedkoper om de ruimte in te gaan en wordt het bovendien mogelijk om daar grotere afstanden af te leggen. De NASA wil uiteindelijk toe naar een volledig herbruikbare RDRE met een vermogen van 44.000 newton. Die zou er dan voor moeten zorgen dat de eerste Amerikanen ergens in 2030 voet op Mars kunnen zetten.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
