Space Quote: Alien Crash Retrieval and Reverse Engineering?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Roswell road sign. (Washington Post)

“In 2019, the UAPTF director tasked me to identify all Special Access Programs & Controlled Access Programs (SAPs/CAPs) we needed to satisfy our congressionally mandated mission.

At the time, due to my extensive executive-level intelligence support duties, I was cleared to literally all relevant compartments and in a position of extreme trust in both my military and civilian capacities.

I was informed, in the course of my official duties, of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access to those additional read-on’s.

I made the decision based on the data I collected, to report this information to my superiors and multiple Inspectors General, and in effect become a whistleblower.”

–Prepared statement by David Grusch, Former National Reconnaissance Officer Representative on DOD’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Task Force, for a hearing before the House Oversight Committee held earlier this week. The hearing was titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency.” The hearing is part of a series of such hearings calling for greater transparency by the federal government regarding UAP issues.

NASA TV: Stay Tuned In

Posted on by onespaceman2000

If you cannot find anything worthwhile on regular television, don’t forget that NASA continues to broadcast key events on its own television station, including this week’s meeting on UFOs, now called “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAPs.

Here is the latest schedule for NASA TV:

Tuesday, May 30
9 a.m. – Coverage of hatch closure for the Axiom Mission 2 crew aboard the International Space Station. Hatch closure scheduled for approx. 9:10 a.m. 
10:45 a.m. – Coverage of the the Axiom Mission 2 crew undocking from the International Space Station. Undocking scheduled for 11:05 a.m.
12:30 p.m. – ISS Expedition 69 in-flight educational event with the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM, and NASA flight engineers Frank Rubio and Steve Bowen
2 p.m. — Media teleconference on the science bound for the International Space Station aboard SpaceX’s 28th commercial resupply services mission

Wednesday, May 31
10:30 a.m. – Coverage of the public meeting of the independent study team on categorizing and evaluating data of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP)
3 p.m. – Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) post-meeting media teleconference

Thursday, June 1
12 p.m. – News conference for upcoming spacewalks to install new International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSAs)
7 p.m. — NASA and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón unveil her poem for Europa

More on those Chinese Balloons

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Chinese balloon details from the leaked Pentagon documents. (The Daily Mail)

The Chinese balloons that causes so much trouble a few months back appear to be nothing new, according to recently leaked Pentagon documents. The Chinese have been using them for years to spy on American military positions. And on closer inspection, the contraption being carried by these balloons looks a lot like a normal satellite, with solar panels, antenna, sensors, and more (see the image above).

So why use balloons and not normal satellites? As noted in earlier press stories, the balloons are cheaper, easier to launch, more difficult for US intelligence to detect when launched, fly closer to targets, and linger longer over those targets. These are many of the same reason the US and many other countries continue to use balloons for scientific reasons as well.

The leaked documents are simply confirming what we already know. UFOs are all over and as far as we know to date man-made. I know it is still hard for many to believe that the crashed object in Roswell, New Mexico back in the 1947 was just a US military surveillance balloon. Real life can be boring at times.

Space Quote: Dandelion-Like Space Probes?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Swansons Nursery.

“Nevertheless, the coincidences between some orbital parameters of ‘Oumuamua and IM2 inspires us to consider the possibility that an artificial interstellar object could potentially be a parent craft that releases many small probes during its close passage to Earth, an operational construct not too dissimilar from NASA missions. These “dandelion seeds” could be separated from the parent craft by the tidal gravitational force of the Sun or by a maneuvering capability. A small ejection speed far away could lead to a large deviation from the trajectory of the parent craft near the Sun. The changes would manifest both in arrival time and distance of closest approach to Earth. With proper design, these tiny probes would reach the Earth or other Solar system planets for exploration, as the parent craft passes by within a fraction of the Earth-Sun separation – just like ‘Oumuamua did.”

-Statement in a March 7, 2023 draft paper, Physical Constraints on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, written by Harvard astronomer Abraham (Avi) Loeb and US Department of Defense Director Sean M. Kirkpatrick. The paper makes reference to both the interstellar object ‘Oumuamuaa and the meter-size interstellar meteor (IM2) that collided with Earth on March 9, 2023. This research was supported in part by Galileo Project at Harvard University and conducted in partnership with the Department of Defense, All-domain, Anomaly Resolution Office.

Study Findings: Acceleration of 1I/‘Oumuamua from Radiolytically Produced H2 in H2O Ice

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s concept of interstellar object1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua) as it passed through the solar system after its discovery in October 2017. (European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser)

Nature abstract:

In 2017, 1I/‘Oumuamua was identified as the first known interstellar object in the Solar System. Although typical cometary activity tracers were not detected, ‘Oumuamua showed a notable non-gravitational acceleration. So far, there has been no explanation that can reconcile these constraints. Owing to energetic considerations, outgassing of hyper-volatile molecules is favoured over heavier volatiles such as H2O and CO2. However, there are theoretical and/or observational inconsistencies with existing models invoking the sublimation of pure H2, N2 and CO. Non-outgassing explanations require fine-tuned formation mechanisms and/or unrealistic progenitor production rates. Here we report that the acceleration of ‘Oumuamua is due to the release of entrapped molecular hydrogen that formed through energetic processing of an H2O-rich icy body. In this model, ‘Oumuamua began as an icy planetesimal that was irradiated at low temperatures by cosmic rays during its interstellar journey, and experienced warming during its passage through the Solar System. This explanation is supported by a large body of experimental work showing that H2 is efficiently and generically produced from H2O ice processing, and that the entrapped H2 is released over a broad range of temperatures during annealing of the amorphous water matrix. We show that this mechanism can explain many of ‘Oumuamua’s peculiar properties without fine-tuning. This provides further support that ‘Oumuamua originated as a planetesimal relic broadly similar to Solar System comets.

Citation: Bergner, J.B., Seligman, D.Z. Acceleration of 1I/‘Oumuamua from radiolytically produced H2 in H2O ice. Nature 615, 610–613 (2023).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05687-w

Study-related stories:

Note: Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has written a book about Oumuamua, raised some concerns the about new study in this EarthSky article.