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 13 YEARS AND 2 MONTH.
ON 06/08/2024 MORE THAN 2.161.100
VISITORS FROM 135 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...
15-01-2017
The mysterious Vinca figurines; Evidence of extraterrestrial contact thousands of years ago
The mysterious Vinca figurines; Evidence of extraterrestrial contact thousands of years ago
The Mystery of the Vinca figurines. Researchers believe they are depictions of extraterrestrial beings that visited ancient man in the past
Excavations in the vicinity of Belgrade have yielded over 2000 of these mysterious looking figurines
Various styles of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines are hallmarks of the culture the Vinča culture, also known as Turdaș culture or Turdaș-Vinča culture
The Mystery of the Vinca figurines
According to numerous researchers, the ancient Vinca (Vinča) culture depicted extraterrestrial visitors, gods that came from the sky and provided the necessary push for the advancement of civilization and technology among humans.
There has been a lot of speculation about the existence of extraterrestrial beings and the possibility of them interacting in the distant past, with ancient civilizations on Earth. Evidence of such encounters can be found across the world. In every single continent there appears to be evidence recorded in texts, monuments, and artifacts pointing toward the existence and interaction of extraterrestrial beings.
In many ancient depictions we see beings with oval-shaped heads, giant almond-shaped eyes that have specific dark pupils, narrow noses with slightly marked small mouths that most of the mites have no lips. The head is composed out of the specific shape that is in most cases, larger than the rest of the bodies. The color of the creatures ranges from blueish gray colors to light brown.
The depictions of these creatures has been attributed, from the standpoint of rationalistic and materialistic science, to hallucinations due to the ingestion of drugs or alcohol, fantastic projections of the collective unconscious, and hallucinations that are a result of certain brain injuries or diseases. Strangely, these depictions have existed in the distant past, about 7000 years BC in some European countries including the Balkans, former Yugoslavia and Northern Greece.
There is a great amount of evidence and many archaeological findings that have been proven to be authentic. The sequence of the Vinca (Vinča) culture is a set of very well documented items in the Vinca region, in the vicinity of Belgrade – 14 km of Belgrade, Serbia. Excavation in the area have yielded over 2000 of these mysterious looking figurines, the largest number of items of that type discovered in the region.
Putting the puzzle together, this has allowed archaeologists to verify that several centuries ago, human groups that inhabited the region received almost spontaneously a significative impulse that helped them become a civilized society, enabling them to develop a syllabic-alphabetic language and or linear writing system judging by the amount of phonetic signs used in it. All of this occurred several thousand years before the rise of the great ancient civilizations of the Euphrates and the Nile. This according to most researchers is considered as an archaeological anomaly.
Numerous archaeologists who have studied this enigmatic civilization do not have a convincing explanation for this anachronistic culture that was obviously too evolved for a time when most of the cultures of the Old World were still in the Neolithic stage, a time when not a single megalithic monument was erected.
What is perhaps most disconcerting is the fact that along with numerous samples of ceramic-naturalistic paintings and objects, engraved with amazing inscriptions, there are over three thousand ceramic and stone figurines where besides human and animal representations, are mainstream representations of strange humanoid beings whose characteristics fit perfectly into modern-day descriptions of otherworldly beings such as the grey aliens, believed to have visited Earth in the distant past, and even today. The Vinca (Vinča) culture figurines are original and unique items yet resemble art of other cultures in Mesopotamia and the Americas. The question many have asked is, why?
Even though the Vinca culture has had contact with other neighboring cultures, the sculptural art of the Vinca (Vinča) remained markedly different from that of other cultures in the region.
The most distinctive feature of these mysterious figurines are triangular shaped faces, large almond shaped eyes, mouths and noses that are nonexistent in most cases, which strangely seem to resemble animals such as grasshoppers. Some of these figurines mysteriously depict a combination of hybrid beings, half-human half reptile.
Most of these strange humanoid figures are depicted as guardian deities, some of them are believed to have been good while some of them evil. The zoomorphic-anthropomorphic depictions are a mystery that many researchers have not found an answer to.
According to researchers, the most striking sculptures representing the latest development of Vinca art are the monumental heads with a relatively normal size, that have some sort of helmet or mask. The widening of the mask follows the oblique line of the eyes, and its projection goes all the way to the height of what appear to be ears. What was the artists goal upon creating these masks and figurines? Did the artist intend to depict the Gods and deities which brought numerous advancements to their society and other human beings?
The objective here is to go beyond mere classification or identification of objects according to the criteria and principles of methodology of mainstream archaeological research. What caused the ancient Vinca do depict such mysterious creatures? What inspired them to create such sticking figurines, clearly not of human nature? Everything man does is, in one way or another, an imitation of the real world and nature around him. This points to the fact that the depictions of the ancient Vinča culture, are actually what they had seen thousands of years ago.
Is the Vinca culture evidence of prehistorical contact with extraterrestrial beings, around 9000 years ago? Researchers believe that the origin of the strange iconography is not only based on the physical appearance but also on other aspects such as the appearance of advanced linear syllabic-alphabetic writing and language, a form that would reappear several thousands of years later in other advanced civilizations of the mediterranean.
Interestingly, in civilizations of Southeast Europe there are no previous phases in the evolution of the writing system. Writing came to be “suddenly” in a relatively evolved form. It is a destabilizing fact breaking all previously established patterns, breaking the foundations of structures established by scholars of one of the most important marks of ancient civilizations, the writing system. It may not be coincidental that this cultural and so to speak technological leap appears associated with the first depiction of otherworldly creatures that could have been considered as gods thousands of years ago.
Researchers believe we are facing one of the oldest proofs of human contact with extraterrestrial beings that came from other planets or other dimensions. We are faced with depictions of human-like beings obviously not connected or similar to any of the races or species of known hominids. This has led to the conclusion that these depictions are anything but human from a anthropogenic point of view.
Ancient oriental texts and doctrines speak of highly advanced beings which participated in the formation of civilization as we know it today. Depictions and texts about these beings are found in cultures across the globe, in every single corner of the world, yet for some reason, we seem to look past these depictions.
A retired McGill professor is convinced we have been visited by UFOs and extraterrestrial life forms.
In fact, Don Donderi knows people who claim to have been abducted by aliens from outer space.
Donderi teaches a course at McGill University called UFOs: History and Reality. The course, part of McGill’s Community for Lifelong Learning, outlines why “UFOs are real and extraterrestrial.”
Donderi, who holds a PhD in psychology from Cornell University, spoke to the Montreal Gazette about his lifelong interest in UFOs and why he believes aliens exist “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
This interview was condensed for space reasons.
Q. How did teaching this course come about?
A. Well, I’ve been interested in the topic since I was 10 years old. I was certainly literate at 10 and I was following what was going in the papers and magazines in the United States, where I grew up.
And in 1947, there were (UFO) sightings. There was a famous sighting by a guy named Kenneth Arnold who was a private pilot who flew up in the Cascade (mountain range in Washington) and he saw and reported nine silvery objects flying over the mountains. He was very articulate in his report. … The story got into AP (Associated Press) the next day in June of 1947. And the AP headline writer coined the phrase ‘flying saucers’, which is where it all began.
Q. Wasn’t that the same year as the famous Roswell UFO incident in New Mexico?
A. It’s the same year actually, just a few weeks later. The whole Roswell thing came just after the Kenneth Arnold sighting in 1947.
Q. What’s your take on what happened at Roswell?
A. The U.S. government recovered the remains of a crashed unidentified flying object or to be more correct, an extraterrestrial vehicle.
Q. Do you believe aliens were found at the crash site?
A. It is believed that they also recovered bodies of dead aliens.
Q. Why so much silence and secrecy for all these years?
A. Well, that’s a very good question, and I raise it in my course. … The technology involved is extremely advanced; the implications for human society are incredible and possibly upsetting because we are under surveillance by technologically superior beings from other planets. We don’t know how to do what they do. We don’t know what their motives are or their interests are. And at the moment, as far as I know, we don’t have any active defences or preparations to deal with the situation. So it’s obviously upsetting. Secrecy is because when governments, any government, gets hold of new technology, and want to figure out how it works, their first interest is protecting their own turf on this and not sharing it with the world.
Q. How certain are you of life beyond our planet?
A. I’m 100 per cent certain of that. The way I put it in my course and to the public is this: I have three main propositions. One, some of what people report as UFOs are extraterrestrial vehicles. That proposition, I believe, is established beyond reasonable doubt. And if you know your law, you’ll know that’s the standard for a conviction of a felony. Proposition 2 is that some of the extraterrestrial vehicles have ET crews, and proposition 3 is that some of these ET crews ‘catch and release’ humans to study them, so-called alien abductions. Proposition 2, I think, is established beyond a reasonable doubt, and proposition 3 is bound on probabilities.
Q. Do you personally know anyone who was abducted by aliens?
A. I know many people. I’d say 10, at least, who have claimed to be abducted. And in many cases, I respect their claims because I think they’re based on sound evidence.
Q. There are doubters, of course. How do you handle skepticism?
A. Listen, skepticism is absolutely OK. If you pick up my book (UFOs, ETs and alien abductions: A scientist looks at the evidence, 2013) which you probably won’t do, you’ll find I have a great deal of respect for skeptics who are doing their best to make sure what they know and what the world knows is based on reasonable sound evidence. That’s good. I’m a scientist.
Q. With the proliferation of drones, wouldn’t it be easy to fly one above Mount Royal and say: ‘Hey, look up, it’s a UFO!”
A. Exactly. One of my better friends, who is a drone user commercially — takes real estate photos for people — he and I and everyone else in the field knows it’s perfectly possible to fake UFO photographs and experiences.
Q. Have you ever seen a UFO yourself?
A. Only the kind that wouldn’t impress anyone as sound evidence because nocturnal lights, which is a technical term, are a dime a dozen and you couldn’t be sure at a distance what it was.
Q. What are the chances of a UFO landing on Ste-Catherine St. and an alien climbing out to shake my hand?
A. (Laughing) Ah yes, the famous White House lawn landing. I have no idea; I can’t possibly tell you on the basis of anything I’ve learned on the subject. Except that … whoever shows up will go away and not come back here for a while.
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Canadese professor: “Geen twijfel dat we worden bezocht door aliens”
Canadese professor: “Geen twijfel dat we worden bezocht door aliens”
Een gepensioneerde professor van de Canadese McGill-universiteit is ervan overtuigd dat we zijn bezocht door UFO’s en buitenaardse levensvormen.
Don Donderi kent ook mensen die claimen dat ze zijn ontvoerd door bezoekers uit de ruimte.
Donderi geeft op de universiteit het vak UFOs: History and Reality. Hij brengt studenten bij waarom UFO’s volgens hem echt zijn en worden bestuurd door aliens.
Buitenaards ruimteschip
De professor is al van kinds af aan geïnteresseerd in UFO’s.
In 1947 zag piloot Kenneth Arnold negen zilverkleurige objecten boven de bergen. Persbureau AP schreef een verhaal over de waarneming, herinnert Donderi zich.
Datzelfde jaar gebeurde er iets vreemds bij het plaatsje Roswell. “De Amerikaanse overheid heeft daar de wrakstukken van een buitenaards ruimteschip geborgen,” stelt hij in gesprek met de Montreal Gazette.
Geavanceerde technologie
“Er werden ook lichamen van dode aliens geborgen,” voegt hij toe.
Volgens Donderi worden we in de gaten gehouden door wezens van andere planeten. “We weten niet wat hun motieven of belangen zijn,” zegt hij.
“We hebben hier te maken met extreem geavanceerde technologie,” gaat hij verder. “Overheden zijn niet van plan deze technologie met de wereld te delen.”
Degelijk bewijsmateriaal
Professor Donderi is er 100 procent zeker van dat UFO’s buitenaardse vaartuigen zijn. En sommige van die buitenaardse vaartuigen zijn voorzien van een buitenaardse bemanning.
Er zijn ook aliens die mensen ‘vangen en weer vrijlaten’ om ze te bestuderen, zegt hij. Dit zijn de zogenoemde buitenaardse ontvoeringen.
“Ik ken tenminste 10 mensen die claimen te zijn ontvoerd door aliens,” zegt de wetenschapper. “In de meeste gevallen zijn hun claims gebaseerd op degelijk bewijsmateriaal.”
WAT WEET MEN IN HET WITTE HUIS DAT WIJ NIET WETEN? ( VIDEO )
WAT WEET MEN IN HET WITTE HUIS DAT WIJ NIET WETEN? ( VIDEO )
De meeste mensen kennen de dreiging van asteroïden die richting aarde komen alleen uit films zoals Deep Impact en Armageddon.
Het Witte Huis heeft nu echter een uitgebreid plan gepubliceerd over hoe om te gaan met de snel toenemende dreiging van een meteorietinslag.
Het publiceren van een dergelijk plan betekent dat voor de overheid in Amerika de dreiging van onbekende objecten uit de ruimte groter is geworden dan alleen maar iets dat bestaat in Hollywood films.
En hiermee wordt ook maar weer eens aangetoond dat waar wij al jaren over schrijven, de significante toename van het aantal vuurballen in de ruimte oftewel meteorieten, niet iets is dat verzonnen is door aluhoedjes.
Het is iedere keer hetzelfde liedje. De alternatieve media ziet dingen lang van te voren aankomen, wordt uitgelachen en belachelijk gemaakt, en dan opeens blijkt het toch werkelijkheid te zijn. En lijden de meesten plots aan geheugenverlies lijkt het.
Dan is er paniek in de tent, want men heeft geen flauw idee hoe nu precies om te gaan met die enorme toename van asteroïden.
Het document dat nu is gepubliceerd door het Witte Huis houdt zich bezig met een strategie voor het omgaan met wat men noemt NEO (Near Earth Object).
Ondertussen blijft NASA maar verkondigen dat er geen onmiddellijke dreiging bestaat en worden zij zelf keer op keer verrast door objecten die volkomen onopgemerkt opeens in onze atmosfeer verschijnen. Bij NASA zijn ze zo scherp dat ze bekende meteoriet bij Tsjeljabinsk pas opmerkten toen ze het bestaan ervan via Twitter vernamen.
Bij een haastig ingesteld onderzoek in 2014 bleek dat NASA slechts een heel basic systeem had om inkomende objecten waar te nemen. Het feit dat er de laatste tien jaar een enorm toename is geweest van dit soort objecten, is door NASA in ieder geval volkomen genegeerd.
Het lijkt alsof men de verloren tijd wil inhalen, want er wordt volop actie ondernomen zoals oefeningen in samenwerking met de beruchte FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), ruimteschepen werden gelanceerd om informatie omtrent asteroïden te verzamelen en er werden zelfs plannen voorbereid om eventuele dreigingen uit de ruimte te vernietigen met kernwapens.
Ondanks dat er nu miljoenen, zo niet miljarden, dollars worden besteed aan de dreiging van asteroïden en inslaande meteorieten, NASA blijft het publiek vertellen dat er helemaal geen dreiging bestaat. Net zoals ze het publiek vertellen dat de planeet Nibiru een fabeltje is en dat er nooit leven is geweest op Mars.
Wanneer je het document van het Witte Huis leest, zie je dat er met alle mogelijke scenario’s rekening wordt gehouden, inclusief noodprocedures voor wanneer een NEO op aarde dreigt neer te storten.
Nog maar enkele dagen geleden passeerde een asteroïde de aarde op korte afstand, twee dagen nadat deze was ontdekt. Een brok steen ter grootte van een flatgebouw van tien verdiepingen raasde langs de aarde en de meesten onder ons wisten het niet eens. Dit soort dingen is de laatste jaren vaker voorgekomen en al diverse keren is de aarde ternauwernood aan een ramp ontsnapt.
Er zijn op dit moment door wetenschappers ongeveer 10.000 NEO’s ontdekt, waarvan zo'n tien procent groter is dan een kilometer in doorsnede. Ieder van deze objecten zou het einde van het leven op aarde kunnen inluiden, mochten zij neerstorten op onze planeet. Naast die ontdekte NEO’s zijn er uiteraard misschien nog wel veel meer die niet of pas op het laatste moment ontdekt zijn, of helemaal niet worden waargenomen.
Net zoals men de toename van vuurballen zolang mogelijk voor het grote publiek heeft verzwegen, zo gaat het ook met de bekendmaking van het Nibiru mini-zonnestelsel in onze omgeving, dat verantwoordelijk is voor de enorme toename van vuurballen.
Ook wanneer je kijkt naar de waarnemingen van het aantal vuurballen, zie je dat deze sedert eind 2012 sterk zijn toegenomen.
Je hebt natuurlijk vuurballen in alle soorten en maten, maar de voor de mens meest gevaarlijke zijn natuurlijk de wat grotere.
Een bekend voorbeeld daarvan is natuurlijk de gebeurtenis in Rusland in 2013.
Op 15 februari 2013 ontplofte een meteoroïde nabij Tsjeljabinsk in het Russische Oeralgebied. Rond 9.15 uur plaatselijke tijd werden aldaar verschillende explosies gehoord en werd er een vuurbal in de hemel waargenomen.
Meteoren kunnen eigenlijk worden ingedeeld in vier verschillende soorten: vallende sterren, vuurbollen, bolides en superbolides.
Vooral de laatste twee zijn gebeurtenissen die je niet wilt meemaken. Deze ontploffen in de lucht net zoals Tsjeljabinsk met een enorme knal en een bijbehorende lichtflits.
De energie die bij een dergelijke ontploffing zoals Tsjeljabinsk vrij komt, staat gelijk aan 30 keer die van de atoombom op Hiroshima en de lichtflits is 30 keer feller dan de zon. Bij die gebeurtenissen raakten dan ook 7.200 gebouwen beschadigd en 1.500 mensen gewond. Veel van die verwondingen hadden te maken met de gevolgen van rondvliegend glas of brandwonden.
In het algemeen kan je stellen dat hoe meer mensen een vuurbol waarnemen, des te groter en gevaarlijker zal deze blijken te zijn. Masters heeft dan ook als definitie van een enorme vuurbal genomen het criterium dat deze door minstens 100 verschillende mensen moet zijn gemeld.
Wanneer we voor dat soort gebeurtenissen wederom kijken naar een grafiek van wat er na die bewuste decembermaand is gebeurd, dan lijkt verder commentaar overbodig.
Als je kijkt naar de cijfers per maand, dan zie je dat het grootste aantal van dit soort gebeurtenissen zich heeft voorgedaan in het eerste kwartaal van dit jaar. Ook Tsjeljabinsk gebeurde in de maand februari.
De conclusie van Masters is dan ook dat de Maya’s wel degelijk wisten dat er rond deze tijd iets bijzonders zou gebeuren en dat die datum een soort laatste waarschuwing was voor de mensheid om serieus voorbereidingen te treffen voor de dingen die gaan komen.
Bovenstaande en nog veel meer wordt door Marshall Masters in de volgende half uur durende video uitgelegd en toegelicht.
I wanted to see the Space X rocket launch and land over the ocean, and this is the most recent video of it happening, but as the rocket entered a low orbit, several glowing UFOs were seen from behind...watching. Then a few seconds later a larger UFO is seen in the clouds on the right side of the screen. Such rocket launches and landings are historical and technological marvels in human history. Its no wonder they are watching this event so closely.
UFOs are often seen near low populated areas, this seems to be the case here. The island is a county in England. It also happens to be an island. UFOs love low populated areas and this look like the famous Dudley Dorito UFO that has been seen since the mid 1980s over England. Awesome catch, and proof that there is a base someone on this side of England under the ocean. Scott C. Waring News states: James Ward, 22, of Lake filmed the mysterious sighting on January 2 and the video went on to be featured around the globe. "It was really cool. I didn’t expect it to get national attention," James said. James said seeing his video on national media outlets was an 'overwhelming experience’. James, a full-time carer, filmed the sighting outside his home in Lake. Some have dismissed the sighting as a drone but James said the behaviour of the object ruled out that possibility. The footage has sparked the interest of UFO hunters and alien enthusiasts nationwide but James does not consider himself an enthusiast. "I just looked up and saw this light and thought 'I better film this’, so I took my phone out," James said. The video shows unidentifiable lights in the sky. "I was mesmerised. It looked like a typical round UFO space craft. "Before, I was 50/50 about whether there was life out there but this to me now is 100 per cent proof they exist. "The sighting has made me believe."
SPACEX FALCON 9 COMES ROARING BACK TO LIFE WITH DRAMATICALLY SUCCESSFUL IRIDIUM FLEET LAUNCH AND OCEAN SHIP LANDING
Picture perfect blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 on Jan. 14, 2017, Return to Flight launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying fleet of ten advanced Iridium NEXT comsats to low Earth orbit.
Credit: SpaceX
SPACEX FALCON 9 COMES ROARING BACK TO LIFE WITH DRAMATICALLY SUCCESSFUL IRIDIUM FLEET LAUNCH AND OCEAN SHIP LANDING
Picture perfect blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 on Jan. 14, 2017, Return to Flight launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying fleet of ten advanced Iridium NEXT comsats to low Earth orbit.
The primary goal of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch from Space Launch Complex 4E on Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was to deploy the payload of the first ten Iridium Next communication satellites to low Earth orbit on the Iridium-1 mission.
“Thanks @elonmusk – a perfect flight! Loved watching sats deploy with you in the control room,” tweeted Matt Desch, Iridium Communications CEO, soon after receiving full confirmation that all 10 Iridium NEXT satellites were successfully deployed from their second stage satellite dispensers.
“More to go, but now to celebrate!!”
The inaugural ten will serve as the vanguard of a fleet that will eventually comprise 81 satellites.
SpaceX Falcon 9 first stage successfully soft lands on drone ship stationed in the Pacific Ocean off California coast after launching on Jan. 14, 2017, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying fleet of ten advanced Iridium NEXT comsats to low Earth orbit.
Credit: SpaceX
Today’s successful blastoff took place barely four and a half months after another Falcon 9 and its $200 million Israeli commercial payload were suddenly destroyed during a prelaunch fueling test on the Florida Space Coast on Sept. 1, 2016.
Another launch failure would have dealt a devastating blow to confidence in SpaceX’s hard won reputation.
The Sept. 1, 2016 calamity was the second Falcon 9 failure within 15 months time. Both occurred inside the second stage and called into question the rockets reliability.
The 229-foot (70-meter) Falcon 9 rocket was rolled out from its processing hangar to the launch pad and raised vertically yesterday.
Picture perfect blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 on Jan. 14, 2017, Return to Flight launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying fleet of ten advanced Iridium NEXT comsats to low Earth orbit.
Credit: SpaceX
Today’s entire land, landing and satellite deployment event was shown live on a SpaceX hosted webcast. It offered extremely sharp views of Saturdays on time liftoff at 9:54:34 a.m. PST or 12:54:34 p.m. EST, and unbelievably clear images of the first stage descending back to Earth towards a tiny drone ship.
“Overall a wonderfully nominal mission,” gushed the SpaceX commentator during the webcast.
Since the Iridium 1 mission only had an instantaneous launch opportunity precisely at 9:54:34 a.m. PST or 12:54:34 p.m. EST, there was no margin for any technical or weather delays. And none happened. Although an errant boat had to be quickly escorted out of the exclusion zone less than 20 minutes before blastoff.
Confirmation of a successful deployment of all 10 Iridium NEXT satellites came at about T plus 1 hour and 17 minutes after liftoff from Vandenberg.
“So, so excited – finally breathing again!” tweeted Desch.
“Thanks for all the great vibes – I felt it! All 10 sats deployed; good orbit; good telemetry! WOW.”
“It was a clean sweep of 10 for 10,” said the SpaceX commentator during the live webcast.
In the final moments before the propulsive landing, you could read the lettering on the “Just Read the Instruction” drone ship as the engine was firing to slow the descent and the landing legs deployed.
Really there was no cutout or loss of signal the whole way down. So the world could watch every key moment as it happened in real time.
The first stage softly landed approx. 8 minutes and 18 seconds after the California liftoff.
“First stage has landed on Just Read the Instructions,” SpaceX tweeted post landing.
This was the first launch by SpaceX since last August from the Florida Space Coast, and it came off without a hitch.
Iridium 1 is the first of seven planned Falcon 9 launches to establish the Iridium NEXT constellation which will eventually consist of 81 advanced satellites.
At least 70 will be launched by SpaceX.
The inaugural launch of the advanced Iridium NEXT satellites will start the process of replacing an aging Iridium fleet in orbit for nearly two decades.
SpaceX Falcon 9 poised for Jan. 14, 2017, Return to Flight launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying ten Iridium NEXT comsats to orbit.
Credit: SpaceX
This Falcon 9 was been outfitted with four landing lags and grid fins for a controlled landing on the tiny barge prepositioned in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles off the west coast of California.
SpaceX Falcon 9 booster from Thaicom-8 launch on May 27, 2016 arrives at mouth of Port Canaveral, FL on June 2, 2016.
Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com
Watch this space for continuing updates on SpaceX.
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and Planetary science and human spaceflight news.
IridiumNEXT satellites being fueled, pressurized & stacked on dispenser tiers at Vandenberg AFB for Falcon 9 launch.µ
Credit: Iridium
Mission patch for Iridium-1 mission showing launch of the first 10 Iridium NEXT voice and data relay satellites on SpaceX Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for Iridium Communications, and planned landing of the first stage on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean.
Twelve years ago today, the Huygens probe landed on Titan, marking the farthest point from Earth any spacecraft has ever landed. While a twelfth anniversary may be an odd number to mark with a special article, as we said in our previous article (with footage from the landing), this is the last opportunity to celebrate the success of Huygens before its partner spacecraft Cassini ends its mission on September 15, 2017 with a fateful plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere.
But Huygens is also worth celebrating because, amazingly, the mission almost failed, but yet was a marvelous success. If not for the insistence of one ESA engineer to complete an in-flight test of Huygens’ radio system, none of the spacecraft’s incredible data from Saturn’s largest and mysterious moon would have ever been received, and likely, no one would have ever known why.
As I detail in my new book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes-Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos,” in 1999, the Cassini orbiter and the piggybacking Huygens lander were on their way to the Saturn system. The duo launched in 1997, but instead of making a beeline for the 6th planet from the Sun, they took a looping path called the VVEJGA trajectory (Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter Gravity Assist), swinging around Venus twice and flying past Earth 2 years later.
While all the flybys gave the spacecraft added boosts to help get it to Saturn, the Earth flyby also provided a chance for the teams to test out various systems and instruments and get immediate feedback.
“The European group wanted to test the Huygens receiver by transmitting the data from Earth,” said Earl Maize, Project Manager for the Cassini mission at JPL, who I interviewed for the book. “That’s a great in-flight test, because there’s the old adage of flight engineers, ‘test as you fly, fly as you test.’”
The way the Huygens mission would work at the Saturn system was that Cassini would release Huygens when the duo approached Titan. Huygens would drop through Titan’s thick and obscuring atmosphere like a skydiver on a parachute, transmitting data all the while. The Huygens probe didn’t have enough power or a large enough dish to transmit all its data directly to Earth, so Cassini would gather and store Huygens’ data on board and later transmit it to Earth.
Boris Smeds was head of ESOC’s Systems and Requirements Section, Darmstadt, Germany.
Credit: ESA.
ESA engineer Boris Smeds wanted to ensure this data handoff was going to work, otherwise a crucial part of the mission would be lost. So he proposed a test during the 1999 Earth flyby.
Maize said that for some reason, there was quite a bit of opposition to the test from some of the ESA officials, but Smeds and Claudio Sollazzo, Huygens’s ground operations manager at ESA’s European Space Operation Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany were insistent the test was necessary.
NASA’s Deep Space Network is responsible for communicating with spacecraft. Pictured is the Goldstone facility in California, one of three facilities that make up the Network.
Image: NASA/JPL
“They were not to be denied,” Maize said, “so they eventually got permission for the test. The Cassini team organized it, going to the Goldstone tracking station [in California] of the Deep Space Network (DSN) and did what’s called a ‘suitcase test,’ broke into the signal, and during the Earth flyby, Huygens, Cassini and Goldstone were all programmed to simulate the probe descending to Titan. It all worked great.”
Except for one thing: Cassini received almost no simulated data, and what it did receive was garbled. No one could figure out why.
Six months of painstaking investigation finally identified the problem. The variation in speed between the two spacecraft hadn’t been properly compensated for, causing a communication problem. It was as if the spacecraft were each communicating on a different frequency.
Artist concept of the Huygens probe descending to Titan.
Credit: ESA.
“The European team came to us and said we didn’t have a mission,” Maize said. “But we put together ‘Tiger Teams’ to try and figure it out.”
The short answer was that the idiosyncrasies in the communications system were hardwired in. With the spacecraft now millions of miles away, nothing could be fixed. But engineers came up with an ingenious solution using a basic principal known as the Doppler Effect.
The metaphor Maize likes to use is this: if you are sitting on the shore and a speed boat goes by close to the coast, it zooms past you quickly. But that same boat going the same speed out on the horizon looks like it is barely moving. “Since we couldn’t change Huygens’ signal, the only thing we could change was the way Cassini flew,” Maize said. “If we could move Cassini farther away and make it appear as if Huygens was moving slower, it would receive lander’s radio waves at a lower frequency, solving the problem.”
Maize said it took two years of “fancy coding modifications and some pretty amazing trajectory computations.” Huygens’ landing was also delayed two months for the new trajectory that was needed overcome the radio system design flaw.
Additionally, with Cassini needing to be farther away from Huygens than originally planned, it would eventually fly out of range to capture all of Huygens’ data. Astronomers instigated a plan where radio telescopes around the world would listen for Huygens’ faint signals and capture anything Cassini missed.
Huygens was released from the Cassini spacecraft on Christmas Day 2004, and arrived at Titan on January 14, 2005. The probe began transmitting data to Cassini four minutes into its descent through Titan’s murky atmosphere, snapping photos and taking data all the while. Then it touched down, the first time a probe had landed on an extraterrestrial world in the outer Solar System.
Because of the communication problem, Huygens was not able to gather as much information as originally planned, as it could only transmit on one channel instead of two. But amazingly, Cassini captured absolutely all the data sent by Huygens until it flew out of range.
“It was beautiful,” Maize said, “I’ll never forget it. We got it all, and it was a wonderful example of international cooperation. The fact that 19 countries could get everything coordinated and launched in the first place was pretty amazing, but there’s nothing that compares to the worldwide effort we put into recovering the Huygens mission. From an engineering standpoint, that might trump everything else we’ve done on this mission.”
The view of Titan from the descending Huygens spacecraft on January 14, 2005.
Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
With its ground-breaking mission, Huygens provided the first real view of the surface of Titan. The data has been invaluable for understanding this unique and mysterious moon, showing geological and meteorological processes that are more similar to those on the surface of the Earth than anywhere else in the Solar System. ESA has details on the top discoveries by Huygens here.
Noted space journalist Jim Oberg has written several detailed and very interesting articles about the Huygens’ recovery, including one at IEEE Spectrum and another at The Space Review. These articles provide much more insight into the test, Smeds’ remarkable insistence for the test, the recovery work that was done and the subsequent success of the mission.
As Oberg says in IEEE Spectrum, “Smeds continued a glorious engineering tradition of rescuing deep-space missions from doom with sheer persistence, insight, and lots of improvisation.”
A modest Smeds was quoted by ESA: “This has happened before. Almost any mission has some design problem,” says Smeds, who says he’s worked on recovering from pre- and post-launch telecom issues that have arisen with several past missions. “To me, it’s just part of my normal work.”
For more stories about Huygens, Cassini and several other current robotic space missions, “Incredible Stories From Space” tells many behind-the-scenes stories from the amazing people who work on these missions.
When Huygens landed on Titan, it saw river channels, beaches, islands and swirling fog. So Saturn's largest moon is definitely wet: not from water, but from liquid methane (aka natural gas). And if this methane can fall as rain, it's entirely possible that there could be rainbows, as the Sun's…
CHILEAN GOVERNMENT RELEASES DECLASSIFIED UFO VIDEO
CHILEAN GOVERNMENT RELEASES DECLASSIFIED UFO VIDEO
The term UFO has a way of stirring up speculation and controversy. Even though this bland acronym refers only to an airborne object who’s appearance hasn’t been explained yet – with no references whatsoever to “aliens” or “extra-terrestrials” – one cannot mention it without inspiring talk of little green men and massive conspiracies.
This has certainly been the reaction to a video that was recently released by the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Air Phenomena (CEFAA), the Chilean government agency responsible for investigating UFOs. Originally captured by a helicopter belonging to the Chilean navy two years ago, the release of this 10-minute video coincided with the conclusion of the Committee’s investigation into the anomaly.
Such is the procedure of the CEFAA whenever a UFO – or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) as they call them – comes to their attention. And once an investigation into the sighting is concluded, the details are released to the public. Interestingly, this particular encounter – which took place on November 11th, 2014, in the coastal region between San Antonio and Quinteros – had them stumped.
A Chilean Navy version of the Europcopter Airbus Cougar AS-532, which was being flown by the aircrew that spotted the UFO.
Credit: Wikipedia Commons/Evogol
According to their report, a Chilean navy helicopter (an Airbus Cougar AS-532, like the one pictured above) was conducting a daytime patrol when a technician aboard spotted an object flying in their airspace. The technician then directed the helicopter’s infrared camera towards it and began filming. As the CEFAA recently indicated on their website:
“At 1:52 pm, while filming the terrain, the technician observed a strange object flying to the left over the ocean. Soon both men observed it with the naked eye. They noticed that the velocity and the altitude of the object appeared to be about the same as the helicopter, and estimated that the object was approximately 35 to 40 miles (55-65 km) away. It was traveling W/NW, according to the Captain. The technician aimed the camera at the object immediately and zoomed in with the infra red (IR) for better clarity.”
Further details from the investigation revealed that the officers reported the sighting to the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC) in Santiago. The DGAC reported that no air traffic was authorized to be in the region, and that they could detect no trace of the object on their radar. They also confirmed that their attempts to communicate using the standard radio frequencies (which the helicopter crew had also attempted) yielded no response.
What was even more strange was the way the object appeared as two “hot spots”, which looked to be connected. In addition, on two occasions, the object threw off some kind of trail before finally disappearing into the clouds. According to the technician who filmed it, the plume of material appeared to be very hot, which was indicated from the footage that showed how the stream glowed bright in the infrared band.
The route of the helicopter, based on the displayed geographic coordinates displayed on the camera.
Credit: CEFAA
Much like the object itself, the CEFAA investigation was hard-pressed to explain the appearance of these hot plumes:
“Some analysts have suggested the hypothesis that it is a medium-sized line aircraft and that the stelae of the detachable element may be the reserve water inside the apparatus, thrown by the crew. However, meteorology asserts that neither the altitude at which the object moved, nor the ambient temperature of that moment, allowed such a wake of condensation.”
After the encounter, the Chilean Navy submitted the footage to the CEFAA, which has spent the past two years looking into it. However, their investigation proved inconclusive. As General Ricardo Bermúdez, Director of CEFAA during the investigation, told Leslie Kean of the Huffington Post, “We do not know what it was, but we do know what it was not.”
In essence, they ruled that the anomalous object could not have been a military or civilian aircraft. They also ruled out the possibility that the clouds it emitted were caused by the expulsion of waste water, and that the object was too low to emit contrails. In the end, the CEFAA cataloged this object as an UAP, which is standard practice whenever a particular sighting merits that designation.
Image captured from the footage shot by the Chilean Navy helicopter, showing the thermal trail cast by the object, and its two bright spots.
Credit: CEFAA
However, since the video went public, one UFO hoax-buster has come forward with what he believes to be a sound explanation for the sighting. According to Mick West, an administrator at Metabunk.org – a website dedicated to debunking unscientific theories – what was seen in the video was actually the result a four-engine airplane leaving flying out of Santiago and leaving aerodynamic contrails in its wake.
Using online flight records, West tracked down two flights that were in the same airspace at the time – LA330 (from Santiago to La Serena) and IB6830 (from Santiago to Madrid). After examining the flights GPS data and conducting a 3D analysis, West concluded that the four-engine IB6830 was the likeliest culprit. The thermal plumes were engine exhaust, and its failure to show up on radar was because the radar operators were looking in the wrong place.
As West explained in his write-up about the incident:
“At the time this was spotted (the very first sighting on the video, at 13:52:34) IB6830 was actually around 35 miles away. However it would very quickly get further away. By 13:57 IB6830 would be 65 miles away. This explain why it was not seen on radar (IB6830 was on radar, just not where they thought it was).”
Image captured from the video showing two connected white circular lights, or “hot spots”. “Envoltura” means “envelope”, refers to the glow surrounding the two spots.
Credit: CEFAA
In addition to being in exactly the right position (according to West), aerodynamic contrails explains the thermal flare and the two “thermal spotlights” on the object itself (see image above). Basically, the pilots were looking at the plane’s engine glow, which was caused by its two engines on either side of the fuselage glowing hot and giving the appearance of two connected hot spots.
As the plane climbed, its engine exhaust created hot trails that looked like plumes when viewed through an IR camera. Given the fact that the plane was at a higher altitude than originally reported, the presence of contrails would therefore be a possibility, which is something the CEFAA had ruled because the object was believed to be too close to the ground for those to form.
As William of Ockham famously said, “Among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected.” In this case, it would seem that West’s hypothesis accounts for all the knowns and unknowns in this case, and is therefore the correct one. In the coming weeks and months, the Chilean government may choose to revisit their ruling and reconsider designating this a UAP.
But in the meantime, UFO enthusiasts are likely to interpret this however they want. And many (not all) may indeed see this video as further confirmation that extra-terrestrials are already among us!
Cue the theme music from X-Files! And be sure to watch West’s video explaining his conclusions:
Deep Underground Bases: Military Experiments & UFO Technology
In this fascinating episode Dark Journalist Daniel Liszt interviews Underground Bases Expert Dr. Richard Sauder about his landmark book on the subject of secret underground bases: Hidden in Plain Sight.
Sauder details his decade long research effort to sift through declassified documents and speak with former inside government whistleblowers about their knowledge of these hidden installations. What he discovered in his cutting-edge research will blow your mind with the reality that there is an extensive world that's been built underground of a massive, experimental scientific and military infrastructure designed for deep covert operations. With no public oversight, no budget limits and zero media exposure, these massive facilities exist as an entirely secret world operated by the most covert operators in the Deep State.
UFOs & The Breakaway National Security State The development of deep underground bases goes far back into human history, but more recently got an amazing boost from the advent of two World Wars and the decades of the paranoid Cold War in the 20th century. The early Nazi obsession with developing wonder weapons underground and hiding their industrial base miles beneath the surface gives us a glimpse into the strategic importance of this strategy.
The National Security State Black Budget The US National Security State dedicated massive black budget resources to the development of a sprawling network of secret underground command and control bases ostensibly for the survival of humanity in a doomsday scenario and to set up Continuity of Government operations in the event of a Nuclear War. Beyond this surface explanation there are fascinating reports of massive underground facilities designed specifically to test advanced and exotic UFO Technology obtained by crash retrieval teams with a secrecy ranking that is higher than those set for nuclear classification. This development of this reverse-engineered ET technology may be largely responsible for the massive secrecy surrounding the activities of this global network of deep underground bases.
Controversial, chilling and potentially explosive, don't miss part 1 of this fascinating Dark Journalist episode!
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ANCIENT ALIENS – MAYAN PROPHECIES AND CROP CIRCLES – THE SUMERIAN CONNECTION
ANCIENT ALIENS – MAYAN PROPHECIES AND CROP CIRCLES – THE SUMERIAN CONNECTION
Published on Jan 13, 2017
THREE TIME AWARD WINNER - International UFO Congress EBE Awards, Best Documentary, Best Historical Documentary and Peoples Choice Award. Discover the stunning connection between the Crop Circles and Mayan Prophecies that go back thousands of years.
Scholars and researchers have discovered an extraordinary connection between rare ancient 6000 year old Sumerian symbols, ancient symbols from the mysterious Mayan calendar, and a group of amazing signs and symbols found among crop circle formations believed to be extraterrestrial in origin, that are now appearing in the farmlands of the English countryside. What are these symbols collectively trying to say? Scientists believe that we are looking at a great symbolic message system, covering vast distances of historical time and space. However only now with the aid of advanced code breaking technology and the hard work of brilliant researchers, we have been able to connect the dots of antiquity, further unlocking a detailed set of messages that fortell a great prophecy about the future of our planet and confirmation of humanities extraterrestrial origins.
Now on Digital and DVD. Cat. #U690. Go to http://www.UFOTV.com. Find us on iTUNES, AmazonPrime and UFOTV® on ROKU. Keyword (UFOTV)
Nearing a tipping point, artificial intelligence research today could unleash a world of morally ambiguous issues in the future.
We’ve all encountered artificial intelligence on the internet. Those AI programs are bots that are designed to mimic human behavior and make you feel more at ease with your decisions. As the programs became more advanced, it was shown that they could in fact influence your behavior. Artificial intelligence research today is nearing a tipping point that could unleash a world of morally ambiguous issues.
The Twitter war you had with that liberal pig or conservative nut job that never seemed to end. It never would end because you were likely speaking with a program whose sole purpose was to be defiantly defensive of its position forever. While you were smashing away on your keyboard in fits of existential rage, the likely cloud based software wasn't even getting a chuckle. The artificial intelligence used in these bots is simplistic in its directive, but can be extremely effective.
AI Twitter Bots
A study that was completed before the 2016 presidential election found that nearly 15 percent of the studied Twitter population were in fact bots. They are used by indeterminable, malevolent sources to build on each other and focus the conversation in a more desirable direction. Bots produced almost 20 percent of the conversation and the impact that may have had on the election is staggering. The study shows that both sides of the political landscape used bots to support their agenda. While these bots cannot yet directly impact policy, or vote for that matter, their impact on society cannot be ignored.
Propaganda has been used by governments since their conception in order to manipulate and control the proletariat. All means of communication have been used to rally support for whatever causes the government, monarchy, or dictator thought was prevalent. These bots are particularly effective, however, because of their ability to target specific demographics. The artificial intelligence analyzes all of the human intelligence we so willingly provide, to adjust the strategy it uses that has the highest probability of having the preferred result. The result being that one person in one battleground state changes their opinion, and the ripple effect that could influence the outcome of the most conflicted election in recent memory.
Artificial Intelligence Personality
With the artificial intelligence of bots and similar programs increasing at an alarming rate, the question might be, how good are they really at judging human personality? A Stanford study found that computers can judge personality traits better than people close to you. The computer used Facebook likes to match the subjects own scores of the five basic personality dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
The Uncanny Valley (UV) hypothesis posits that the degree of human likeness of an agent has a complex relationship to the reaction of the humans to the agent. So, as artificial intelligence is better able to judge our personalities, the bots that we interact with on a daily basis will be better at manipulating us into behaving in a way that their programmer wants.
The internet is being catalogued all the time, partly by companies storing their user info, and also by our own hands when we store our information in cloud based software. A bot that has access to information about every click you make and word you type could direct you ever more accurately to the page that it wants you to see, and in a way that most affects your subconscious. If you are skeptical of this, think about the cereal you eat, the car you drive, and the phone you are likely reading this on. The advertisers know their audience and they directed their ads at you to subtly angle you toward their products. Think of that effect, times the 200 plus Facebook likes that each user, on average, makes.
AI Vetting Politicians
There has not been much empirical research regarding the personality traits of politicians. When given the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), along with some clergy and librarians, the politicians scored the highest in total narcissism. Without statistical significance this study is merely a suggestion, but one that few psychoanalysts would likely disagree with. That relentless self assurance is used to convince the American people that they are the best person for the job. It is inherently a destructive personality trait that all too often results in implosion. Artificial intelligence could be used in the vetting of presidential candidates. It could use all of their personal social media presence and any factual data imputed to decide if they are statistically fit for public office. In theory, proper testing of individuals in power could keep populations from making bad choices.
Military Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly present in future plans. When armed with advanced weaponry and an upgraded AI, a drone that could be bought on Amazon becomes a deadly weapon. The Pentagon is spending billions to develop autonomous and semi autonomous weapons. One example is a missile that can decide its own target with pinpoint accuracy. It can go through a crowded room and kill only whom it has decided is the target. The fear, of course, is that the more autonomy we give these machines, the more chance we are taking that they drift from their core directives and kill an unintended target. This is something that has been explored in science-fiction for some time and is now reality. The Aegis warships can fire defensive missiles without human order. Israel and South Korea both have AI defense systems that are capable of killing targets a mile out. The letter presented by the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence said it best. Members include Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, and Steve Wozniak.
"Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployments of such systems is practically if not legally feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high: autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder, and nuclear arms."
The US Army is developing robots that can navigate an environment when given a voice command. They are meant to act as teammates with the soldiers, and to keep human lives out of danger as much as possible. The robots all have memory, gathered and stored in a central unit. Cognition will come about once the algorithms for perception and long term memory are perfected. The Army's own website states that they are using psychological theory to augment the robots in areas such as learning and memory. The US Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED) are attempting to mimic the way humans use memories to problem solve and develop those methods into algorithms for an autonomous system. This isn't just happening in the US. The Japanese are attempting to humanize robots. Humans react less harshly to robots that resemble humans. Japanese engineers aren't as focused on military use but they have developed very sophisticated robots that are able to accomplish human-like tasks. Artificial intelligence isn't inherently inimical to mortal life, it is the purpose humans give AI that creates the danger.
Technological Singularity
The technological singularity (or just singularity) is the hypotheses that the invention of artificial super intelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization. This really isn't hypothetical as the current math correlated to pace of technology creates a very clear path to incredible exponential growth.
By 2045 a computer with artificial intelligence will improve itself to the point of becoming a super intelligence and initiate a new era. This is becoming less science fiction and more science inevitability. Moore's Law is named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore. The law originally stated that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double every year since their invention. When these limitations are inevitably overcome, computers will have the processing ability more akin to the human brain which is approximately 10,000 trillion cycles per second. Engineer Peter Diamandis believes that by the year 2025, we will have a $1,000 dollar computer that can process at the speed of human brain.
Zoltan Istvan, a transhumanism activist, believes the eventual problem is, when the machine realizes it can do anything and grow in terms of speed, capacity, and memory, it might learn to deceive us very quickly as well.
Medical Artificial Intelligence
There is another side to artificial intelligence that could mean great things for quality of life. Medicine has made fantastic advancements in the last 100 years. The medical community is divided regarding the use of AI in hospital systems. The Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has a research program called AIM (Artificial Intelligence in Medicine) that is working to apply AI techniques to increase our understanding of the body. AI systems can work objectively and without variability. The AIM algorithms are used to take the raw digital data and make images of parts that the surgeon wouldn't be able to see. It takes images and can evaluate them and offer objective information to the physician. Lastly, it can also adjust itself when new information is given. This update aspect is important because it can detect minor changes that may have otherwise been missed.
Artificial Intelligence and the Government
The government has acknowledged the influence of artificial intelligence. President Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative and the Cancer Moonshot will rely on artificial intelligence to find data to help in diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. In 2016 the Federal government created the National Science and Technology Council sub-committee on machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. It is designed to monitor the advances in AI but also coordinate how to use the science in government services more effectively. It is a challenge for any breakthrough in medicine to be deployed and become commonplace. There isn't an efficient system for new algorithms to be included in hospital systems. Hospitals tend to prioritize the money and if an algorithm won't greatly increase revenue, they are less likely to apply it.
Japan is also applying 10 billion yen to the science ministry. There is a focus there in the medical industry, diagnosing of symptoms and finding optimal treatments. Imagine a world where machines could analyze themselves and either fix what is wrong, or alert someone before it breaks completely. We can avoid having entire systems down in a crisis. Twenty firms and research institutions in Japan, including Toyota, NEC, and the government itself, are backing the RIKEN research Institute. Many of these groups believe that we are within striking distance of the tipping point and that AI itself is now not only inevitable but may be the only solution to the chaos that will inevitably follow its own birth.
Riding the wave of popular enthusiasm for 'Star Wars' and the Marvel universe, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has found renewed interest and funding.
Irrespective of Hollywood's perspective on the implications of alien contact, the dialogues that would inevitably follow an actual encounter are enormous, almost too staggering to conceive. Imagine the questions we could ask a visiting extraterrestrial: Do you have a cure for cancer? Is there life after death? Are the physical laws in your part of the universe the same as in ours? Is there a way to overcome the burden of gravity, prolong youth, exceed the speed of light...? Think of the things we could learn, among them, as Carl Sagan put it, how "possibly to avoid the dangers of the period of technological adolescence we are now passing through."
SETI
Yet despite the obvious benefits to be reaped from such contact, there exists a vociferous group that appears to oppose any and all efforts to make it. Riding the wave of popular enthusiasm for Star Wars and the Marvel universe, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has found renewed interest and funding. Its detractors have argued that after untold sums of money and over half a century, there has been not a single piece of credible evidence that their exists life outside of our universe.
Vintage OMNI: The Future of Space Travel
Much to the skeptical late Senator Proxmire's disappointment, NASA joined in SETI efforts at a low-level in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Some of these SETI-related efforts included Project Orion, the Microwave Observing Project, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, and Toward Other Planetary Systems. On Columbus Day in 1992, NASA initiated a formal, more intensive, SETI program. Less than a year later, however, congress canceled the program. For nearly two decades, SETI was secondary to the search for new technology and ideas here on Earth, in the dawn of the digital age.
Throughout the 1970s, SETI projects were not the only imaginative opportunities to be fleeced by then Senator Edward William "Bill" Proxmire. Funds for the Solar-Polar Orbiter, a spacecraft designed to fly over the poles of the sun, were cut as were funds slated to outfit the Enterprise, the test space shuttle. As one vintage writer put it, the cuts left "barely enough to keep the Enterprise from being cannibalized for spare parts." Similarly, Proxmire vigorously opposed the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous on the grounds that the Russians were somehow inferior to us in aerospace. This has been debunked, as evidence now shows that the space race was actually quite close. The senator seemed blind to the fact that the Russians were there first with Sputnik and that the Soviets were regularly sending men into space before Neil Armstrong.
The arguments behind this depreciation of a government sponsored space program are simple: the program itself is too expensive, we get too little for the money spent, and, besides, it could be better deployed on such things as poverty, education, and national infrastructure spends. This has led to a migration of brain power to the private sector and what is becoming the privatization of space
Neil Armstrong
Ironically, we got a great deal for the money we spent on the 20th century race for space and listening for aliens. The development of communications satellites alone, an advance that has done more for human understanding than all the social welfare projects funded to date, would seem worth the cost. Moreover, who can put a dollar value on the tremendous uplifting of the human spirit that occurred on July 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon, setting the tone for America's world leadership? In a time where we have serious deficits in our world leadership, fragile economies and very little that unites us globally, SETI remains rare exception. There is still a vast unknown that may be the answer to the human condition.
Finally, it is foolish to think that money cut from space programs will actually be used to better the quality of life here on earth. Lumped under the general category of "defense," more than 60 percent of the federal budget for research and development, for example, still goes to the creation of newer and more sophisticated means of destruction. We may have ended the space race, but we never stopped the arms race.
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UFOs: The Stiff Reality of a Flexible Phenomenon
UFOs: The Stiff Reality of a Flexible Phenomenon
by RYAN SPRAGUE
When facing the UFO phenomenon head on, the most problematic question one may ask is actually the most simple: Are UFOs real?
The answer is yes. The answer is always yes. In fact, it’s literally right there in the letters; UFO. It is, in essence, an object in flight that is unidentified. Perhaps the most common place definition comes from the late astronomer, J. Allen Hynek. In his book, 'The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry', Hynek dryly yet appropriately describes a UFO as being:
“… the reported perception of an object or light seen in the sky or upon the land. The appearance, trajectory, and general dynamic and luminescent behavior of which do not suggest a logical, conventional explanation and which is not only mystifying to the original percipients but remains unidentified after close scrutiny of all available evidence by persons who are technically capable of making a common sense identification, if one is possible.”
It doesn’t get much more self-explanatory than that. But where did this painfully obvious term stem from? And why, throughout the past sixty years or so, has it become not so obvious? The acronym was coined by Captain Edward Ruppelt, who in 1953, led the official investigation into aerial phenomena through the channels of the U.S. Air Force. To further the public from any notion that these objects were extraterrestrial, Ruppelt , serving as a catch-all for the mysterious objects appearing, flying, and sometimes floating through the skies. The acronym stuck, remaining the go-to letters for almost every media outlet known to man.
Thousands and thousands of declassified documents by intelligence agencies around the world can be found in reference to UFOs. These documents boast reports from the simply mundane misidentifications and natural phenomena, to the most intriguing and perplexing, begging more questions on just exactly what these UFOs are and are not. Here, in the United States, we left it up to the military to investigate what could potentially be a threat to our own safety on the hard ground below and the cushioned security of our skies above. Let’s take a look at how it all began.
The Official Study of the Phenomenon Begins… and Ends
The U.S. Air Force first attempted to decipher the enigmatic code behind these aerial phenomena back in 1947 with Project Sign. As the project’s personnel compiled case after case of sightings, they argued that what they seemed to be dealing with was, in fact something of extraterrestrial intelligence. However, this notion was quickly swept under the rug, and replaced in 1949 by Project Grudge. Headed by aeronautical engineer, Edward J Ruppelt, Project Grudge was in essence, a continuation of looking into these phenomena with a much more objective eye, dismantling the possibility that UFO activity was caused by anything but natural and/or manmade anomalies and intervention.
The study of UFOs continued in its final iteration, Project Blue Book, in 1952 with chief investigator, Hector Quintanilla. This was the longest, and most publicized Air Force study which compiled over 12,000 reports of sightings in the western world alone. Project Blue Book continued until 1968, when the Air Force-funded Condon Committee was created to draft a final report on their findings.
Physicist, Edward U. Condon, and an investigative group out of the University of Colorado, used files from Project Blue Book and several independent UFO research organizations to determine that, first and foremost, UFOs caused no threat to national security. They also concluded that there was absolutely no scientific evidence proving that UFOs were extraterrestrial in origin. And with that, the official American study of the phenomenon came to a whimpering end. But that didn’t stop certain members of these projects from looking further into the phenomenon and case reports.
Civilian Research Organizations
Many individuals within the government were involved in the study of UFOs. Most notably of these individuals was none other than the aforementioned J. Allen Hynek. Hynek, having been a lead investigator all throughout Project Grudge and Project Blue Book, was first hired to explain away each and every UFO report as natural or manmade phenomena. But after seeing Blue Book out until the very end, he simply couldn’t accept that that was a conventional explanation for every sighting or incident. His skeptical view slowly tilted to a more open-minded approach, favoring the idea that some of the UFOs being seen could, in fact, be of an extraterrestrial or non-human intelligence. And in 1973, he would found the Chicago-based Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). This organization consisted of many credible scientists and researchers who evaluated UFO reports in a careful and thorough way. To this day, a large archive of the work done by Hynek and CUFOS can be found through various online outlets and through the publication of Hynek’s definitive book, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry.
While many other organizations came and went, perhaps the most visible and well known would have to be the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). Originally founded by Walt Andrus, a technology manager and educator, and John Schuessler, a retired aerospace engineer, the two would invite many of their colleagues to join the organization, such as notable nuclear physicist, Stanton Friedman and optical physicist, Dr. Bruce Maccabee. Using their technical and analytical skills in many different arenas throughout the years, MUFON now boasts chapters in every single state, investigating cases of aerial phenomena, close encounters, and in its most modern iteration, even supposed alien abduction cases. Investigators bring their reports and data to the state directors who then follow up on many of the cases with an objective and critical approach. MUFON remains active today, hosting several large conferences throughout the year and an annual journal of case reports.
Unlike the investigative organizations above, there is another ambitious undertaking that consists of compilation of UFO reports by the public. The National UFO Reporting Center, (NUFORC) founded in 1974 by Robert J. Gribble, the center has catalogued a staggering 90,000 reports in its history. Aside from its cataloguing endeavors, the center also provides regional statistics to assist specific geographical needs of those who seek information about local sightings and reports. The center remains active as this book is being published, having been taken over in 1994 by Peter Davenport, a former MUFON member, and professor of genetics and biochemistry. Davenport sing-handily runs the center from his home, and updates case reports on a weekly basis.
While many other civilian organizations have come and gone, the challenge for each seemed to be that of funding. Each organization held highly esteemed scientists and every facet, yet very little money had ever been set into place to provide any substantial sustainability. This is something the scientific community, UFOs aside, have always wrestled with. How does one fund their research when theory is their only means in which to progress? Perhaps this may be why scientific study into the UFO phenomenon lay deep on the fringe, splintering off into the above organizations in all their ambitious efforts. Perhaps by looking closer at the relationship between mainstream science and the UFO phenomenon, we can begin to narrow in on the phenomenon’s deeply embedded, and often ridiculed reputation.
Mainstream Science and UFOs
After the sobering determination made by the Condon Committee’s report, all hope of a possible intelligent extraterrestrial presence seemed to dissipate. But a small shred of debate by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) cracked open the possibility that the scientific community wasn’t completely against the notion of a possible alien phenomenon. In response to the Condon Report, the AIAA noted that at least thirty percent of cases studied remained unexplained by conventional and natural sciences, and that scientific benefit could still be gained by furthering the study of the phenomenon.
Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine and contributor to Scientific American, once stated that:
“In all fields of science there is a residue of anomalies unexplained by the dominant theory. That does not mean the prevailing theory is wrong or that alternative theories are right. It just means that more work needs to be done to bring those anomalies into the accepted paradigm. In the meantime, it is okay to live with the uncertainty that not everything has an explanation.”
While Shermer accepts living in this uncertainty, many scientists keep the current paradigm in a stagnant purgatory, not only by ignoring the UFO phenomenon entirely but refusing to even acknowledge the potential of such technologies and how they could ultimately benefit both science and on a greater scale, humanity. But the dark cloud looking above has always been that of pure ridicule, a festering specter whispering in the collective scientific ear that UFOs are simply bunk, and not worth the time, talents, or intelligence of some of the greatest thinkers in history. In a field where thought reigns supreme, and reputations hang on the threads of governmental influence, far-out theories on exotic aircraft of potentially non-human intelligence could completely overshadow even the most influential of scientists and the contributions they have made to their respective fields. But there are those who are willing to put their thoughts in the face of ridicule and speak publicly about such fringe topics, and are willing to call others out for their woeful ignorance to the topic in general.
Of those who reject it right out, “They’re wrong, naive, stubborn, narrow-minded, afraid and fearful,” says Eric Davis, an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics award winning- propulsion physicist at the Institute of Advanced Studies. In an interview with Lee Spiegel of the Huffington Post, Davis would elaborate: “It’s a dirty word (UFOs) and a forbidden topic. Science is about open-minded inquiry. You shouldn’t be laughing people off. You should show more deference and respect to them. Scientists need to get back to using the scientific method to study things that are unknown and unusual, and the UFO subject is one of them.”
While such accusations can seem generalized, Davis also admits that there are many scientists who do study the phenomenon, if even from the peripheral. “There are those who are aware of the evidence and observational data that is irrefutable. It is absolutely corroborated, using forensic techniques and methodology. But they won’t come out and publicize that because they fear it. Not the subject, but the backlash from their professional colleagues.”
Davis goes on to admit that this topic isn’t just meant to be studied by the scientific community. “It’s the domain of military intelligence,” he suggests. “The fact that [unknown] craft are flying around Earth is not a subject for science, it’s a subject for intelligence-gathering, collection and analysis. That’s because UFOs are not a natural phenomenon, and that’s what science studies.”
Whatever these UFOs may or may not be, they seem to defy most conventional propulsion theories that we readily know of here on our planet. But therein lay the limitations scientific methodology. For instance, why do UFOs, making the most dramatic and unconventional maneuvers, need to be piloted by some sort of biological entity? Why is this the reason that some scientists dismiss the objects being piloted craft whose said pilots could not conceivably survive such speeds, velocity, or maneuvers? We send hundreds of unmanned spacecraft out into the heavens constantly for this very reason. What if the objects we witness, racing, floating, and suddenly appearing and disappearing in our skies are nothing more than highly advance drones from somewhere off-planet? Perhaps it could be best summarized by theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku. He once remarked:
“Some scientists have scoffed at UFOs because they don’t fit any of the gigantic propulsion designs being considered by engineers today, such as ramjet fusion engines, huge laser-powered sails and nuclear pulsed engines, which might be miles across. But UFOs can be as small as a jet airplane, and can refuel from a nearby moon base. So sightings may correspond to unmanned reconnaissance ships.”
So if we are dealing with potential craft (some being unmanned perhaps, some not) entering our atmosphere from space, who better to carry the proverbial weight of UFO observation and possible investigation than those who study celestial bodies and space itself? With the most powerful telescopes observing objects of great distance, and individuals with vast knowledge of what could potentially lay within and beyond earth’s atmosphere, it would be more than appropriate for astronomers to play a large role in the search for truth behind these elusive anomalies.
In 2010, a barrage of UFO sightings saturated the headlines of Chinese newspapers, reports coming in almost on a daily basis. As strange lights and solid objects plagued the skies of China, local airports were temporarily shut down until the objects could no longer be observed as a potential threat for landings and takeoff. Clearly, this was turning into more than just a simple misidentification by civilians.
Planetary astronomer, Wang Sichao, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, investigated many of these sightings throughout the years, taking a keen interest in the phenomenon as it hit closer and closer to home at the Purple Mountain Observatory where he worked. In at interview with the Beijing Review, Sichao would comment on the UFO reports as “events of credible facts backed by observation. But these facts cannot yet be explained by existing scientific knowledge or natural phenomena.” And while Sichao took on the bulk of UFO sightings in China for self interest and curiosity, he would go on to explain why astronomers are not primarily in the business of searching for or investigating UFO reports: “The reason is that a UFO only appears randomly and often disappears rapidly in a few minutes,” he would continue. “By the time large professional telescopes are started up, it has already disappeared. So, we can only rely on information from occasional sightings or encounters by observers.”
In his book, The UFO Phenomenon: Should I Believe?, author and scientist, Dr. Robert Davis points out that:
“Evidence within Ufology is largely based on such anecdotal claims, it is very difficult to build testable hypotheses to either reject or confirm through a validation process, such as, testing predictions against observations to confirm a hypothesis…. ufology would greatly benefit from collaborative research efforts with the scientific community, but instead, have often alienated (no pun intended) them.”
It would seem that with the amount of dedicated scientists connected to the study of UFOs in its sordid independent organizational past, that rigorous scientific method and mainstream acceptance would gradually become inevitable. But with such a complex and frustrating phenomenon taunting us from the corner, it just doesn’t seem to be moving as swiftly as we may have hoped it would. To further the point that science and UFO studies are not exactly in synch, Richard Hall, assistant director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) once stated: “Although the ranks of Ufology contain the seeds of science, it should not now pretend to be a science, but a popular movement advocating scientific investigation. It should (and could) clarify and present the factual evidence in a manner designed to encourage a true scientific investigation, which would make use of all the techniques and facilities available to science today.”
The Journey Begins
So while we seem to have varying opinions on a governmental, scientific, and civilian level, one factor remains constant: UFOs are on the mind of individuals in every walk of life, from the simple observer on the side of the road, to the most forward-thinking (and sometimes skeptical) scientists of yesterday and today. So again, we are faced with many dilemmas of how to move forward. These phenomena are far more complex than a singular non-human intelligence pulling the proverbial strings of mystery. A fellow colleague of mine, author and researcher, Micah Hanks, suggested the following in his book, The UFO Singularity:
“The mere proof of official interest in the UFO presence throughout the years cannot by itself make concrete the existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, nor can it prove that any single phenomenon can be attributed solely to the identity of the kinds of unidentifiable aircraft in our skies…probing even deeper into the mystery, there could yet be stranger solutions to the enigma that exists somewhere in our midst.”
Conclusions
While we continue to search for these strange answers in our midst, we also continue to question the approaches we take in that search. Whether it be from the anecdotal evidence of eyewitnesses or the analytical eye of scientists throughout the world, the phenomenon remains as elusive as ever. So in all its enigmatic glory, all we can truly do is continue to search somewhere in the skies for the answers we seek, and the questions we crave. Will we be satisfied with the answers science eventually gives us? Or will we deny it, leading us back down the path of the illogical and immeasurable? Only time will truly tell. And in that telling, we can be certain of one thing: the UFO phenomenon isn’t going to ever leave us. In fact, it seems that it has only begun its invasion on our curious, and ever-expanding minds.
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Ryan Sprague is the author of 'Somewhere in the Skies: A Human Approach to an Alien Phenomenon' (Available on Amazon). He's written for Open Minds Magazine, Phenomena Magazine, and UFO Truth Magazine. Speaking on the UFO topic, he has been featured on ABC News, Fox News, and The Science Channel. He is a regular on the Travel Channel's 'Mysteries at the Museum'. When not writing, he is the co-host for both the 'Into the Fray' & 'UFOmodPOD' podcasts, available on iTunes. Learn more at www.somewhereintheskies.com
Drones that can fly and steer themselves show promise for tasks such as carrying urgent medical supplies or making farming more efficient. But to be truly independent, they also need to launch, land, and take care of themselves on the ground without human help.
Airmada is working on drones that act as autonomous security guards to watch over industrial facilities. Its robotic ground station stores a drone until it is needed, and then opens up and folds out a launchpad so it can take off.
Airmada says that its drones—and its boxes—could be stationed around sites such as warehouses and work yards so companies can easily perform remote security patrols or respond more quickly when an alarm is tripped. When a drone is needed, it would pop out of its box, fly to the place in question, and stream back video to security staff over the Internet.
After a drone completes its mission, it lands back on its launchpad and folds back inside its box. A mechanism inside can swap out the drone’s battery and recharge it.
Dan Danay, Airmada’s cofounder and CEO, hopes to see his first drones and ground stations deployed by customers this year. His company is focused on the security market, but Danay predicts that systems that allow drones to launch, land, and recharge on their own will be needed to make other applications, such as package delivery, practical and cheap at large scale.
“Commercial drones have a lot of potential in many industries, but as long as you have to have a human operate on the site, you’re very limited,” he says. “One of the main benefits of drones is being able to do things without a lot of human labor.”
Video shows fighter jets launch swarm of tiny drones
Video shows fighter jets launch swarm of tiny drones
A stunning video released by the Department of Defense shows a swarm of micro-drones being released by fighter jets.
The demonstration of the Perdix micro-UAV swarm was held at China Lake, Calif. on Oct. 26, 2016. Three F/A-18's were deployed to launch the swarm of tiny drones, according to the Department of Defense.
The drones, which have a wingspan of 12 inches, can operate autonomously and share a distributed brain, the BBC reports, and could be used for surveillance.
In the Department of Defense video, the drones can also be seen flying through the air like a swarm of high-tech bees.
The U.S. military is keen to harness the power and versatility of microdrones. The U.S. Navy, for example, has already demonstrated its Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST), which aims to deploy swarms of compact drones.
Another goal of the U.S. military is to develop flying ‘aircraft carriers’ to deploy drones
Could dark streaks in Venus' clouds be signs of alien life?
Could dark streaks in Venus' clouds be signs of alien life?
By Keith Cooper, Astrobiology Magazine
An artist's impression of the uncrewed Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform (VAMP) flying through Venus' clouds.
(Northrop Grumman)
The question of life on Venus , of all places, is intriguing enough that a team of U.S. and Russian scientists working on a proposal for a new mission to the second planet — named Venera-D — are considering including the search for life in its mission goals.
If all goes as planned, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) could one day be cruising the thick, sulfuric-acid clouds of Venus to help determine whether dark streaks that appear to absorb ultraviolet radiation could be evidence of microbial life.
Venus has long been a focus of Russian planetary science, which has the proud legacy of the record-breaking Venera space probes that landed on the Venusian surface in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [Mysterious Venus: 10 Weird Facts]
With many questions remaining unanswered, the joint mission of Roscosmos and NASA, if approved, would see an orbiter launch toward Venus in 2025 with the aim to make remote-sensing observations of the planet and its atmosphere; deploy a lander on the surface; and search for future landing sites.
Among several possible additions to the mission are a small sub-orbiter to study Venus' magnetosphere, and either a balloon or an UAV taking measurements of the atmosphere over a long duration.
Should the UAV be approved, its main goal would be to take meteorological measurements to determine why the atmosphere rotates so fast relative to the surface, a phenomenon known as super-rotation . This fast rotation was discovered in the 1960s by astronomers tracking the motion of the dark streaks in the atmosphere. Puzzlingly, astronomers do not know the origin and composition of these dark streaks, nor do they understand why the streaks haven't mixed with the rest of the atmosphere and why they are absorbing ultraviolet light.
"These are questions that haven't been fully explored yet, and I'm shouting as loud as I can, saying that we need to explore them," said Sanjay Limaye, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a former chair of NASA's Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG).
According to Limaye, the nature of the UV absorber is completely unknown. It could be particulate matter mixed into the clouds, or a substance that has been dissolved by the droplets of sulfuric acid, or it may be crystalline in nature, like ice. Iron chloride has been proposed, but there is no confirmed mechanism that could loft particles of iron chloride 31 to 37 miles (50 to 60 kilometers) above the surface, particularly as winds near the surface only blow weakly through the dense lower atmosphere.
Life in the clouds?
A more exciting explanation for the dark streaks is that they are evidence of microbial life . "It's a possibility we can't overlook," said Limaye, who is a member of the Venera-D science definition team.
Finding life at high altitude in the atmosphere of a planet would make sense. After all, microbes have been found at similar heights in Earth's atmosphere. The challenge for life on Venus is the planet's extreme temperature. The surface, at 864 degrees Fahrenheit, is hot enough to melt lead, and the surface pressure of 92 bar is the equivalent of being almost 0.6 miles under water.
However, in a region beginning around 31 miles in altitude and extending 7.5 miles outward is a sweet spot where the temperature ranges between 86 degrees F and 158 degrees F, and the pressure is similar to that on Earth's surface. Life could potentially survive in this zone where the dark-streaking UV absorber is found.
Intriguingly, the sulfuric acid droplets within the clouds aren't necessarily a show-stopper to life. Earlier Venera missions detected elongated particles in the lower cloud layer that are about 1 micron long, about the width of a small bacterium. These particles could be coated in ring-shaped polymers of eight sulfur atoms, called S8 molecules, which are known to exist in Venus' clouds and which are impervious to the corrosive effects of sulfuric acid, researchers said. [5 Bold Claims of Alien Life]
Furthermore, S8 absorbs ultraviolet light, re-radiating it in visible wavelengths. If the particles are microbes, they could have coated themselves in S8, making them resistant to the corrosive effects of sulfuric acid. It has even been postulated that the S8 exists as a result of microbial activity. Is this then the key to life on Venus?
"I cannot say that there is microbial life in Venus' clouds ," Limaye said. "But that doesn't mean it's not there, either. The only way to learn is to go there and sample the atmosphere."
Powered flight
The original Russian plan for Venera-D featured balloons patrolling the atmosphere, but balloons are not very maneuverable and would not necessarily be able to reach the regions with the dark streaks. A solar-powered UAV would stand a far better chance, according to Limaye.
"The idea is that, with a large enough wingspan, you can generate enough power and actually fly through the atmosphere of Venus, with electric propellers, for a very long time," Limaye said.
Descending hypersonically into the atmosphere after detaching from the orbiter, the UAV would be filled with hydrogen or helium gas, keeping it buoyant at a nominal floating altitude of 31 miles, allowing it to glide through the clouds while moving through the night-time hemisphere. Upon daylight, the solar-powered propellers would kick in and raise the craft's altitude to around 37 miles.
Over the course of three to four days, the craft could move around the planet along the upper atmosphere's "super-rotation," the strange phenomenon where the atmosphere seems to be uncoupled from the solid planet and rotates much faster. The UAV would therefore be able to explore the clouds at different altitudes, moving from air mass to air mass, from regions with UV absorbers to regions devoid of them, sampling and measuring the composition of the atmosphere.
The aerospace company Northrop Grumman has already independently developed a concept for a Venusian UAV, called VAMP (Venus Atmospheric Maneuverable Platform), which would have a giant 180-foot wingspan and be designed to operate in the atmosphere for at least a year.
The ‘D' in Venera-D's name stands for "dolgozhivushaya," which in Russian means "long-lived." This originally referred to the hopes of keeping a lander operational on the Venusian surface for days or weeks, although the oppressive conditions on the surface mean that realistically the most that any lander could survive is mere hours. Instead, the UAV, continually circling around Venus, would take the mantle of being long-lived.
The final report describing the science goals of the Venera-D mission will be submitted to Roscosmos and NASA by the end of January 2017, at which point the two space agencies will have to decide whether they will collaborate on the mission. An answer is not expected until late 2017 at the earliest.
Enthusiasts will be looking to the skies again next month as the 40th anniversary of UFO sightings which rocked a coastal village is celebrated.
The Swansea UFO Network is holding a Welsh Triangle 40th Anniversary Conference in Broad Haven the village where a whole class of school children saw a UFO in 1977.
On 4 February 1977, a whole class of school children from Broad Haven Primary School saw an unusual craft landed in a field next to the school as well as mysterious silver figure walking about.
Their stories were dismissed as fantasy but the children were so adamant they had seen something unusual they handed in a petition to the police station. Their head teacher later asked them to draw the UFO and was amazed at how similar their pictures were.
Randall Pugh was instrumental in bringing the story to the attention of the media and it became an overnight sensation.
The case was extensively investigated at the time and first appeared in the Western Telegraph sparking world-wide interest in what turned out to be the start of a major series of sightings in the area - dubbed 'The Welsh Triangle'.
Dubbed the “West Wales flap” of 1977, the incident was second only to the “Warminster Thing” in British UFO history.
According to documents released in 2005 a secret military investigation was launched into claims that alien craft and their tall humanoid occupants were taking a particular interest in the local coastline.
Organisers of next month’s conference are looking for witnesses to UFO sightings in south-west Wales during the 1977 'flap' to tell people what they saw and experienced.
The conference will be held at Broad Haven Village Hall, 10am to 5pm. Speakers confirmed so far include author Neil Spring (The Watchers), David L. Richards (UFO Wales) and special video link with Peter Paget, author of the Welsh Triangle and UFO-UK.
There will also be a visit to the UFO sighting location at the exact time it happened 40 years ago.
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DOZENS OF UFO'S SEEN IN 'NEW' IMAGES OF THE MOON RELEASED BY NASA
DOZENS OF UFO'S SEEN IN 'NEW' IMAGES OF THE MOON RELEASED BY NASA
ALIEN hunters have launched a major push to prove aliens DO exist by scouring through thousands of newly-released Nasa images of the Moon landings looking for extra-terrestrials.
Ever since the images were released, UFO researchers and people from around the globe searched for the tiniest mysteries hidden in the images, the result: countless UFO’s are present in the images released by NASA.
The images have created debate among skeptics and UFO believers whether or not there are certain ‘things’ on the moon which NASA has tried to keep in the dark for decades.
For decades strange 'lights' and artificial seeming structures have been observed and recorded on the Moon by amateur astronomers. Science writer Joseph Goodavage observed that over two hundred white 'dome shaped' structures had been seen and catalogued, only for them often to vanish and reappear somewhere else?. There are even colour photos from the Apollo 8 missions that clearly show evidence of green vegetation on the lunar hills.
This article (Dozens of UFO's seen in 'new' images of the Moon released by NASA) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with full attribution and a link to the original source on Disclose.tv
VIDEOTimothy Joseph Elzinga werd op 6 januari in het holst van de nacht wakker gemaakt door zijn wenend zoontje. Toen hij uit zijn badkamervenster keek, zag hij dit adembenemende natuurverschijnsel. Eerst dacht Timothy dat hij het noorderlicht zag, maar het bleek om een ander fenomeen te gaan.
"De lichtstralen deden me denken aan Star Trek of aan Close Encounters of the Third Kind", vertelt Timothy aan Mashable. Timothy woont in North Bay, Ontario, waar het kwik die nacht zakte tot -18 graden.
Het was door die vrieskou dat de zogenaamde lichtzuilen ontstonden. Door de lage temperatuur bevroren waterpartikels in de lucht zo snel dat ze amper een paar molecules dik werden. Hierdoor stegen ze niet op om in wolken te veranderen en vielen ze ook niet naar beneden als sneeuw. Ze bleven als minuscule spiegels in de lucht dwarrelen waardoor ze licht konden reflecteren.
Timothy haastte zich snel in zijn pyjama naar buiten om het fenomeen vast te leggen met zijn smartphone. Zijn verhaal en de prachtige beelden kan je bewonderen in zijn YouTube-filmpje.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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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.