Things are falling from the skies at an alarming rate. With the on coming war in space heating up nicely, nations are starting to test all sorts of space-based weapons and killer satellites presumably in order to see some rad zero-gravity explosions. Whenever things go ‘boom,’ however, they tend to leave a whole lot of debris behind and, well, we all know what happens to things that go up.

"The Indian test showcased Space Fence's capabilities in a real-world event," Col. Stephen Purdy, director of the Space Superiority System Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, said in a release. "The system was able to quickly respond to a highly dynamic situation providing critical data."

In order to protect hapless civilians from the inevitable tons of flaming satellite shrapnel falling from space, the U.S. Air Force has recently tested a new technology it’s calling “Space Fence.” The system was designed by Lockheed Martin and was able to successfully detect and track the debris field left behind when India recently blew one of their own satellites to smithereens just for kicks.

If a nation can do that to one of their own satellites, think what we can likely do to all of those other weirdos’ satellites with our space weapons.

Lockheed Martin doesn’t share too many details about the system on its official Space Fence website other than that it consists of high-frequency radar positioned in such a way as to be able to accurately track the altitudes of small pieces of space debris in real time and “permit the detection of much smaller microsatellites and debris than current systems.” According to Lockheed Martin, Space Fence will provide peaceful spacecraft with better defenses against space debris and “significantly improve the timeliness with which operators can detect space events, which could present potential threats to GPS satellites or the International Space Station.” Of course, that also means the system will be able to better track adversaries’ satellites, even tiny ones like Russia’s ‘nesting doll’ satellites which are meant to latch onto and hijack other, larger satellites.

The system’s true purpose can be gleaned from the language Lockheed and Air Force spokespersons use in the press release. Vice president and general manager of Radar and Sensor Systems for Lockheed Martin Dr. Rob Smith says in a press release that Space Fence will prove to be an invaluable asset as near-Earth orbits become increasingly crowded, enabling “warfighters” to be more aware of the space battlefield:

The criticality of space assets to both national defense and the world economy cannot be understated. As multiple new mega constellations consisting of thousands of satellites become a reality and the space domain continues to become more congested, the demand for more accurate and timely space situational awareness data will be of the utmost importance to the warfighter.

Colonel Stephen Purdy, Director of the Space Superiority Systems Directorate at the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base echoes Lockheed’s vice president, likewise saying that “Space Fence is the latest in a long line of capabilities we are collectively bringing to the warfighter as we continue to build out space capabilities for the United States.” Judging from the way Lockheed and Air Force execs describe the system, it’s clear Space Fence is a primarily military tool that will benefit civilians as a side effect. I mean, who will oversee operations of the system? Why the Space Force, of course, making it the Space Force Space Fence. Space War I is coming soon, folks.

KWAJALEIN ATOLL, Marshall Islands, May 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The U.S. Air Force Space Fence system detected the breakup field from an anti-satellite test conducted by India during a scheduled endurance exercise of the new space surveillance radar. As MICROSAT-R was expected to pass…

All this talk of protecting American spacecraft against space threats comes at a time when planetary defense seems to be getting more attention than ever from government agencies. Why the sudden focus on protecting the planet from near-Earth objects and space debris? Could an impact event be looming in our near future? A team of astronomers from University of Western Ontario thinks so, saying the risk may be higher than we currently know.

Earth’s final viral video.

In a new study accepted for publication by the Royal Astronomical Society, Earth scientist David Clark and astronomers Paul Wiegert and Peter Brown write that this summer is the perfect time to analyze the risk of the Taurid meteor swarm. The Taurid swarm is one of the most well-known groups of meteors, creating bright meteor showers every Autumn as it encounters Earth. While the large majority of these are tiny meteoroids smaller than a grain of sand, the Taurid swarm has long been suspected of hiding larger asteroids or meteors in some of its branches. 2019 is predicted to be one of the most active years for the Taurid meteor showers, possibly even creating fireballs bright enough to be observed during the day.

The swarm will come within 30,000,000 km of the Earth in a few months, enabling scientists to better predict the path of the swarm in the future. “There has been great interest in the space community since we shared our results at the recent Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, DC,” says David Clark. “There is strong meteoric and NEO evidence supporting the Taurid swarm and its potential existential risks but this summer brings a unique opportunity to observe and quantify these objects.” Could these meteors or other near-Earth objects pose a greater risk than the public is aware of? We may soon find out. Let’s hope that Space Fence works.

“On May 26, 1946, the U.S. Air Force awarded to the Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation a contract which established Fairchild as the responsible agency of the Nuclear Energy for Propulsion of Aircraft (NEPA) project. The purpose of the project was twofold: (1) to perform feasibility investigations and research leading toward the adaptation of nuclear energy to the propulsion of aircraft, and (2) to educate the aircraft engine industry in the field of nuclear science and its adaptation to aeronautical propulsion,” wrote staff based at the Oak Ridge, National Laboratory in Tennessee. The content above is extracted from a lengthier, secret document that dealt with the feasibility – or otherwise – of constructing a nuclear-powered aircraft, one that could be used in a showdown with the Soviets at the height of the Cold War. The content of the document is made particularly controversial for one specific reason.  It makes it clear that the military was thinking of using human test-subjects – such as prisoners and even cadavers – in its nuclear experimentation.

In the late summer of 1946 there was a radical shake-up in the Nuclear Energy for Propulsion of Aircraft program. The contract that Fairchild had with the military did not live up to its expectations and was placed into the hands of General Electric, who insisted that the operations be carried out not at Oak Ridge, but at GE’s plant in Ohio. More than a few Fairchild staff jumped ship and joined the new version of NEPA. Others, however, stayed at Oak Ridge, which – despite the severing of ties with Fairchild – had already made plans for a new project: the Aircraft Nuclear Program, ANP.

The biggest challenges that faced both NEPA and the ANP were the scientific and technological issues surrounding the development, construction, and deployment of nuclear-powered aircraft into the skies of our world. Could the crew be affected by very close proximity to a nuclear power-source? There were other challenges, too, and chiefly economic ones: Congress balked and frowned upon the ever-escalating costs, and particularly in light of the fact that missiles and supersonic planes were already demonstrating their significant worth. So, thought Congress, why are we even giving consideration to extremely costly, and potentially hazardous, nuclear aircraft? Congress’ question was a fair and understandable one – to the extent that, not even one year into his presidency, President John F. Kennedy finally had the research programs into nuclear-powered aircraft shut down.

Although official, and extensive, research into nuke planes went ahead, for around fifteen years before JFK closed it down, it is an acknowledged fact that dark and disturbing research was done on human beings, in an effort to understand and combat the potentially troublesome issues of exposing a crew to such a futuristic vehicle and power-plant. This is amply demonstrated in the papers of NEPA’s Medical Advisory Committee, the MAC. A June 1948 document makes it very clear what was going through the minds of the scientists on the program: “The NEPA Medical Advisory Committee is attempting to determine what will happen to humans exposed at infrequent times to amounts of radiations which are higher than those accepted as permissible for peace time operations. The Committee, with the exception of one member, feels that such information cannot be obtained by animal experiments nor by clinical observations.”

MAC made another suggestion, or, as some might call it, an example of crossing the line that should never be crossed. MAC said: “The information sought is sufficiently important to justify the use of humans as experimental subjects.” It was then time for the entire scenario to tumble out. And what a hotbed of controversy it was, and as the official, previously top secret papers show: “The Committee, therefore recommends, that the Armed services arrange for and conduct unclassified experiments on man which will make possible the accurate prediction of biological changes resulting from known levels of radiation exposure. “

Those very same “experiments on man” were aimed at using nothing less than prisoners then held in American jails: “The Committee is not in a position to make recommendations as to where these tests can be conducted other than that they should be carried out at some federal, state, or Armed Services prison, where life prisoners are incarcerated and where arrangements can be made with the prison authorities to cooperate in the experiment.  The selection of the prison is a matter for top military consideration. Continued cooperation of the prison staff and prisoners for a matter of many years will be required.”

Actually, it didn’t take years, at all. In fact, it wasn’t even oneyear. By early 1948, MAC’s Subcommittee on Human Experimentation recommended that “the Armed Services arrange for and conduct unclassified experiments making possible accurate prediction of biological damage in man from known levels of radiation exposure.” Matters began to progress with speed. In June 1949, the Joint Panel on Medical Aspects of Atomic Warfare gave its support to the program. Four months later, every scientific agency, and arm of the military, that had a vested interest in seeing the nuclear aircraft program come to life was unanimous. An October 4, 1949 memo makes that starkly clear. Experiments on people, the author noted, were the “number one recommendation.”

Everything was running smoothly; that is, until February 1950. That was when a significant percentage of staff at the Atomic Energy Commission Medical Group (CMG) grew worried about where things were potentially heading. In their eyes and minds, it was one thing to undertake research into the effects of nuclear aircraft on their crews. They saw it as quite another thing entirely, however, to consider, and give the go-ahead for, experiments to be undertaken on American citizens – even those incarcerated in American jails. Unfortunately for the rest of the people allied to the program, the CMG was a large and powerful body, one that, when it flexed its muscles and expressed its concern, was able to put everything into a definitive state of limbo.

The arguing went on until September, with many suggesting it was dangerous to go down the path of using human guinea-pigs – and without their consent and even knowledge, too – and just as many others offering that it was no big deal. Unless, that is, one happened to be just such a prisoner. It was in September that NEPA’s staff began working on a recommendation-style document that would forcibly argue the need for the program to proceed, and also the need for human test-subjects to be found – and quickly, too. Matters came to a head in December when NEPA noted that the only thing to end the stalemate would be for a major, powerful body to make a final decision, once and for all: “At the meeting of the NEPA Research Guidance Committee, it was recognized that unless AEC or some other highly influential agency recommends human experimentation, the NEPA proposal would never be carried out by the Armed Services.”

In essence, this amounted to nothing less than a stern warning, combined with a final ultimatum. NEPA’s Medical Advisory Committee also had their say, as a January 5, 1950 report – Radiation Biology Relative to Nuclear Energy Powered Aircraft Recommendations to NEPA – shows: “For many reasons it is desirable that the aircraft carry a crew.  This implies that the reactor will be surrounded with shielding adequate to protect the crew against radiations escaping from the reactor. It is necessary to determine the amount of radiation a human can reasonably tolerate in a given number of doses, at given repetition frequencies, and at given intensities, so that shield weights can be minimized.  This knowledge is only partially available.”

Despite the ultimatum, those against the human experimentation proceeding were unmoved. It was this stance that, on February 12, 1951, provoked M.C. Leverett, who was the Technical Director of the nuclear aircraft program, to send a memo to Dr. Shields Warren, the Director of Medicine and Biology at the Atomic Energy Commission. It said:

“Dr. Warren, “In connection with our work on Nuclear Powered Flight, we have as you know called together a group of highly qualified experts in the general field of radiology and the effects of radiation upon human beings, in order to assist us in defining the limiting exposure to which we should plan to subject the crew of a nuclear powered airplane. One of the actions taken by this group of experts was the formulation of a program of recommended research necessary, in their opinion, for adequate coverage of the radiobiological aspects of nuclear flight. Among the recommended research projects was the highly controversial one of human experimentation which this group strongly recommended and gave a position of highest priority. For almost two years the various members of this Committee have been making efforts to gain governmental approval of their recommendation regarding human experiments. These efforts have been largely unsuccessful and we and they have come finally to the conclusion that further efforts in this direction would be a waste of energy. We are therefore discontinuing our efforts to obtain governmental approval for experiments on humans along the lines recommended by our Advisory Committee.”

Although the discontinuing went ahead, in the years that followed further research into nuclear-powered aircraft was put into place. Some of those latter-day prototype aircraft may have been mistaken for UFOs – as we shall see in a follow-up article to this one…

The moon has two very different faces and a new study may explain why. It’s very possible that an ancient dwarf planet or a large asteroid crashed into the moon which ultimately caused one side to have thicker crust. There is an extra layer of crust on the far side of the moon that’s full of craters, while the side that’s facing Earth has tons of open basins. Scientists discovered these details when the NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission had two satellites map out specifics of the moon in 2012.

There have been several potential explanations as to why the moon has an extra layer on one side, such as the theory of two moons orbiting Earth many years ago. However, the theory that a huge object – such as a dwarf planet or a large asteroid – crashed into the moon seems a lot more likely and a new study published this month (which can be read here) suggests that very idea.

Scientists took the data from the GRAIL mission and entered it into a computer in order to figure out how large the object would have been in order to cause such asymmetry on the moon. According to their calculations, they believe that the object that crashed into the moon would have been approximately 480 miles in diameter – which is a bit smaller than the dwarf planet named Ceres.

Additionally, they figured out that the object would have hit the near side of the moon at around 14,000 mph in order to have caused lunar debris to fly off that side of moon and fall to the far side like a tsunami. The layer of debris would have been between three and six miles thick which is around how thick the extra layer is on the lunar’s far side. They also found that an object with a diameter of 450 miles could have hit the moon travelling at 15,000 mph.

According to this new data, it’s unlikely that there were once two moons orbiting Earth and the more likely explanation is that a large asteroid or a dwarf planet crashed into the lunar’s side. This would also provide an explanation as to why there are different isotopes found on the Moon than what’s here on Earth, considering that the moon was probably created by splitting off from our planet when a large object crashed into an early Earth.