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.
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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...
07-07-2021
TAAI RADERDIERTJE LEEFT NA 24.000 JAAR INGEVROREN TE ZIJN GEWEEST, VROLIJK VERDER
TAAI RADERDIERTJE LEEFT NA 24.000 JAAR INGEVROREN TE ZIJN GEWEEST, VROLIJK VERDER
Vivian Lammerse
En met zo’n lange adem stoot hij het weerbarstige beerdiertje van de troon.
Je denkt misschien dat beerdiertjes taaie rakkers zijn. Maar we kennen er nog zo eentje. En wel het raderdiertje. Het raderdiertje uit de orde Bdelloida zijn meercellige dieren die zo klein zijn dat je een microscoop nodig hebt om ze te zien. Net als beerdiertjes zijn ze in staat om de meest krankzinnige omstandigheden te overleven, zoals uitdroging, bevriezing, verhongering en omgevingen met weinig zuurstof. Maar niet alleen zijn ze bestand tegen bevriezing… Wetenschappers hebben namelijk bijzonder kranige exemplaren gevonden die zelfs na 24.000 jaar (!) ingevroren te zijn geweest in Siberisch permafrost, gewoon verder gaan met hun leven.
Beerdiertje versus raderdiertje Op het eerste gezicht lijken beerdiertjes en raderdiertjes behoorlijk wat overeenkomsten te hebben. “Zowel beerdiertjes als raderdiertjes zijn microscopisch kleine meercellige dieren met organen en weefsels,” vertelt onderzoeker Stas Malavin in een interview met Scientias.nl. Bovendien zijn ze beide lastig kapot te krijgen. Zo zijn ze allebei al weleens de ruimte in geschoten en blootgesteld aan de meest gruwelijke experimenten, zoals je al even hierboven kon lezen. Maar er zijn ook verschillen. “Qua morfologie lijken ze niet veel op elkaar,” vervolgt Malavin. “En, nog belangrijker, ze hebben heel verschillende mechanismen van cryptobiose (schijndood).”
Bevroren Enkele jaren geleden ontdekten wetenschappers al dat ingevroren raderdiertjes na tien jaar gewoon weer de draad oppikken. Ook beerdiertjes kunnen dat. Zo wekten wetenschappers beerdiertjes die meer dan 30 jaar ingevroren waren geweest, weer tot leven. Maar daar doet het raderdiertje nu weer een schepje bovenop. In de nieuwe studie reisden de onderzoekers af naar enkele van de meest afgelegen Arctische eilanden en verzamelden de microscopisch kleine organismen uit oeroud permafrost. Radiokoolstofdatering maakte duidelijk dat de raderdiertjes al zo’n 24.000 jaar in het permafrost ingevroren zaten. Nadat de onderzoekers de diertjes ontdooid hadden, leefden ze wonderbaarlijk genoeg vrolijk verder.
Ontdooid Het is een bizarre ontdekking. Want het betekent dat de diertjes dus maar liefst 24.000 jaar ’slapend’ weten te overbruggen, om vervolgens gewoon door te gaan met hun leven. “Ze kunnen tienduizenden jaren in cryptobiose – de toestand van bijna volledig gestopt metabolisme – verkeren,” zegt Malavin. “Het aantal jaar maakt natuurlijk indruk. Dit overtreft alle eerdere bekende gevallen.” Bovendien leken de raderdiertjes weinig door zo’n lange periode in schijndood aangetast. Eenmaal ontdooid, plantte het raderdiertje zich zelfs gewoon voort.
Dat doet het raderdiertje trouwens ook al op een vrij merkwaardige manier. Zo is het raderdiertje aseksueel. Heel concreet betekent dat dat het organisme geen mannetjes nodig heeft om jongen op de wereld te zetten. Omdat er in dit geval geen uitwisseling van genen plaatsvindt, eet het raderdiertje waarschijnlijk DNA. “Ze nemen vreemd DNA in hun genomen op; een eigenaardig mechanisme van horizontale genoverdracht,” vertelt Malavin. “Dit helpt de genetische diversiteit in deze groep te verhogen.”
Je vraagt je misschien af hoe het raderdiertje zoveel jaar in een ingevroren toestand kan overleven. Om dat verder te onderzoeken, bevroren en ontdooiden de onderzoekers tientallen exemplaren in het laboratorium. Deze experimenten suggereren dat de beestjes bestand zijn tegen de vorming van ijskristallen die bij bevriezing ontstaan. Waarschijnlijk beschikken ze over een bepaald mechanisme om hun cellen en organen te beschermen tegen schade bij extreem lage temperaturen. “Raderdiertjes onderbreken hun metabolisme en accumuleren bepaalde verbindingen – zoals chaperonne-eiwitten – die hen van cryptobiose helpen herstellen wanneer de omstandigheden verbeteren,” legt Malavin desgevraagd uit. “Ze hebben ook een uniek mechanisme voor de bescherming tegen reactieve zuurstofsoorten – een van de grootste bedreigingen tijdens schijndood – en zeer sterke DNA-reparatiemechanismen.”
Voordelen Waarom raderdiertjes aan cryptobiose doen? Het is een slimme truc. “Door de rustperiode kunnen ze ontsnappen aan ongunstige omstandigheden en dus op plaatsen wonen die ongeschikt zijn voor de meeste andere dieren,” vertelt Malavin. “Bovendien ontsnappen ze dankzij cryptobiose aan parasieten en worden ze zelfs sterker wakker. Na herstel leven ze namelijk langer en zorgen voor meer nakomelingen dan soortgenoten die de staat van cryptobiose overslaan.”
Meercellige organismen Dankzij de studie kunnen we nu concluderen dat het blijkbaar ook voor meercellige organismen mogelijk is om tienduizenden jaren in bevroren toestand te verkeren, om daarna weer succesvol tot leven te worden gewekt. “Een droom van fictieschrijvers,” zegt Malavin. Tot voor kort werd gedacht dat dit alleen maar het domein was van rondwormen, die zelfs 30.000 tot 40.000 jarige dutjes doen. Maar nu kunnen ook raderdiertjes toegevoegd worden aan de lijst van organismen die over het opmerkelijke vermogen beschikken om schijnbaar voor onbepaalde tijd, in een toestand van schijndood, onder het bevroren landschap te overleven.
Mensen Of dit op een dag ook mogelijk wordt voor mensen? “Ik zie hier geen theoretische beperkingen aan,” beantwoordt de onderzoeker. “Natuurlijk, hoe complexer het organisme, hoe lastiger het is om dat wat bevroren is, levend te houden. Zoogdieren kunnen dit dan ook nog niet. Het lijkt misschien grappig, maar het grootste obstakel hiervoor is waarschijnlijk niet de complexiteit van zoogdieren, maar hun macroscopische afmetingen.” Op dit moment is het nog onduidelijk wat er precies nodig is om zelfs maar een paar jaar in ijs te overleven. Ook is het de vraag of de stap naar duizenden jaren veel verschil maakt. “Dat is een vraag die nadere studie vereist.”
De onderzoekers zijn van plan om Arctische monsters te blijven bestuderen. Op die manier willen ze namelijk ook achterhalen of er misschien naast indrukwekkende raderdiertjes en sommige wormen, ook andere organismen zijn die net zo lang in cryptobiose kunnen verkeren. Daarnaast zijn de onderzoekers van plan om de precieze biologische mechanismen die verantwoordelijk zijn voor de overleving van ingevroren raderdiertjes, volledig te doorgronden. De hoop is dat dit nieuw inzicht verschaft in hoe cellen, weefsels en organen van andere dieren – inclusief mensen – beter kunnen worden ingevroren en bewaard.
The truth is out there, but for now, it doesn’t involve extraterrestrial visitors. It could, however, be a foreign power’s technology.
So concludes a forthcoming US government report, whose broad findings leaked earlier this month, on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), the current, less X-Files–sounding term for UFOs. The investigation followed sightings and videos recorded in recent years, by fighter aircraft instruments and pilots’ naked eyes, of objects flying at seemingly impossible speed and doing seemingly impossible maneuvers.
UFOs aren’t just the playpen of conspiracy theorists and sci-fi fans: NASA awards grants to reputable scientists seeking real-life ETs, and we’ve been scanning the heavens for signs of artificial signals for decades, says Thomas Bania, a College of Arts & Sciencesprofessor of astronomy. He researches the possibility of life elsewhere, along with many in his field. (“Carl Sagan…owes me money,” he says, a debt he knows he won’t collect, as his celebrity colleague died in 1996.)
Bania and Jack Weinstein, a Pardee School of Global Studies professor of the practice of international security and a retired Air Force lieutenant general, offered their takes on the government’s conclusions for BU Today.
Q&A WITH THOMAS BANIA AND JACK WEINSTEIN
BU Today:Any doubts about the government’s reported conclusion that the recent sightings aren’t extraterrestrials?
Jack Weinstein: I have no expertise in UFOs except for watching Men in Black. I never flew for the Air Force—I was a nuclear and space guy. [Never] did we track something that we thought was a UFO.
My concern with the report is that [it] stated it could be a foreign power’s technology.The UFO sightings dating back into the ’50s and ’60s were never technology that we were able to see later on from a foreign power. That never materialized later into a foreign nation having a capability like that. I can’t comment on whether they’re UFOs or not, because I don’t want to look like a kook, to be blunt. All I’m saying is that if a foreign power developed technology, then later on we’d see technology like that from them, either in operation or testing.
Thomas Bania: Do any of us believe these are actual flying saucers from outer space? No. [But] there really isn’t enough information to evaluate what is going on.
[The government] shows images of these objects, and they have ruled out extraterrestrial technology. Yet they then say these things have enormous speeds and do maneuvers that are impossible to replicate by our technology. All of those claims require that we know the distance to the target. Think of an airplane—if you look at a 747 in the sky, it doesn’t appear to be moving very fast. It’s going 600 miles an hour, but the rate at which a film of that plane would look[like it’s going] depends on the distance. And [the government’s] not telling us whether they know the distance. These are not [reliable] measurements of speed and acceleration unless they know the distance to the object, and they’re not telling us.
Media coverage cited experts who doubt foreign technology could have been invented without our knowing it and that it could have been kept secret.
Weinstein: I won’t go that far. China has developed some good technology much faster than we thought they were going to. To go back: if we think a foreign power has developed a technology, we would have then seen that technology later on in use or in testing.
Bania: I agree with Professor Weinstein that until these recent reports, there has never been any evidence to invoke foreign technology [as UFOs]; 90 percent of UFO reports have always had prosaic, natural explanations.
The point is, how do you interpret what these experts are responding to—the enormous speeds and maneuvers? If that’s the case, I agree we would know if somebody had developed some device that could do those maneuvers. I am questioning that interpretation of the data; without knowing the distance, there would be no evidence for enormous accelerations and avionic capabilities in terms of maneuverability.
No new technology is required here [to explain recent sightings]. We know how to build things, drones, complex electronics. So do our adversaries. You’re talking to someone who’s responsible for more than half of the UFO reports in Bergen County, N. J., in the late 1960s—my Explorers Boy Scouts specialized in creating UFOs.
Vladimir Putin claimed to have developed a super cruise missile. Is it possible he wasn’t blustering?
Weinstein: I don’t trust anything Vladimir Putin says. I put everything in the “bluster” category. If a country has developed a technology that they can use militarily that they don’t want anyone to know anything about, no one is going to ever say anything. We want to surprise the adversary on the battlefield.
Bania: I don’t think you can stealth a cruise missile to radar to the extent that you could a small drone, things the size you could buy at Micro Center in Boston.
What’s your best guess as to what these pilots saw?
Weinstein: It could be truly a UFO. I never want to say something could never be. It could be a phenomenon caused by nature—just a weather phenomenon. We learn something new every day, we’re flying at higher altitude than we’ve ever flown before, so maybe we’re seeing things that would look differently at a lower altitude.
My bottom line is: I think everyone who believes in UFOs will see a conspiracy if the government doesn’t say they are UFOs. I can’t believe we’re the most intelligent life-form in the entire universe, ’cause that means the universe is pretty dumb. If I’m an extraterrestrial and I can travel from other planets, I would think they would be smart enough to evade radar.
Bania: It’s just a pure guess, but I would think these things would be electronic warfare. They’re trying to get intelligence of exactly what our weapons systems are capable of doing, the frequencies they use, the encoding of radar transmissions, things they could use to develop countermeasures to render themselves invisible to radar. It would be either Russia or China. I’m more worried about China.
What it isn’t is little green men. If these were extraterrestrials, and they had the technology to traverse the stars and get to Earth, they would play these games? To what end?Land on the goddamn White House lawn and say hello.
NASA Continues to Try to Rescue Failing Hubble Space Telescope
NASA Continues to Try to Rescue Failing Hubble Space Telescope
ByMATT WILLIAMS
This illustration shows the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in its high orbit 600 kilometers above Earth.
Credit: European Space Agency
Things are not looking very good for the Hubble Space Telescope right now. On Sunday, June 13th, the telescope’s payload computer suddenly stopped working, prompting the main computer to put the telescope into safe mode. While the telescope itself and its science instruments remain in working order, science operations have been suspended until the operations team can figure out how to get the payload computer back online.
While attempting to restart the computer, the operations team has also tried to trace the issue to specific components in the payload computer and switch to their backup modules. As of June 30th, the team began looking into the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) and the Power Control Unit (PCU). Meanwhile, NASA is busy preparing and testing procedures to switch to backup hardware if either of these components are the culprit.
The payload computer is part of the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling (SI C&DH) unit, where it is responsible for controlling and coordinating the scientific instruments aboard the spacecraft. The current issues began when the main computer stopped receiving the “keep-alive” signal from the payload computer – which lets the main computer know that everything is working.
That’s when the operations team began investigating different pieces of hardware on the SI C&DH as the possible source. Based on the available data, the team initially thought that the problem was due to a degrading memory module and tried to switch to one of the module’s multiple backups – but met with failure. On the evening of Thursday, June 17th, another attempt was made to bring both modules back online, but these attempts also led to failure.
At that point, they began looking into other possibles sources of the shutdown, like the Standard Interface (STINT) hardware. This component is responsible for bridging communications between the computer’s Central Processing Module (CPM), which they began investigating as well. Now, the team is investigating the Command Unit/Science Data Formatter (CU/SDF) and a power regulator within the Power Control Unit (PCU).
Whereas the CU/SDF sends and formats commands and data while the PCU is designed to ensure a steady voltage supply to the payload computer’s hardware. If either of these systems is responsible for the shutdown, then the team must once again go through an operations procedure to switch to the backup units. This time, however, the procedure is more complex and risky than the ones the team executed last time.
Mainly, switching to the backup CU/SDF or backup power regulator requires that several other hardware boxes need to be switched to their backups because of the way they are connected to the SI C&DH unit. The last time the operations team performed this task was back in 2008, which was the last time the CU/SDF module failed. This is what prompted the final servicing mission in 2009, which replaced the entire SI C&DH unit.
Given the complexity of switching multiple systems over to their backups, the operations team is currently reviewing and updating all of Hubble‘s operations procedures, commands, and all other items relating to switching to backup hardware. When they are finished (expected for next week) the team will run a high-fidelity simulator to test their plan of execution and see if they can pull it off.
Since Hubble first launched in 1990, it has taken over 1.5 million images, and more than 600,000 of those were taken since its last servicing mission in 2009. These images are some of the most breathtaking views of the Universe ever taken and have led to substantial discoveries about the nature of our Universe. Here at home, it has deepened our understanding of the Kuiper Belt and Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs) like Pluto and Eris.
In 2014, it also observed the farthest object to ever be visited by a spacecraft – the Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Arrokoth, which the New Horizons mission made a close pass with on Jan. 1st, 2019. It also observed aurora in the atmospheres of Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as Jupiter’s moon Ganymede. Hubble is also responsible for providing the data that led astronomers to conclude that Ganymede likely contains a large saltwater ocean in its interior.
Beyond the Solar System, Hubble has aided in the first atmospheric studies of exoplanets, helped constrain the size and mass of the Milky Way, the evolution of galaxies over time, revealed the accelerating expansion of the Universe (leading to the theory of Dark Energy), and aided in the study of Dark Matter. These and other accomplishments are all part of Hubble‘s legacy as it celebrates being in space for 31 years, 2 months, and either days.
I think I speak for everyone when I wish Hubble a speedy recovery and hope it has a few more years left in her!
A multi-day test of procedures that would be used to turn on backup hardware on the Hubble Space Telescope began today. Meanwhile, NASA continues to investigate the cause of the payload computer issue that began on June 13.
For previous updates:
Operations Underway to Restore Payload Computer on NASA's Hubble
NASA is working to resolve an issue with the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope.
The US government's release of a report on unidentified aerial sightings has been met with much interest in Germany. Enthusiasts believe UFOs have been sighted here, too.
The occasional sighting of saucer-like objects in the sky regularly give rise to speculation
"We're just a small blue planet in the middle of an infinite universe," UFO researcher Robert Fleischer told DW. "Anything is possible out there."
"We'll see that these aircraft fly around with astounding properties — which we can't explain and are superior to ours," he said.
For Fleischer, Germany is a "valley of cluelessness" when it comes to UFO research. Other countries commit far more resources to researching and reporting unexplained events, he said.
"This only got big in Germany after Barack Obama talked about it," he added.
That is a reference to a May New York Times interview with the former US president, during which he referred to "footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't exactly know what they are. We can't explain how they move, their trajectory. They did not have an easily explainable pattern."
The pentagon has published images of unknown flying objects
Satellites and hotlines
Obama's comments piqued others' curiosity in UFOs, Hansjürgen Köhler told DW. After decades of running the Central Research Network for Extraordinary Aerospace Phenomena (CENAP) outside Frankfurt, the hobby astronomer has gone from believer to skeptic.
"Our hotline gets hundreds of tips every year. Most have natural causes," Köhler said. "We can explain 97% of them. The other 3% are open because we don't have enough data."
Köhler's phone has been ringing even more since the end of 2019, which he attributes to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network. More than 600 of the nearly 900 reports have been linked to Starlink, he said.
A country of clubs — including for UFOs
In Germany, there seems to be an endless list of hobby clubs and nonprofit associations. The Association for UFO Research (GEP) is one of them. Their databank includes 140,000 entries, and 95% of them can be explained. Aside from satellites, strangely shaped balloons is one common answer, as well as weather phenomena and insects that zoom across photos.
The remaining 5% "perhaps also have natural causes, which we just can't explain yet," Hans-Werner Peiniger, GEP's head, told DW.
Members of Germany's UFO clubs — there are at least three — are not blind alien believers, Leipzig-based Fleischer said. They are rational, engineer types who use limited resources to analyze what curious sky watchers send them. The result, however, can be a great deal of information about what is happening above us.
The really interesting cases "are a matter for the military," Fleischer said. "They control the skies and have instruments and radar."
Do aliens exist?
Suddenly not so secret
No military or intelligence service is known for its transparency, however. That US agencies appear to be more forthcoming recently has taken Fleischer by surprise.
"The Americans have spent decades trying to laugh off these phenomena," he said. "Their reporting now is quite the surprise."
For him, the issue is not about convincing people that aliens are visiting earth, but "giving more space to discuss this topic publicly so it gains the importance that it deserves," Fleischer said. "We want it to be investigated in a scientific way."
Andean Gods Emerge From the Rock in Peru’s Mythological Sculpture Park!
Andean Gods Emerge From the Rock in Peru’s Mythological Sculpture Park!
A sculptor in Peru has assured the future for a range of ancient Andean gods, spirits and myths, by carving them into the face of a mountain just north of the famous ancient tourist city of Cusco.
Cusco near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range in southeastern Peru, is the ancient capital of the “ Tahuantinsuyo,” or ancient Inca Empire. While this legendary high altitude stone city attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world to see its magnificent buildings and streets, it now has a new attraction in the making: Apukunaq Tianan or the "Abode of the Andean Gods .”
Located in Senk, a community of the Poroy district, about 40 minutes by car from Cusco, Apukunaq Tianan features sculptures of Andean gods and figures from various Inca creation myths. While the new attraction is still under construction the public are already flocking to what The Vale Magazine call “a fun and fascinating outdoor recreation space.”
Created by Cusco sculptor Michael de Titan the new artworks are similar to the Mt. Rushmore monument in the United States, just much smaller in scale, with each sculpture work ranging from between 49 and 56 feet (15 and 17 meters) in height.
Two of the sculptures in the process of being created on the mountainside at Senk, near Cusco, Peru.
Apukunaq Tianan: A Modern Home For Andean Gods and Myths
Michael de Titan’s celebration of Andean culture merges art and nature “just like the ancient Inca did.” Therefore, Apukunaq Tianan is like a royal palace of Andean deities and spirits with its own private library of creation stories.
Pachamama or “Mother Earth” is represented at the new site, who was/is the deity who presides over agriculture, controlled earthquakes, and rain. This god was associated with feminine principals relating to the spirit of the Earth.
While Pachamama was associated with the fertile field and rivers on the sides of mountains, the mountains god, or “ Apu Guardian ” governed mountain tops and consorted with the sky gods. A stunning Apu cliffside sculpture is naturally featured in the new sculpture park.
Also represented at the majestic new tourist attraction is Puma, one of the sacred animals of the Andean trilogy of the condor, the puma and the snake or serpent. Puma represented Earth while the serpent represented the underworld, and the condor was associated with the heavens.
The Andean creator god Viracocha is also immortalized in stone at Apakunaq Tianan. This chief deity of Inca mythology is believed to have emerged from Lake Titicaca where he created the entire universe, and everything in it, before vanishing to the east.
Also chiseled in stone in Apakunaq Tianan’s hall of Inca mythological fame, is the last Sapa Inca, " Tupac Amaru ," and mixed in with these massive sculptures are smaller carvings made of wood and stone.
Another of the fantastical Andean god sculptures at Apakunaq Tianan with a log house gallery on top.
It is hoped that Apukunaq Tianan will be completed later this year to coincide with the bicentennial year of Peru ’s independence. While each of the sculptures described so far are exceptionally esoteric in nature, there is one that penetrates the veil more so that all the others.
This work represents the myth of the Ayar Brothers . Inca legends in Cusco say that at the end of the great flood which devastated the land of the mountain “Tampu Tocco, ” four young brothers with their wives, and ten “ayllus” (Inca family groups) ventured in search of fertile lands where they could settle.
After a series of tribulations, the only survivor of the Ayar brothers was Ayar Manco who managed to reach the aforementioned fertile land. There, he took the golden rod that the sun god Inti had given him, and sank it into the moist earth, where it immediately vanished. Such an occurrence could only mean that the sun god had chosen a special spot and it was there that the city of Cusco was founded.
From this ancient Andean center of agriculture, the “Tahuantinsuyo,” would later expand and become the Inca Empire .
Top image: One of the Andean gods at the Apukunaq Tianan sculpture park, featured on a publicity poster from the site.
Andean Gods Emerge From the Rock in Peru’s Mythological Sculpture Park!
Andean Gods Emerge From the Rock in Peru’s Mythological Sculpture Park!
A sculptor in Peru has assured the future for a range of ancient Andean gods, spirits and myths, by carving them into the face of a mountain just north of the famous ancient tourist city of Cusco.
Cusco near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range in southeastern Peru, is the ancient capital of the “ Tahuantinsuyo,” or ancient Inca Empire. While this legendary high altitude stone city attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world to see its magnificent buildings and streets, it now has a new attraction in the making: Apukunaq Tianan or the "Abode of the Andean Gods .”
Located in Senk, a community of the Poroy district, about 40 minutes by car from Cusco, Apukunaq Tianan features sculptures of Andean gods and figures from various Inca creation myths. While the new attraction is still under construction the public are already flocking to what The Vale Magazine call “a fun and fascinating outdoor recreation space.”
Created by Cusco sculptor Michael de Titan the new artworks are similar to the Mt. Rushmore monument in the United States, just much smaller in scale, with each sculpture work ranging from between 49 and 56 feet (15 and 17 meters) in height.
Two of the sculptures in the process of being created on the mountainside at Senk, near Cusco, Peru.
Apukunaq Tianan: A Modern Home For Andean Gods and Myths
Michael de Titan’s celebration of Andean culture merges art and nature “just like the ancient Inca did.” Therefore, Apukunaq Tianan is like a royal palace of Andean deities and spirits with its own private library of creation stories.
Pachamama or “Mother Earth” is represented at the new site, who was/is the deity who presides over agriculture, controlled earthquakes, and rain. This god was associated with feminine principals relating to the spirit of the Earth.
While Pachamama was associated with the fertile field and rivers on the sides of mountains, the mountains god, or “ Apu Guardian ” governed mountain tops and consorted with the sky gods. A stunning Apu cliffside sculpture is naturally featured in the new sculpture park.
Also represented at the majestic new tourist attraction is Puma, one of the sacred animals of the Andean trilogy of the condor, the puma and the snake or serpent. Puma represented Earth while the serpent represented the underworld, and the condor was associated with the heavens.
The Andean creator god Viracocha is also immortalized in stone at Apakunaq Tianan. This chief deity of Inca mythology is believed to have emerged from Lake Titicaca where he created the entire universe, and everything in it, before vanishing to the east.
Also chiseled in stone in Apakunaq Tianan’s hall of Inca mythological fame, is the last Sapa Inca, " Tupac Amaru ," and mixed in with these massive sculptures are smaller carvings made of wood and stone.
Another of the fantastical Andean god sculptures at Apakunaq Tianan with a log house gallery on top.
It is hoped that Apukunaq Tianan will be completed later this year to coincide with the bicentennial year of Peru ’s independence. While each of the sculptures described so far are exceptionally esoteric in nature, there is one that penetrates the veil more so that all the others.
This work represents the myth of the Ayar Brothers . Inca legends in Cusco say that at the end of the great flood which devastated the land of the mountain “Tampu Tocco, ” four young brothers with their wives, and ten “ayllus” (Inca family groups) ventured in search of fertile lands where they could settle.
After a series of tribulations, the only survivor of the Ayar brothers was Ayar Manco who managed to reach the aforementioned fertile land. There, he took the golden rod that the sun god Inti had given him, and sank it into the moist earth, where it immediately vanished. Such an occurrence could only mean that the sun god had chosen a special spot and it was there that the city of Cusco was founded.
From this ancient Andean center of agriculture, the “Tahuantinsuyo,” would later expand and become the Inca Empire .
Top image: One of the Andean gods at the Apukunaq Tianan sculpture park, featured on a publicity poster from the site.
Sacrifice and Destruction: The Apocalyptic Aztec Creation Myths
Sacrifice and Destruction: The Apocalyptic Aztec Creation Myths
Many ancient cultures around the world have their own creation myth to explain their origins, and how the universe came into being. But few are as vivid, or as apocalyptic as the creation myth of the Aztecs. This myth has been referred to as the “Five Suns” wherein the world is created and destroyed again and again.
As the name given to this myth suggests, the current world is the fifth one, preceded by four cycles of creation and destruction. Whilst the Aztecs believed that we are now living in the fifth cycle of creation, they also believed that destruction would ensue if they neglected their duty of nourishing the sun god.
Different Accounts
Before going into the details of the Aztec creation myth itself, it should be mentioned that there are various versions of the story. In some instances, these different versions even contradict one another. One of the reasons behind the multiple versions of the myth is the way it was transmitted. Since the creation myth was originally passed down orally, different versions emerged. Another reason for this is that the Aztecs incorporated the gods and myths of the peoples they encountered and conquered, thereby modifying the myth.
Interestingly, the Aztec creation myth shares similarities with that of the Maya, which is found in the Popol Vuh , their foundational sacred narrative. For instance, both creation myths are cyclical in nature, though the Maya version has four, instead of five, cycles. It may be added that although both myths are cyclical, each cycle is not a mere repetition of the previous one, but rather, an improvement.
The Mayan “Hero Twins” of the Popol Vuh show clear parallels with Aztec mythology
It is believed that the Aztec and Maya creation myths share a common source, and the former has been used to shed light on the latter. A key reason for this is that the Aztec creation myth is much more complete, whereas the Maya one has survived only in fragments.
The Aztec Pantheon
The Aztec creation myth begins with a pair of creator gods known collectively as Ometecuhtl (meaning ‘Two Lords’ in the Aztec language of Nahuatl). Ometecuhtl consisted of Ometecuhtli, the male deity, and Omecihuatl, his female counterpart. The pair of gods are known also as Tonacatecuhtli and Tonacacihuatl.
The Aztecs believed that Ometecuhtl resided in Omeyocan (meaning ‘Two Place’ or ‘Double Heaven’), the 13th and highest heaven in the belief system of the Aztecs. Incidentally, Ometecuhtl was the only Aztec deity with neither a temple dedicated to him, nor any formal cult in his name. Apparently, the Aztecs reasoned that since the deity lived so far away from them, he would never interact with them directly. In spite of Ometecuhtl’s remoteness, the Aztecs believed that he was omnipresent, being in every act of ritual, and in every rhythm of nature.
According to the Aztec creation myth, Ometecuhtl created themself, after which, being both male and female, the god produced four children – Huizilopochtli, Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, and Xipe Totec. These four gods represented, amongst other things, the four cardinal directions – south, east, west, and north, respectively.
Gods and Monsters
These four gods existed for some time, 600 years, according to one version of the myth, before they began to create the universe. They created cosmic time, the world, and all the other deities.
In one version of the myth, the four gods created a giant sea monster called Cipactli, which was part crocodile and part fish. As the children of Ometecuhtl continued to create the universe, this great monster became a source of trouble. Cipactli lived in the water, and had an insatiable appetite. For one reason or another, the creations of the gods would fall into the water, and they inevitably ended up being devoured by Cipactli.
Eventually, the four gods decided that enough was enough, and went to war with the sea monster. Cipactli was pulled in four directions, but fought back violently. In the end, however, the ferocious monster was defeated, and destroyed.
Subsequently, the gods used Cipactli’s corpse to create the universe. The 13 heavens were created on the monster’s head, the earth on its body, and the nine underworlds along its tail. Incidentally, this story resembles the Mesopotamian myth of Marduk and Tiamat, in which the latter was slain by the former, and her corpse used to create the universe.
The creation of the universe from the corpse of Cipactli is not only part of the Aztec creation story, but also illustrated the Aztec world view, which the Aztecs depicted in their art. The Aztecs believed that the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan occupied the centre of the universe. The Cipactli myth indicates that the earth is sandwiched in between the heavens and the underworld. On the earthly level, the Aztecs believed that universe spread out in four directions from the Temple Mayor.
Reconstruction of the Templo Mayor at Tenochtitlan, Mexico City
The Aztec creation myth, however, does not end with the slaying of Cipactli. Although the universe was created from the sea monster’s corpse, it was still incomplete, and required a source of energy. For the Aztecs, this was the sun.
The sun, however, was such a powerful entity could not simply be created by the gods. Instead, a sacrifice had to be made in order for the sun to be created. Therefore, Tezcatlipoca sacrificed himself by jumping into a fire, thus creating the First Sun, also called “4 Jaguar”. For one reason or another, Tezcatlipoca was only able to produce half a sun, resulting in an incomplete creation.
Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl
Tezcatlipoca was a major Aztec deity, whose name translates to mean “Smoking Mirror”. He was regarded as the god of magic and night, as well as the patron deity of kings and young warriors. Tezcatlipoca’s arch-rival was Quetzalcoatl, and a quarrel between these two gods ultimately led to the end of the age of the First Sun.
Carving of Quetzalcoatl at the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, Teotihuacan
During this first cycle of creation, the gods made the first humans out of ash. These people, however, were giants, and the Aztecs believed that they ate only acorns.
According to the myth, the first cycle of creation lasted a total of 676 years, and came to an end when a fight broke out between Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl. It seems that the latter wanted to replace the former as the sun. As a result of the fight, the sun was knocked out from the sky, which infuriated Tezcatlipoca. Therefore, the god sent jaguars, the animal most associated with Tezcatlipoca, to devour the giants.
After the destruction of the giants, Quetzalcoatl sacrificed himself by leaping into a fire, and becoming the Second Sun, also called “4 Wind”. Quetzalcoatl, whose name means “Feathered / Plumed Serpent”, is arguably one of the best-known deities of the Aztec pantheon. Quetzalcoatl was a pan-Mesoamerican deity, and he was worshipped (though under different names) by other Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Maya, and the Toltecs.
Quetzalcoatl was most associated with the wind, and worshipped as the patron god of the arts and knowledge. The Aztecs also believed that Quetzalcoatl was the deity who loved humans the most, and there are numerous myths about how he helped humanity.
The Creation of Man
During the age of the Second Sun, regular-sized humans were created. The people of this age subsisted on pine nuts, and according to one version of the myth, the age of the Second Sun was initially peaceful. In time, however, the humans became corrupt, and were turned into monkeys by Tezcatlipoca, perhaps as revenge for what Quetzalcoatl had done to him. This angered Quetzalcoatl, who sent a hurricane to destroy the monkeys.
According to another version of the myth, Tezcatlipoca longed to become the sun again. Therefore, he transformed himself into a jaguar, and cast Quetzalcoatl off his throne. In retaliation, Quetzalcoatl sent floods and hurricanes to destroy the world. Some humans were able to escape from this destruction by climbing to the top of trees, and these survivors were then turned into monkeys. Like the First Sun, this age also lasted 676 years.
Tlaloc and the Third Sun
The god who became the next sun was Tlaloc, the Aztec god of the rains and fertility. This god was not one of the four sons of Ometecuhtl, but a very important deity, nonetheless. Like Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc was a god worshipped throughout Mesoamerica, as rain gods are found in many cultures of this region.
Additionally, it is thought that Tlaloc is one of the most ancient Mesoamerican gods, as his origins can be traced all the way back to the Olmecs, the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilisation. Amongst the Maya, Tlaloc was known as Chaac, whilst the Zapotecs called this god Cocijo.
The Third Sun was known also as “4 Rain”, and this age was dominated by rain. The people of this age ate seeds that grew in the water. According to one version of the myth, this world ended when Quetzalcoatl caused fire and ash to rain from the sky. Like the preceding age, there were some who managed to escape from the destruction of the world, and these survivors were transformed into turkeys, butterflies, or dogs.
Another version of the myth blames Tezcatlipoca for the destruction of the third age. This version states that Tezcatlipoca abducted Xochiquetzal, Tlaloc’s wife. The god was grief-stricken, and decided to withhold the rains. Consequently, a drought ensued, causing much suffering.
Despite the pleas of the people, Tlaloc refused to allow the rains to fall. Finally, the furious Tlaloc caused fire, instead of rain, to fall, which engulfed the earth in flames, and brought this age to an end. The age of the Third Sun only lasted for 364 years.
Chalchiuhtlicue and the Fourth Sun
The Fourth Sun, known also as “4 Water”, was created by Chalchiuhtlicue, the sister of Tlaloc, and his second wife. Chalchiuhtlicue, whose name means ‘She of the Jade Skirt’, was worshipped as the goddess of the waters that collect on the earth, i.e. rivers, lakes, oceans, etc. In addition, she was the protectress of childbirths and newborns. The age of the Fourth Sun was one dominated by water, and its people ate maize.
The age of the Fourth Sun lasted 676 years, and ended with a great flood. According to the Aztec creation myth, both Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl were jealous of Chalchiuhtlicue, and struck her down. As the goddess fell from her throne, the sky opened, and the earth was flooded. All things were destroyed once again, and the people were transformed into fishes.
The Fifth Cycle and the Two Suns
The Aztecs believed that after the fourth destruction of the world, the gods met at Teotihuacan to decide who amongst them would become the next sun. Curiously, none of the gods wanted to sacrifice themselves this time round. Finally, the proud Tecuciztecatl volunteered to jump into the fire. At the last moment, however, the god hesitated, and did not sacrifice himself.
In that moment of hesitation, another god, the humble Nanahuatzin, jumped into the flames, and became the sun. Tecuciztecatl felt ashamed of his cowardice, and jumped in after Nanahuatzin, thereby becoming a second sun.
The existence of two suns simultaneously, however, presented a dilemma to the other gods, as their combined energy would overwhelm the world. They solved this problem by throwing a rabbit at Tecuciztecatl’s face to dim the light, which turned the god into the Moon. According to the Aztecs, this is the reason why there is a rabbit in the moon today.
Another problem that the gods faced was the fact that Nanahuatzin was weak, and so the sun was motionless. Therefore, the rest of the gods gave him their blood to set him in motion. In another version of the myth, the sun was set in motion by Ehecatl, the god of the wind, who blew fiercely at it.
The Age We Live In Today
The Fifth Sun is known also as “4 Movement”, and is the age that we are living in today. The Aztecs believed that this age will be destroyed by a massive earthquake, and its people will be eaten by sky monsters. According to Aztec belief, the sun will disappear if it is not nourished by blood offerings and sacrifices, thereby leading to the end of the present age. Therefore, they believed that it was their duty to ensure the sun was nourished.
The Aztec “Stone of the Five Suns,” clockwise from bottom right: 4 Jaguar, 4 Wind, 4 Rain, 4 Water; 4 Movement in the center
The Aztec creation myth provides some profound insights into the beliefs that this civilization had about the origins of the universe, embedded in the world they saw around them. Additionally, the myth shows us the key pressures on their civilization, as deified in the Aztec pantheon. And finally, the dangers the Aztecs felt in their environment, and their concerns about survival, help to explain what drove them to their more extreme rituals, for example, human sacrifice.
Eleven New Neolithic Hill Sites Discovered Near Göbeklitepe, Turkey
Eleven New Neolithic Hill Sites Discovered Near Göbeklitepe, Turkey
The Turkish government has just announced a major archaeological discovery that could have a serious impact on the study of Neolithic Era culture in the region. On June 27, Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy told reporters gathered in the southeastern Turkish city of Sanliurfa that several new sites had been found in the vicinity of Göbeklitepe, the world’s oldest prehistoric stone monument site. Also written as Gobekli Tepe, the site name translates into "belly hill" in Turkish.
"We have [discovered] 11 more major hills on a 100-kilometer line around Göbeklitepe,” Ersoy declared. “Here, we will give the details for the first time, and now call it 12 hills.”
In fact, Ersoy offered few details about what had been found at these new sites. He explained that a “major study” was on the verge of being completed and said the results of that study would be released in September 2021.
Engaging in what may or may not have been hyperbole, Ersoy said that people may soon be describing the monuments found in the Sanliurfa region as “the pyramids of southeast Turkey.”
If these new sites are on a par with the spectacular remains uncovered at Göbeklitepe, their discovery would represent a significant milestone in prehistoric archaeology in the Mesopotamian region.
An example of one of the many circular stone monolith formations unearthed at Göbeklitepe, Turkey.
The Meaning of Göbeklitepe: What We Know So Far . . .
First unearthed in 1995 by German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, the Neolithic excavation site at Göbeklitepe has produced the most stunning and impressive collection of standing stone pillar monoliths ever found on Earth.
The biggest monoliths at Göbeklitepe are as tall as 20 feet (six meters) and are estimated to weigh between seven and ten tons (7.7-11 US tons). They were arranged in large circles, with a pair of heavy T-shaped pillars placed in the center of each arrangement. Some were decorated with carved images of animals, and others with obscure shapes and images that have no clear real-world references.
Neolithic hunter-gatherers working in teams built and inscribed these stone circles, over a period of perhaps 1,000 years. The oldest construction work at Göbeklitepe has been dated to about 9,000 BC, meaning that some of the monoliths found there were carved and erected 6,000 years before the rock pillars at Stonehenge.
It is important to realize this feat was accomplished by individuals who had no access to metal tools or wheeled transport carts. They used stone / flint hand tools to carve out and shape huge slabs of limestone from nearby quarries. The massive pillars would then be levered out of their places in the quarry rock walls, and somehow hauled, dragged, or lifted to the Göbeklitepe construction site.
In some instances, the builders placed the circles alongside each other. In other instances, they put them one on top of the other, after the circle on the bottom had been buried. Sometime after construction stopped the entire complex was buried, creating a low-topped artificial mound or hill that was 50 feet (15 meters) high and 1,000 feet (300 meters) in diameter.
The seemingly forgotten landscape around the Göbeklitepe site and likely where the latest 11 hills or artificial mounds have recently been discovered. So far photographs of the newest discovery area have not been released.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy’s statement about the “12 hills” implies that new monolithic sites have been found buried beneath similar artificial mounds. If stone pillar circles have been unearthed at these locations, it remains to be seen if they were built to the same specifications and in the same style as the circles at Göbeklitepe, or if they are as old (or even older).
Archaeologists have already found other sites in the region where stone pillars have been carved out of quarries and arranged in standing circles. None of the other sites are as ancient as Göbeklitepe, however, which was apparently in use 11,000 years ago. They do all feature the distinctive T-shaped central pillars found at Göbeklitepe, a type of monolith that has only been discovered in ancient sites built close to the city and province of Sanliurfa.
This suggests they all were created by the same stone-monument-building culture, which presumably would also be responsible for making whatever has been found during excavations at the 11 newly discovered hills.
A Neolithic totem pole from Göbeklitepe from Layer II, dated to 8800-8000 BC.
Uncovering the Many Remaining Secrets of Göbeklitepe
Unsurprisingly, Ersoy’s primary interest in the new discoveries is how they might affect tourism in the region.
"When you look at Mesopotamia, this region has a unique culture,” the Minister said at his press announcement. “It has its own registered gastronomy. It has many products. And when you combine that with its unique archaeological value, it's a wonderful thing.”
The Turkish government’s priorities are understandable. But the interests of the archaeological community are quite different.
With respect to the incredible monuments at Göbeklitepe, perhaps the biggest question left unanswered is, why were they built?
The general consensus is that Göbeklitepe was a religious or spiritual mecca, sought out by ancient worshippers looking to commune with their gods or with the spirits of their ancestors. The site has often been referred to as the world’s oldest temple. Schmidt, the site’s original discoverer, believed that one day graves would be found beneath the monolithic circles, proving they were built as monuments to the dead.
This monolithic pillar at Göbeklitepe is decorated with pictograms of animals. Surprisingly, the meaning of these pictograms is still a mystery that archaeologists and anthropologists are hoping to solve.
Pictograms were carved into many of the pillars. But unfortunately, scholars have been unable to interpret them, as either pictures or as symbols. Many of the pillars are decorated with images of animals, of dozens of different species including gazelles, lions, bears, foxes, bulls, snakes, birds, spiders, and a variety of insects. While arid now, during the Neolithic era Turkey was part of the Fertile Crescent , a region blessed with abundant rainfall, fertile soil, dense grasslands, and wildlife of all types.
The imagery on the pillars may relate to worshipping practices or religious rituals in some way. The same can be said about the shapes of the stone circles, which may have been arranged to reflect astronomical alignments . But since Göbeklitepe was constructed by prehistorical peoples, there is no written record to guide archaeologists and historians in a useful direction, as they attempt to comprehend what they’ve found.
Assuming they were built by the same ancient people, the remains at the newly discovered sites will likely be similar to those found at Göbeklitepe. If so, their ultimate purpose may be just as mysterious.
But if the stone pillars in these new locations contain different imagery than those at Göbeklitepe, or if they feature clearer pictograms that can be successfully interpreted, their discovery may be a game-changer. Having more remains to examine may increase understanding about the motivations of the builders. It could reveal whether they were inspired by religious sentiments, or by some other type of ancient or universal motivation.
Top image: Göbeklitepe is so important that it has been completely covered to protect it from rain. To date, it is the oldest place of worship ever found on Earth, dating to 12000 BC. Archaeologists are expecting more amazing finds and insights from the recently discovered 11 new hills (or artificial mounds) near the site for which details will be released in September 2021.
The supposed alien technology that the Russian army found in the arctic
The supposed alien technology that the Russian army found in the arctic
Normally, the few scientists who tell themselves to give information about the extraterrestrials, they assure that they are out of our reach. However, the Russian military “recently claimed” that alien technology would exist under the Arctic.
Russian military found alleged alien technology under the Arctic.
The search for intelligent life and alien technology has been, for the most part, in vain. Or at least, scientists say that we are not able to locate it .
However, how to know if what they tell us is true? We know that there is a brutal smear and censorship campaign on this issue. Therefore, the alleged discovery of UFOs under the Arctic by Russia has surprised locals and strangers.
Alien technology hidden under the arctic?
Russia, and especially its leader Vladimir Putin , have for many years shown an interest in UFOs and the alien technology they may contain.
However, there had never been news of real interest from the Eurasian nation. Every time there is a manifestation of intelligent life superior to the human one, authorities are in charge of minimizing the fact.
In recent years, the United States has also been heavily involved in this issue, as has China.
But the first nation to begin the “real” search was Russia, after several of its military experienced strange situations at the poles of the Arctic .
While conducting secret explorations for the Putin government, various military personnel picked up different signals that could solve several of the arctic mysteries.
China has also allegedly tried to cover up the presence of UFOs in the Arctic.
Statements of a Russian captain
Captain Prikhodko, who was in command of a Russian mission in the Arctic, related a surprising fact.
During the reconnaissance of the terrain, the Captain detected several unidentified objects “sailing” at speeds never seen before. These objects moved under the Arctic ice without any hindrance. As if they were submarines with advanced technology.
According to his experience, no land submarine , regardless of having the most advanced technology, could reach such speeds.
Prikhodko assumed that it was alien technology , since it was necessary to have an intelligence far superior to the human to create such vehicles.
He claims that this was not only seen by him, but by the entire platoon under his command, and that he accompanied him at all times.
Is it possible to confirm or deny the Captain’s words? It is not, in fact, no one knows exactly what it is that is hidden under the Arctic ice .
Obviously, it is impossible to know the origin of these objects. But they are not the only ones who have claimed to have seen alien technology in the Arctic; China has also tried to hide the existence of UFOs.
SpaceX’s Starship, which won a NASA award in April, is the biggest example of NASA’s use of services for the Artemis program but not the only one. Credit: SpaceX
NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program is the biggest bet the agency has made on the commercial space industry since the commercial crew program a decade ago. NASA decided to procure landing services rather than the landers themselves, awarding a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX April 16 to fund development of a lunar lander based on the company’s Starship vehicle and fly one demonstration mission with astronauts.
That approach has attracted plenty of scrutiny and criticism. The award to SpaceX is on hold as the Government Accountability Office evaluates protests filed by two losing bidders, Blue Origin and Dynetics. A bill passed by the Senate June 8 would require NASA to select a second company, although with no guarantee that the funding will be there to support both companies.
HLS may be the biggest example of NASA buying services to support the Artemis program, but it is not the only one. Even as some cornerstones of Artemis — Orion, the Space Launch System and the Gateway — move forward under conventional contracts where NASA owns and operates the hardware, it’s making greater use of service contracts to acquire the other things it needs to explore the moon, from landers and communications to even the spacesuits the astronauts will wear on their moonwalks.
CLPS AS A SERVICES PATHFINDER
HLS is not NASA’s first lunar lander services program. In 2018, NASA unveiled the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, where the agency would buy payload space on commercially developed robotic lunar landers.
The idea was to provide frequent and inexpensive access to the moon for experiments and technology demonstrations, particularly those with a higher tolerance of risk. Agency officials often talked about taking “shots on goal” with CLPS, with the expectation that not every shot would make it in.
Fourteen companies have received NASA contracts through CLPS, making them eligible to bid on task orders for delivery missions. Four companies have won the six task orders NASA has issued to date: Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines each won two, along with Firefly Aerospace and Masten Space Systems. Their missions range from transporting scientific instruments that had been sitting on the shelf waiting for a ride to VIPER, a NASA rover the size of a golf cart that will search for ice deposits at the lunar south pole.
Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander will be one of the first missions in NASA’s CLPS program. Credit: Astrobotic
CLPS is also a pathfinder for buying services for lunar exploration. “The big thing here is that we’re starting to work more closely with the commercial community,” said Jake Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA. “CLPS is our first step on that front.”
That has become a learning experience for both NASA and the companies as they get used to different ways of doing business. Some scientists who have experiments flying on CLPS missions have privately complained that NASA’s approach of buying payload space on commercial landers shifts the technical burden, and costs, onto researchers. They now have to come up with their own solutions to engineering issues like thermal control that would, in a traditional approach, be handled in a more integrated fashion.
A services approach also doesn’t prevent delays. When NASA made the first CLPS awards in May 2019, the three winners — Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Orbit Beyond — promised to launch their missions by the middle of 2021. But Orbit Beyond, whose lander was going to be the first to launch in September 2020, returned its award two months later because of what NASA called “internal corporate challenges.”
Intuitive Machines saw its first Nova-C lander mission slip slightly from July to October 2021. However, in a Federal Communication Commission license application filed in April, the company revealed its launch had been delayed to no earlier than the first quarter of 2022. The company blamed the delay on its launch provider, SpaceX, who said that “unique mission requirements” forced the delay.
Astrobotic, which originally was going to launch its Peregrine lander in June 2021, is still hoping to launch before the end of the year. It will fly on the inaugural Vulcan Centaur rocket from United Launch Alliance, whose development has been delayed by issues with its BE-4 main engine. ULA has suggested that customer payload delays, and not Vulcan issues, would delay its first launch with the Peregrine lander into 2022.
John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic, said at a June 9 event that the Peregrine launch is coming “very soon” but wasn’t more specific.
LUNANET AND MOONLIGHT
There have been proposals to expand the CLPS program to include orbiters or even sample return missions. However, the next frontier for commercial services at the moon may involve infrastructure.
NASA is studying a concept it calls LunaNet: a network of satellites that would relay communications and provide navigation information for spacecraft on or around the moon. Current and proposed missions can communicate directly to Earth, but increasing lunar traffic will strain existing ground networks, and won’t work for missions on the lunar farside, where Earth is out of view.
“Our philosophy is that each mission should not have to create its own communications and navigation infrastructure. That’s not efficient,” said Andy Petro, lunar communications and navigation implementation lead at NASA Headquarters. “We see having an infrastructure to provide those services lowers the barrier to entry for new missions and capabilities.”
Exactly what LunaNet will look like is unclear, as the project is still in its earliest phases of development. “The idea of having relays this early was not anticipated,” he said at a meeting of a Space Studies Board committee in April. Interest in doing missions on the far side of the moon, as well as exploration of the polar regions where direct-to-Earth communications can be difficult, accelerated planning for a communications network.
However, it’s unlikely that LunaNet would be a conventional NASA program. “We’re looking at doing something that NASA would not necessarily build and operate, but through either commercial public private partnerships or service contract arrangements, quite possibly from multiple providers,” he said.
In a request for information (RFI) last October, NASA asked for details from potential commercial service providers for lunar communications and navigation. That included not just technical capabilities but also cost estimates and the “potential for partnerships and options for financing” the system.
Petro said at the April meeting that NASA is still working on an acquisition strategy for LunaNet. “I don’t expect it to be the traditional development and procurement that we’ve done in other cases.”
NASA is not the only agency looking at commercial approaches to lunar communications and navigation. On May 20, the European Space Agency announced it issued study contracts to two consortia, one led by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) and the other by Telespazio, for an initiative called Moonlight. The two groups will spend the next 12 to 18 months studying concepts for satellite networks around the moon for communications and navigation.
“Moonlight could be a flagship European project to create the first operational comms and navigation system around the moon,” David Parker, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, said at a briefing about the contracts.
The goal, he emphasized, is to create a commercial system, one developed in partnership with ESA but offering services to others. That will be part of the initial Moonlight studies: “the feasibility of the system but also the business case,” Parker said. The studies will be done in time for ESA to decide whether to seek support for the program at its next ministerial meeting in late 2022.
SSTL has a head start. It is developing a spacecraft called Lunar Pathfinder scheduled for launch in 2024 that will provide commercial communications relay services. It will operate in an elliptical orbit providing coverage over the south polar regions of the moon, using UHF and S-band links with spacecraft on the lunar surface and X-band for communications with Earth.
“We’re creating this shared communications and navigation network for the moon that we believe will undoubtedly act as a catalyst to inspire more exploration missions,” said Phil Brownett, managing director of SSTL.
ESA officials said NASA was aware of Moonlight but added that having multiple networks of communications and navigation satellites at the moon could have benefits provided there was some degree of interoperability, like that between the GPS and Galileo satellite navigation systems.
Petro said NASA also supported interoperability. “We’re promoting this idea of mutually agreed-upon standards among a set of cooperating networks,” he said, which could go beyond communications and navigation to other services, like solar storm warnings. “We think this could be introduced as part of the earliest missions.”
NASA may rent, rather than buy, its next lunar spacesuits. Credit: NASA
RENT THE (LUNAR) RUNWAY
NASA is also examining how it can use services, rather than conventional contracts, for the spacesuits it will need for future Artemis missions. NASA previously announced plans to develop a new spacesuit, called the exploration extravehicular mobility unit or xEMU, that astronauts will wear on the lunar surface.
However, in an April 14 RFI, NASA said it was considering moving to a services model for those suits. One or more companies would produce, own and maintain the suits, with NASA effectively renting them as needed for missions. The same approach could also be used for spacesuits needed for International Space Station spacewalks.
“We are always looking at ways to lower costs for the taxpayer and focus our efforts and resources on future technology and our bold missions in deep space,” said Mark Kirasich, head of NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems division. “We hope to receive industry input on the feasibility of shifting our exploration spacewalk acquisition activities to a service-based model like our procurement for commercial cargo and crew services.”
NASA will continue its own design work on the xEMU suit and share that information with industry, but companies would be able to develop their own designs that meet NASA requirements.
Responses to the spacesuit RFI were due to NASA at the end of April. A draft request for proposals could be released in mid-June, according to a tentative schedule included in the RFI, with a contract award as soon as the end of the calendar year.
All these efforts by NASA and other agencies to procure services, rather than spacecraft and other hardware, are driven by the belief that doing so can save time and money for governments and give companies the flexibility to offer similar services to other customers.
In a June 9 talk in Pittsburgh, after visiting the headquarters of Astrobotic, Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, explained that Artemis was pairing science and exploration with the “entrepreneurial spirit” exemplified by Astrobotic and others in the CLPS program.
“Combining those would create a lunar program that we’ve never seen before and open the path for Americans to go back to the surface of the moon later this decade,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the June 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.
The largest comet that’s ever been found in modern times has been discovered by Pedro Bernardinelli (a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania) and astronomer Gary Bernstein. It was discovered in images taken by the Dark Energy Survey in 2014.
Named Comet C/2014 UN271 (or Bernardinelli-Bernstein after the two men who discovered it), it could be up to a thousand times larger than a typical comet. Its diameter has been estimated as being between 62 and 124 miles (between 100 and 200 kilometers) which is about ten times wider than a typical comet. Astronomers made this estimation based on how much sunlight reflects off the icy body.
In a statement, Bernstein discussed their discovery, “We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen — or at least larger than any well-studied one — and caught it early enough for people to watch it evolve as it approaches and warms up.”
(Not Comet C/2014 UN271)
After Comet C/2014 UN271 was detected, it didn’t show any evidence of a tail between the years 2014 and 2018; however, recent observations conducted this year by an independent observation from the Las Cumbres Observatory network found that the comet now has a distinct coma of gas and dust that is surrounding it.
It is currently at a distance of about 20 astronomical units (AU) from the sun – basically, the equivalent of where Uranus is located. It is extremely difficult to see as it has a current magnitude of 20. To put this into better perspective, with the naked eye, people can see stars with a magnitude of 5 or 6. It will make its closest approach to the sun in the year 2031 but it will still be quite far from us with a magnitude of 11 so it won’t be any easier to spot (this is a bit further out than Saturn’s orbit around our sun). (An image from the Dark Energy Survey of the comet located at a distance of 25 AU in 2017 can be seen here.)
What’s even more interesting is that the comet hasn’t traveled through the inner part of our Solar System in approximately 3 million years. It comes from a very long distance away – about 40,000 AU in the Oort Cloud where scientists have estimated trillions of comets are located.
Oort Cloud
The National Science Foundation (NSF) noted, “Astronomers suspect that there may be many more undiscovered comets of this size waiting in the Oort Cloud far beyond Pluto and the Kuiper Belt,” adding, “These giant comets are thought to have been scattered to the far reaches of the solar system by the migration of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune early in their history.”
An artist’s illustration of what Comet C/2014 UN271 would look like can be seen here.
This artist's illustration shows the distant Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it might look in the outer Solar System. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is estimated to be about 1000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it arguably the largest comet discovered in modern times. It has an extremely elongated orbit, journeying inward from the distant Oort Cloud over millions of years. It is the most distant comet to be discovered on its incoming path.
(Image credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva)
This image from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) is composed of some of the discovery exposures showing Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein collected by the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. These images show the comet in October 2017, when it was 25 au away, 83% of the distance to Neptune.
(Image credit: Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Bernardinelli & G. Bernstein (UPenn)/DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys)
Planes crash every now and then. Although uncommon, this is a fact. What’s strange, though, is when a plane seems to completely vanish into thin air. Especially in the modern era, this is extraordinary, considering the incredible technology we have available to us. This is a list containing planes that left behind no wreckage, debris, clues, or answers from across history.
On October 21, 1978, 20-year-old Frederick Valentich disappeared during a flight in his Cessna 182L. Frederick was widely described by friends and family as a “flying saucer enthusiast,” and during the doomed flight, he reported being accompanied by an unidentified aircraft.
As Frederick flew over the Bass Strait between Tasmania and mainland Australia, he radioed air traffic control just after 7:00 PM to report that he was being followed by an aircraft. Air traffic control responded, saying there was no known traffic nearby. Valentich described the aircraft as large and illuminated by four bright landing lights. It purportedly passed about 300 meters (1,000 ft) overhead and was moving at very high speed.
Finally, Frederick stated that the UFO was orbiting above him and had a shiny metal surface and a green light. Air traffic control asked him to identify the craft, to which Frederick responded, “It isn’t an aircraft,” before his transmission was interrupted by unidentified noise described as “metallic, scraping sounds.” Contact was lost at this point, and neither Valentich nor his plane were ever seen again.[1]
This is a strange one. On the late afternoon of March 23, 1951, a US Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II on its way to England ditched into the ocean. An explosion in the cargo hold and the ensuing fire forced the pilots to put the plane down in the Atlantic, a few hundred miles from Ireland. The exact location was radioed by the pilots, and the ditching itself was successful.
The 53 passengers and crew aboard the flight donned life preservers and climbed aboard well-equipped emergency rafts. A B-29 had already been en route with the intention of aiding the plane in its navigation to the nearest airfield. When it arrived at the location transmitted by the pilots, the crew of the B-29 observed the passengers and crew in their rafts. It seemed everyone was okay.
The B-29 then had to return to base, as it was running low on fuel. However, when rescue crews arrived, the plane and the stricken passengers had all disappeared without a trace. All that was left was a piece of charred plywood and a briefcase. Nobody knows what happened in those hours while help was on the way.[2]
Amelia Earhart was an American aviation pioneer. She held many early records, including being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean, near the island of Howland.
Her final transmissions to the nearby ship, Itasca, indicated that she believed she had reached Howland Island. However, this was incorrect: She was at least 8 kilometers (5 mi) away. Fearing the worst, the Itasca used its oil-fired boilers to generate large clouds of smoke to signal the fliers, but to no avail.
Many theories surround Earhart’s disappearance, including a failed crash landing into the ocean, a surprisingly complete theory of Japanese capture, and an explanation that assumes Earhart instead decided to land—successfully or not—on Gardner Island, 560 kilometers (350 mi) away.[3]
On March 16, 1962, Flying Tiger Flight 739 disappeared from radar screens over the ocean. The Lockheed Super Constellation aircraft was carrying 93 US and three South Vietnamese soldiers from California to Saigon. All 107 aboard the plane are presumed to have died in the incident.
No traces of wreckage or debris have ever been found. The only lead investigators have is an eyewitness account from a nearby civilian tanker, which reported seeing “an extremely bright flash of light, immediately followed by two red dots plummeting to the ocean at different speeds.” It is believed that the tanker witnessed the missing aircraft explode mid-flight, during which it split in two and fell to the ocean in separate fireballs.
The most reasonable assumption, given the evidence, is sabotage. However, since 518,000 square kilometers (200,000 mi2) of searching has turned up nothing, it is likely we will never get the true answers.[4]
Flight 19 was the designation of five Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared without a trace over the Bermuda Triangle on December 5, 1945. A Martin PBM Mariner flying boat also disappeared while searching for the lost bombers and their pilots. Overall, 14 crew members aboard the Avenger bombers were lost, as were the 13 aboard the rescue plane.
The bombers were experiencing serious navigation issues in and around the Bermuda Triangle. Their compasses were nonfunctional, and they were running out of fuel by their last transmission: “All planes close up tight. We’ll have to ditch unless landfall . . . when the first plane drops below ten gallons, we all go down together.”
By this point, the Sun had set, and the weather was deteriorating. At 7:27 PM, the PBM-5 Mariner took off and was never heard from again. A nearby tanker reported sighting an apparent explosion, whose flames leapt 30 meters (100 ft) high and burned for at least ten minutes. The wreckage of the bombers was never found.[5]
Star Ariel was lost on January 17, 1949. Very little is known about what caused the loss of the British South American Airways (BSAA) aircraft and its 20 crew and passengers. Weather was excellent, visibility was good, and the pilots were experienced. The captain chose a high-altitude flight path to best take advantage of the excellent conditions. The flight was between Bermuda and Kingston, Jamaica.
Last contact with Star Ariel was made at 9:42 AM. Despite a large search operation headed by a US Navy task force, no traces of wreckage, fuel, debris, or bodies was ever found. As stated by the head of the inquiry tasked with finding a cause for the loss of the aircraft: “Through lack of evidence due to no wreckage having been found, the cause of the accident is unknown.”[6]
4. Star Tiger
In the early hours of January 30, 1948, another BSAA craft, Star Tiger, disappeared between Santa Maria and Bermuda. All 31 passengers and crew aboard are believed to have perished, and the cause remains unsolved to this day. The Star Tiger was flown by two experienced pilots in strong winds and rain at an unusually low cruising altitude.
Flying at 600 meters (2,000 ft) during strong winds is inherently dangerous, but the pilots were highly experienced and likely very aware of their surroundings. It is suggested that a sudden, strong gust of wind could have forced the plane into the ocean or that altimeter failure could have made the pilots gently pitch the plane into the water. No distress call was made, and no wreckage or debris has ever been found.[7]
On July 22, 2016, an Antonov An-32 twin-engine transport aircraft belonging to the Indian Air Force disappeared while flying over the Bay of Bengal. There were 29 people on board at the time: 23 passengers and six crew members.
Radar contact was lost at 9:12 AM, and the ensuing search and rescue operation would become the largest in Indian history. Sixteen ships, a submarine, and six aircraft were deployed to aid in the search in and around the Bay of Bengal. On September 15, 2016, the mission was called off, and all aboard were presumed dead.[8]
On May 25, 2003, a Boeing 727, registered as N844AA, was stolen from Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Angola. Shortly before sunset, two men boarded the aircraft: American pilot Ben Padilla and mechanic John Mutantu. Neither were certified to fly the 727, which normally flies with a flight crew of three. It is believed that Padilla was the one at the controls. The aircraft made its way onto the runway without clearance and without communicating with the control tower. With its lights switched off and a few erratic maneuvers, the plane thundered down the runway and took off, heading southwest over the ocean.
Since then, neither the two men nor the aircraft have been seen. The disappearance of N844AA prompted a worldwide search by the FBI and the CIA. Despite this, no trace of the aircraft has ever been found.[9]
Malaysian Airlines flight 370 disappeared on March 8, 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing, China. A total of 227 passengers and 12 crew members were aboard the Boeing 777, and the most expensive search operation in aviation history ($130–160 million) failed to turn up any evidence of the large aircraft. Some small pieces of the wings have washed up on various islands since the crash as well as a damaged briefcase believed to be related to the incident. At present, however, the plane has not been found, and the cause of the crash is unknown.
Verbal communication with the aircraft’s two experienced pilots was lost at 1:19 AM. At 1:21 AM, the aircraft’s transponder ceased to function. The transponder allows the plane to be tracked on radar by air traffic control. Despite the lack of a functioning transponder, the plane was still tracked by military radar, turning right and then left at an erratic altitude. Once it had left the airspace trackable by Malaysian military radar, the aircraft automatically responded to hourly status update requests from a satellite communication system. Two phone calls to the cockpit at 2:39 AM and 7:13 AM went unanswered. The final status update, which took place at 8:10 AM (almost two hours after MH370 was meant to land in Beijing) was initiated by the aircraft, as opposed to the ground station.
There are only a few reasons the plane would initiate this communication itself: power failure, critical component failure, loss of altitude, or fuel exhaustion. (The latter is the most likely scenario.) The status update would be the last communication from MH370, before it is presumed to have crashed at high speed into the Indian Ocean.[10]
In July 1952, a very weird event began in Racine, Wisconsin. It’s a story that went down on the morning of the 22nd of the month. Karl Hunrath had complained to his local police department about something very weird indeed; something that had occurred just a few hours earlier, in the dead of night. Who knows what the cops thought of it all, but it basically went as follows: In the early hours of the morning, Hunrath’s bedroom was flooded with a blinding, white light. He immediately sat upright and, as his eyes finally adjusted to the light, he could see in the corner of the room a floating ball of light that had a diameter of about four feet. Hunrath could only stare in shock and awe. Then, something amazing and terrifying happened: the glowing ball transformed into a well-dressed man in black, and Hunrath found himself temporarily paralyzed. The “man” then proceeded to pump Hunrath’s right arm full of chemicals – which rendered him into a distinctly altered state of mind – and proceeded to tell him that he had been chosen to play a significant role in the alien mission on Earth. A very groggy Hunrath could only look on from his bed as the somewhat foreign-sounding – but now perfectly human-appearing – alien told him: “I am Bosco. You have been chosen to enter our brotherhood of galaxies.”
The suit-and-tie-wearing Bosco advised Hunrath that the brothers from beyond were deeply worried by our warlike ways, and so action had to be taken against those dastardly elements of the Human Race that wanted to spoil everyone else’s fun. There was not to be any The Day the Earth Stood Still-style ultimatum for one and all, however. Nope. The aliens wished to recruit sympathetic humans to aid their righteous cause. Or, more correctly, get someone else to do all of their dirty work while they lurked safely in the shadows. And as Hunrath came to quickly realize, he was now one of the chosen few. But there was more. Bosco, via what Hunrath said were “occult techniques,” downloaded into his mind countless amounts of data on how to build a terrible weapon that had the ability to destroy aircraft; specifically, the aircraft of the U.S. military, who the Space-Brothers viewed as being just about as dangerous to world peace as the dastardly commies.
“I am Bosco and that will be its name, too,”” boomed the alleged alien, in reference to the device that he wanted Hunrath to not just build, but also deploy. Far too stunned and drugged to move, Hunrath could only watch in a mixture of befuddlement and shock as Bosco then turned on his heels and left for his – one might be inclined to assume after an experience like that – flying saucer. There was no amazing “Beam me up, Scotty”-type exit for Bosco, however. For a ball of light that shapeshifted into a human-like extraterrestrial, Bosco had a very down to earth means of making good his departure: he pulled back the curtains of Hunrath’s bedroom-window, clambered out, and vanished into the depths of the early morning blackness of Hunrath’s front-yard!
Hunrath had assured the police there was no way he would even consider building Bosco and letting it loose on the world. The neighbors were soon complaining of strange noises coming from Hunrath’s garage day and night, and at least three or four times per week he had a visitor who stayed for hours on end. He was a local: Wilbur J. Wilkinson – a subservient, Igor-like lackey to Hunrath’s escalating Dr. Frankenstein. On a morning in early August, FBI agents made an unannounced visit to Hunrath’s place of residence, demanding to be shown what it was that he and Wilkinson were working on in the garage. Weapon or not, to the FBI it appeared to be nothing more than “a collection of radios, and speakers and cables strung together.”” The somewhat bemused agents said their farewells and left. Had they been born into today’s world, they might just as well have texted their boss: “Hunrath/Bosco: WTF?”
Whether or not Hunrath may have anticipated getting such a visit is unknown. But what we can be sure of is that Hunrath was now a man on a mission. And with the Bureau boys snooping around, Hunrath had no choice but to head for pastures new. There was only one way he was going to achieve his goal of fame and fortune and do the right thing by brother Bosco. It was time to say “adios” to both Wisconsin and the FBI and head to where all the alien action was then taking place: California. Hunrath and Wilkinson soon hooked up with the major players in West Coast Ufology at the time. That included such Contactees as George Adamski and George Hunt Williamson, as well as a number of UFO researchers and investigative groups.
All was going well until November 1953. That was when things came to a mysterious and ominous end. It was early on the morning of the 10th that Hunrath and Wilkinson rented a compact aircraft from a local airstrip. They headed off for what they claimed to several colleagues, just forty-eight hours earlier, was to be a face to face meeting with a group of extraterrestrials connected to Mr. Bosco. Although the pair was seen taking off from the airstrip, and headed in a direction that would have set them on a course for Palm Springs and Joshua Tree, they were never seen again. Despite extensive searches by the emergency services, Hunrath and Wilkinson were not found. No wreckage of the aircraft was ever found, either. And, Wilkinson’s wife never heard from her husband again. They were gone. As in forever. Overseas? Into a mountain? Taken by ETs? There’s not a solid answer anywhere in sight.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Smashes Records on Ninth Flight
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Smashes Records on Ninth Flight
NASA deemed this the chopper's 'most challenging' trip yet.
By Stephanie Mlot
(Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
NASA broke more records this week as the Ingenuity Mars helicopter completed its ninth and "most challenging" flight across the planet's surface. In so doing it set new records for distance, time aloft, and groundspeed. The rotorcraft, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), traveled for 166.4 seconds (nearly three minutes) at a speed of 5 meters per second (11 mph).
An image of Ingenuity’s shadow taken by the helicopter on July 5, 2021.
This "max effort," NASA explained, challenged more than the machine's physical strength. It tested an onboard navigation algorithm, which helps Ingenuity determine where it is along the flight path, as well as the helicopter's telecom system, designed for line-of-sight communications over distances of a few hundred meters.
"All of this amounts to a significantly elevated risk, and it is safe to say that it will be the most nerve-wracking flight since Flight 1," JPL's chief pilot Håvard Grip and chief engineer Bob Balaram wrote in a pre-flight blog post. Spoiler alert: Ingenuity made the harrowing trip this week without a hitch, collecting close-up images of the nearby Séítah terrain for scientists to study.
Since its deployment in early April, Ingenuity has been smashing flight goals left and right. It has flown at altitudes up to 33 feet and ground speeds up to 13 feet a second, covered a distance of 873 feet on flight four, and stayed in the air for 139.9 seconds on flight six. It even survived an in-flight anomaly while still landing within about 16 feet of its intended target.
"In doing all of those things, Ingenuity has already exceeded our expectations," NASA's blog said. Flight nine, however, upped the ante in terms of speed, landscape, and distance from the Perseverance rover. There is no word on when the next impressive ascent will take place.
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Left Mastcam-Z Camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover's mast. This image was acquired on Jun. 15, 2021 (Sol 114).
Marshelikopter rondt moeilijkste en langste vlucht tot nu toe af
NASA’s Marshelikopter ‘Ingenuity’ heeft zijn negende vlucht succesvol afgerond. Het was de langste en meest risicovolle vlucht tot nu toe, omdat de helikopter over onherbergzaam terrein vloog, wat de navigatie bemoeilijkte.
De vlucht duurde in totaal 166,4 seconden en daarbij haalde Ingenuity een snelheid van 5 meter per seconde, meldt NASA. Tijdens de vlucht is een afstand van 625 meter afgelegd. De langste vlucht daarvóór duurde 139,9 seconden en de hoogste snelheid was tot nu toe 4 meter per seconde.
Vorige week schreef NASA uitgebreid over de plannen van de negende vlucht van Ingenuity. Het kleine helikoptertje navigeert aan de hand van een camera aan de onderkant. De algoritmes voor het herkennen van het terrein zijn niet in staat om hellingen te zien en interpreteren alles als vlak terrein.
De negende vlucht vond plaats in het gebied Séítah, waar juist veel relatief steile hellingen zijn. Daardoor zouden er bij het navigeren afwijkingen van meters kunnen ontstaan en ook bij het landen zou dat problemen kunnen opleveren. Door langzaam te vliegen over bepaalde gebieden wilde NASA die risico’s beperken.
Experiment
NASA koos een vlak landingsgebied uit met een radius van 50 meter, maar door de mogelijke afwijkingen bestond er volgens de ruimtevaartorganisatie een kans dat Ingenuity daarbuiten terecht zou komen. Dat zou ook de communicatie tussen Marsrover Perseverence en de helikopter in gevaar brengen, omdat die uitgaat van een line-of-sight-verbinding.
Volgens NASA paste het hoge risico van de vlucht bij het doel van Ingenuity. De kleine helikopter is meegenomen naar Mars als een experiment en heeft met deze vlucht gedemonstreerd dat een dergelijk luchtvoertuig op plekken kan komen die voor een Marsrover onbegaanbaar zijn. De vlucht levert ook close-upfoto’s op van het Séítah-terrein die anders niet bemachtigd hadden kunnen worden.
Whether called a UAC (Unidentified Air Condition) or a UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) or a UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) – sightings are on the increase. A Mothership barely hidden in the clouds was allowed to be seen and photographed on May 13 in Alberta, and one of the ZetaTalk Follower photographers was inspired by his own personal Mothership sighting a year ago, which he captured on film.
ZetaTalk Confirmation 6/30/2021: Motherships are disguised in clouds, or by bending light rays to go around the ship so that it is not seen from the ground. Recently there was an instance in Edmonton, Canada on May 13 where the Mothership was visible within the clouds. Decades ago Nancy and her neighbors observed a Mothership within a cloud, identified only by the traffic of smaller craft zipping into and out of the cloud. These photos provided by an Idaho photographer were indeed a deliberate Mothership sighting, to encourage the photographer to take photos of Nibiru, which he then did in a fury. The Mothership was coated in ice as a disguise, to appear more cloudlike.
The Defense Department has confirmed that leaked photos and video of ”unidentified aerial phenomena” taken in 2019 are indeed legitimate images of unexplained objects.
An F-18 weapons systems officer (WSO) seated behind the pilot used his iPhone to capture images of three different objects he encountered in the same airspace. The object the Navy calls the “Sphere” was photographed. The second one to be photographed was dubbed the “Acorn.” The WSO spotted a third object, described as the “Metallic Blimp.” It appears to have various appendages.
In recent years a series of government videos showing unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs – the ufology community’s preferred term – have been released, including footage from a navy F-18 fighter jet which showed an oblong object flying through the sky near San Diego in 2004.
ZetaTalk Confirmation 5/31/2021: We have confirmed in the past that Motherships can be cloaked in clouds, by several means. Light can be bent around the Mothership so that it simply disappears from view. When assisted in this cloaking by clouds, a punch hole in the clouds can appear when the Mothership leaves, and the Mothership may be temporarily visible when the process of bending light around the sides of the ship is stopped. The clue that this is what the Edmonton photo captured is the uneven outline standing behind the clouds. The edges of the ship are visible when the cloud is absent, but hidden when the cloud is thick.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) uses a three-tiered system to investigate instances of “unidentified air conditions” – a euphemism reminiscent of the US military’s term for UFOs, “unidentified aerial phenomena.” The PLA relies on reports from military radar stations, air force pilots, police stations, weather stations, and Chinese Academy of Sciences observatories to gather as much data as possible about mysterious flying objects. The information is then processed by the military and undergoes preliminary analysis, before being submitted to a national database.
China’s only officially confirmed UFO sighting occurred over a military airbase in Cangzhou, Hebei province, on October 19, 1998. According to a report in Hebei Daily – official newspaper of the province which neighbours Beijing – two military jets were ordered to intercept a low-flying object that appeared suddenly above the airbase.
mRNA Demise
Since the experimental mRNA vaccine is in many respects an unknown, with the side effects just becoming known and the future effects still an unknown, would the Zetas like to comment? The Zetas of ZetaTalk and I, Nancy, have been careful not to speculate about the results of the mRNA vaccines, only reporting the documented and published results. The reason is simple. If the Zetas told you then, what they are saying now, it would only have encouraged the public to rush to be vaccinated. Now that Herd Immunity has been established, this worry is past. There is good news, per the Zetas.
June 3, the United States reported the lowest daily coronavirus case rate since the beginning of the pandemic, including a 30% drop from the previous week.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday recommended that all eligible Americans get the coronavirus vaccine when their opportunity comes, though he added a caveat that he also respects people’s decisions not to get one. Trump and former first lady, Melania, who both dealt with a bout of COVID-19 last year, received the vaccine in private sometime before leaving office, but had not publicly encouraged people to get it.
ZetaTalk Announcement 6/30/2021: President Trump boasted that he had produced a Covid-19 vaccine, as promised, in record time. Then all the side effects from the various vaccines were reported. The mRNA seemed to be the worst, with allergy reactions due to the polyethylene glycol used by Pfizer and then the horror of the effect on placentas and mother’s milk due to the syncytin-1 protein being attacked by the Pfizer vaccine. Shedding of the Spike Protein has been proven and will likely affect everyone eventually. Where is this heading?
Early in the vaccine production process, President Trump urged everyone to get the vaccine, and even late in the game just recently President Trump continued to urge the public to get vaccinated. On the one hand, the draconian lockdowns the Democrats want to continue are destroying the economy and increasing suicides and drug and alcohol abuse. The vaccine will allow society to return to normal in this regard. Does President Trump not know of the worrisome side effects from the mRNA vaccine? He does, and also knows something not yet in the public view.
The mRNA vaccine is not permanent. Thus the insistence by the Biden Administration that the public go back for repeated booster shots. Are these booster shots required for the Sputnik or the J&J vaccine? This is not normal for a flu vaccine. The mRNA utilizes the bodies messenger system, so the Spike Protein mimicking the Covid-19 virus inspires the immune system to develop antibodies. Since the mRNA system is not 100% effective, boosters are needed to install full immunity to Covid-19.
What will occur over time, as the mRNA vaccines are no longer used? Attacks against the syncytin-1 protein will stop when the vaccines are no longer given. This is not a permanent change to women of child bearing age. Covid-19 mutations, caused in the main by the mRNA incomplete destruction of the Covid-19 virus (allowing Antibody Dependent Enhancements to occur) will cease. President Trump was aware of this, early in the vaccine production process, and thus considered the effect of the lockdowns on society to be the greater danger.
At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Zetas stated that Covid-19 emerged from the drains in the wet markets of Wuhan, saying “because nature mutates and mixes virus material faster and more adroitly than man. Reports emerge that it seems the Wuhan virus took a trip through a snake, or shares 99% of the virus found on the mammalian pangolin but that 96% of its RNA is shared with China’s bat population. What about the presence of HIV-1 genetic code in the Wuhan virus? Are there HIV infected individuals in China? Of course there are.”
A new study by Oxford University has discovered there were no bats or pangolins sold in the Wuhan wet market. In fact, the study reported no bats or pangolins were found anywhere around Wuhan at the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak. Through their investigations, the scientists are believed to have effectively debunked the natural origin argument. The Oxford study also reported that Chinese people rarely consume bats and the nearest natural habitat of bats is 1,500 miles away from Wuhan.
ZetaTalk Argument 6/30/2021: Why would a wet market in Wuhan be the source for Covid-19? The market is frequented by produce vendors or butchers who can pick up the virus or its components elsewhere. An infected human can infect the produce. The produce likewise travels on dirty trucks filled with various types of wildlife and can pick up the virus or its components from each other. Then there is the mixing of various virus components in the drains of the wet markets – a supremely efficient mixing pot. Most of the world’s new flu virus emerges from China for these reasons.
The argument that Covid-19 was a bioweapon cannot be proved or disproved. Were Gates and others plotting to release a pandemic, and working on the best candidate? Yes, but not at the Wuhan labs. Samples and test results can travel and be taken elsewhere. Most of the specialized labs that do Corona virus tests are in China or the US, and Europe has its share of these labs too. Gates was working with the Pirbright Institute in the UK. The natural emergence of Covid-19 in the wet markets of Wuhan beat them in the race to the next pandemic.
Schumann Resonance Blackout
Why have the Schumann Resonance charts gone black lately? This trend started a year ago in June of 2020, but this June the blackness encompassed 4 full days. Per the Zetas, the blackness on the charts indicates an inability of the monitoring equipment to record the data, as it is too strong! Despite excuses by the establishment, power outages world wide were caused by this Electro-Magnetic Pulse – in St. Louis, Texas, and Puerto Rico. The outages coincide with the Schumann Resonance blackouts.
Schumann Resonance and Amplitude monitoring data from Tomsk has returned to service 10 TLVD June 16, 2021. We had a massive internet outage in Turkey starting the 14th, it was three days before they were able to return my service.
The outages started late Thursday afternoon near the Princeton Heights neighborhood, with more than 4,000 customers being in the dark at one point. The power came back on for many around 10 p.m. and then it popped back off.
Officials with Texas’ power grid operator pleaded with residents to limit their electrical usage amid soaring temperatures and a series of mechanical problems at power plants.
A sudden power failure left more than 330,000 clients in the dark across Puerto Rico. Luma Energy, a private company that took over the island’s power transmission and distribution system on June 1, said three units were knocked offline for reasons not immediately known.
ZetaTalk Comment 6/30/2021: The Schumann Resonance charts have turned black for 4 days in a row, showing that the spikes in the magnetic blast from Nibiru have returned again. As we explained when this phenomenon first appeared a year ago, the magnetic blasts turn black when they are too strong for the equipment. The Schumann Resonance charts began showing white hot bands in 2016, and the blackout gaps began appearing in June of 2020. These magnetic blasts from Nibiru do indeed cause blackouts in mankind’s power grids, with equipment shutting down in response to the pulse.
Where is this leading? President Trump recognized what the future held when he issued an Executive Order on March 26, 2019, directing the US Government to harden their infrastructure against Electromagnetic Pulse. Other than critical infrastructure, such efforts will not keep mankind’s grid in operation. There is simply too much equipment in use in human society. Outages will become a fact of life. To lessen damage, equipment should be turned off when not in use, as the flow of electrons is an attractant. After the passage, life will return to normal.
Council’s Plan
The Zetas revealed that the Council of Worlds intends to force Nibiru awareness past the coverup enforced by the media, utilizing a temporary severe wobble and increased visibility of Nibiru. Selective blackouts affecting the worst media offenders will also be used. Shortly after this statement was posted, Indonesia recorded an episode of the Sun in the North just after sunrise. This would have been a severe lean to the East. Burning Petrol descending from the sky as in this photo from Manila on June 17 continues to be obvious, and close up photos show Nibiru and its Double Helix cracking with burning Petrol too.
ZetaTalk Reveal 6/15/2021: The Council of Worlds has approved increasingly severe wobble, to increase gradually so as not to panic the people. This wobble will proceed to the extent that the Sun may rise in the North, or the globe turn upside down temporarily, with rotation seeming to move from East to West during that time. Meanwhile, those media outlets suppressing the truth and spewing lies, such as CNN and MSNBC, will be silenced. They will have no voice. Nibiru visibility is already present but will be increased during this time.
The sun has appeared from the NORTH seen from the area of Jeneponto, Sulawesi, Indonesia. “We and our friends in Jeneponto witnessed firsthand something strange happened. I have never seen before, where the habit of the morning sun rising in the east. It turns out that the sun is already in the north position, it doesn’t usually happen like that,” says one witness. “Reporting from the location of MAN Binamu. Something very strange had happened. Where the sun is at a position in the north this morning on Thursday, June 17. Now it’s just before 8 o’clock the sun is already in the north position,” said the teacher in the video.
SHOCKING UFO SIGHTING! | The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch
SHOCKING UFO SIGHTING! | The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch
Rabbi Ariel Tzadok reveals a possible indigenous earth spirit that’s been visiting the property through disappearing portals, in this clip from Season 2, “There’s No Place Like Homestead Two.”
Images from the orbiter are the most detailed yet of the planet’s discrete auroras, ultraviolet emissions that follow the patterns of a decaying magnetic field.
Images taken by Hope’s onboard spectrometer (left-hand panel) and an artist’s impression (right) show discrete auroras on Mars’s night side.
Credit: Emirates Mars Mission
The United Arab Emirates’ Hope spacecraft has taken the most detailed pictures yet of the ‘discrete auroras’ of Mars. The ultraviolet emissions — seen by the orbiter’s onboard spectrometer — arise when solar wind runs into magnetic fields that emanate from Mars’s crust. Charged particles then collide with oxygen in the upper atmosphere, causing it to glow.
Hope, formally known as the Emirates Mars Mission (EMM), arrived at Mars in February and started its official science run on 23 May. The primary science goals of the 1.35-tonne, US$200-million mission focus on the planet’s atmosphere, not on its magnetism, so the aurora images came as a bonus. “Seeing it has been just a gift,” says Hessa Al Matroushi, the EMM’s science lead at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in Dubai.
Mars researchers had previously detected ‘diffuse’ auroras during solar storms, as well as ‘proton’ auroras emanating from high altitudes when solar-wind protons rip electrons off atoms to form hydrogen1. The discrete auroras seem to follow the patterns of Mars’s crustal magnetism, which suggests that the planet once had a global magnetic field similar to Earth’s. Those patterns are thought to have frozen in place billions of years ago, when lava solidified in the presence of such a field.
The emissions seen by Hope were first detected by the European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite in 2004, and have been previously imaged by NASA’s MAVEN probe. But the EMM took “spectacular images”, says Nick Schneider, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder who is part of the MAVEN team. “From my work on the topic, I immediately recognized the way the aurorae draw an outline around the last vestiges of Mars’ decaying magnetic field. These images really capture the fact that Mars has lost its global field, the suspected cause of the disappearance of its earlier thick atmosphere.”
Al Matroushi says that her team plans to publish a study based on the observations.
Star Maps: “40,000-Year-Old Paintings Reveal Advanced Knowledge in Astronomy”
Star Maps: “40,000-Year-Old Paintings Reveal Advanced Knowledge in Astronomy”
Some 40,000-year-old rock paintings with star maps reveal a superb use of advanced astronomy in ancient times, according to a scientific study.
The ancient rock art are the advanced astronomical representations.
What was originally believed to be symbols of prehistoric animals turned out to be an ancient star map.
New research has revealed that in early rock art , our ancestors are shown to have advanced knowledge in astronomy. This indicates that the knowledge between the ancient ice age and today was not that different.
Ancient star maps
Scientists revealed that ancient humans had superb control over the passage of time , observing how the stars changed their position in the sky.
This has been shown through the art found in many places in Europe , which are not simple representations of animals, as previously believed.
And it is that these figures are actually the representation of constellations of stars in the night sky. They were used to represent, date and mark important events .
Scientists at the University of Edinburgh suggest that ancient peoples fully understood the effect of gradual change in the Earth’s axis of rotation .
This phenomenon called precession of the equinoxes was previously attributed to the ancient Greeks .
Researcher Martin Sweatman stated that these findings support the theory of multiple comet impacts during human development. So it is likely that they revolutionize the way of seeing prehistoric civilizations.
The study was based on the investigation of caves in Turkey, Spain, France and Germany and the dating of the art was achieved by chemically dating them.
What was believed was the representation of wild animals, it was actually a representation of constellations.
Sophisticated knowledge of constellations
Thanks to the application of computer software, the scientists predicted the position of the stars at the time the paintings were made.
This revealed that it is about the interpretation of constellations, as they appeared in the distant past.
It was concluded that these cave paintings are, in fact, clear evidence that ancient humans practiced a sophisticated method of timekeeping , based on astronomical calculations.
All this was possible, even though the cave paintings were separated in time by tens of thousands of years .
For example, scientists concluded that the oldest sculpture in the world, the Lion-Man from the Hohlenstein-Stadel Cave, is from 38,000 BC. C. This is compatible with the old timing system.
The statuette is a commemoration of the catastrophic impact of an asteroid that occurred 11,000 years ago , initiating the Younger Dryas Event . A period of sudden cooling of the weather.
How is it possible that early humans have developed such advanced knowledge of constellations? It remains a mystery. Without current technology and instruments, it would seem illogical.
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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 74 jaar jong.
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