My previous article was on the matter of me, UFO researchers Robin Cole and Matthew Williams, and a certain whistleblower who I termed “The Sandman.” And, on how, in the 1990s, we were all carefully and quietly watched by personnel in the U.K. intelligence community: Government Communications Headquarters, the Provost and Security Services, and Special Branch. And all (and only) because of our interests in UFOs and aliens. There were, however, others, too, who were watched by U.K. Intelligence at that same time. One of them was someone who you might think would not have had any kind of involvement in this saga. And, yet, there was involvement. Quite a lot, too. His name: Jonathan Downes. Although primarily known as a cryptozoologist and the Director of the U.K.-based monster-hunting Center for Fortean Zoology, in the mid-to-late 1990s Jon wrote regularly – and extensively – for a whole range of newsstand UFO-related publications that existed at the time. The scenario of Special Branch monitoring the activities of full-time monster hunters such as Jonathan Downes, purely because of the fact that they happen to have friends in Ireland sounds wholly outrageous; however, it is something that Jon himself can corroborate:

“It was a Friday lunchtime in early May 1996. My ex-wife, Alison, and I were beginning to suspect that we had strayed into a particularly far-fetched and badly scripted episode of The X-Files. We were sitting in the departure lounge of Plymouth Airport, waiting to put Tony ‘Doc’ Shiels, [a renowned Irish monster-hunter and magician] on his plane back to Ireland, after one of his occasional visits. Suddenly, the airport lounge seemed to be full of security guards. There were only about half a dozen men in uniform; but there were a number of rather sinister-looking me in black suits, wearing sunglasses, and looking quite menacing. A man in plainclothes, who introduced himself to Tony as a senior police officer, came over to us. I was engaged, at the time, in assembling my tape-recorder so I could tape an interview with Tony.

“But, at the sound of the words: ‘Mr. Shiels, can I see your boarding-pass?’ which was accompanied by the practiced flash of a warrant card in a leather wallet, [I was] prompted to put my tape-recorder away very quickly. They conversed in low voices. I didn’t try to overhear their conversation; but I gathered that Tony had shown the policeman all the relevant travel documents, and that all was in order. I decided that this was the right time to go to the lavatory. Sitting in the thin-walled, Formica-lined cubicle, I was effectively invisible, and so could overhear snatches of a conversation between one of the Men in Black and someone else over a walkie-talkie. I only heard some of what they said, but the words ‘Special Branch‘ were mentioned on several occasions. I was also shocked to hear my own name.”

Jon concluded to me: “Slinking out as soon as the coast was clear, I rejoined Alison and Tony. They told me that, with no notice whatsoever, Tony’s plane had been canceled. I began to feel somewhat scared. The policeman came over to talk to Tony again, and the public address system asked Alison, as the owner of our van, to report to the Information Desk. She was asked to move our van on the grounds that it was causing an obstruction. It wasn’t. And Tony was told that his flight would now be departing three hours late. The Men in Black were still milling around. I just sat there feeling very paranoiac. I still don’t know to this day what it was all about. The harassment, such as it was, continued all afternoon; but we were, by this time at least, in such a state of advanced paranoia, that even innocent occurrences were open to vicious misinterpretation. Was the target of this activity me or Tony? Were the motives magical; ufological; or, as seems more likely, political? Or was Tony guilty of being Irish in the wrong place and at the wrong time? [It was] a week when security at all airports and military bases had been stepped up – because of a rumored IRA blitz to coincide with the 80^th anniversary of the Easter uprising.” The mystery was never resolved.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

'There is something in our skies, we don’t know its intentions, and there isn't a damn thing we can do': Pentagon whistleblower warns failure to address UFOs could be America's biggest spy failure since 9/11

• Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Pentagon's secret UFI program said he had seen 'very very compelling' data about technologically advanced UFOs

• The former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program said the government had a moral obligation to tell the public what it knows 

• The Department of Defense is scrambling to prepare a report on military sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena by June 1

• It could bring answers about the strange tic-tac shaped aircraft that appear to be technologically superior to anything in the US military arsenal 

• If the US has been 'leapfrogged technologically by a foreign adversary' then it will constitute an intelligence failure 'on the level of 9/11'

• In July 2019, USS destroyers on patrol were suddenly swarmed by flashing, Tic Tac-shaped drones, which were able to travel long distance at high speeds 

By BEVAN HURLEY FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A whistleblower who ran the Pentagon's top-secret ufo program has warned a soon-to-be-released report on unidentified aerial phenomena could reveal the greatest US intelligence failings since 9/11.

Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), told The Sun he had seen 'very very compelling' data that confirmed the existence of technologically advanced UFOs. 

A highly-anticipated report on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) is due to be released by the Director of the National Intelligence and the Department for Defense by June 1 . 

And Elizondo says if Pentagon officials reveal that the US has been 'leapfrogged technologically by a foreign adversary' such as China or Russia it would constitute an intelligence failure 'on the level of 9/11'.

Elizondo said recently-revealed footage of strange, tic-tac shaped flying objects buzzing US military ships were real - and says it is time that the Government told the public what it knew about them. 

He told The Sun: 'There is something in our skies, we don't know what it is, we don't know how it works, we don't know fully what it can do, we don't know who is behind the wheel, we don't know its intentions, and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it.' 

Lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee ordered Defense officials to explain the frequent sightings of strange flying objects spotted by military in the hope it will dispel some of the rumor and fear surrounding them.

Elizondo said people should manage their expectations around what will be contained in the report. 

Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), 

One of the images leaked from the Pentagon report appears to be a pyramid-shaped object (pictured) hovering over the USS Russell 

These images were leaked from a Pentagon task force and obtained by by investigative filmmaker Jeremy Corbell, who confirmed their authenticity

UFOs or a rival military power? What in the world is behind all these mysterious drone sightings...

Elizondo headed the AATIP from 2007 to 2012, as part of a $22 million program set up former Nevada Senator Harry Reid to investigate the UAP. 

In March, it was revealed that US Navy warships stationed off the coast of Los Angeles encountered swarms of mysterious drones, which pursued them at high speed in low visibility in 2019. 

The series of encounters with suspected UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, in July 2019, saw as many as six mystery aircraft swarm several US Navy warships close to a sensitive training area at the Channel Islands. 

The head of the United States Navy Admiral Michael Gilday later admitted he had no idea where a swarm of mysterious Tic Tac-shaped drones that menaced four US destroyers originated.  

Gilday's response appears to rule out the theory that the drones could have come from a secret US military program.

That has led to growing speculation that they were either built by a rival military power or 'something else beyond our understanding is going on'.

In an interview last week, Reid said the 2019 incident had confirmed to him the need for the US to establish a UFO program to investigate the phenomena.

In an interview with Mysterywire.com, Reid, who has pushed before for a UFO program, discussed the potential origin of the mysterious flying objects, which the interviewer suggested may be Chinese.

'Always remember, Russia, the former Soviet Union, is run by a man who ran the KGB. They had as many as 30,000 agents at one time, KGB agents. So, Russia's involved in this, no question about it,' Reid said.

He added that UFOS were 'something that cannot be ignored' and that President Joe Biden should be briefed on the matter.

'I believe that there should be an ongoing entity, within the Pentagon would be the best place for it, whose sole job is to stay on top of the issue of UFOs,' Reid said.

While Senate majority leader, Reid pushed to launch the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a Pentagon-run effort to study reports of UFOs.

The $22million-program began in 2007 and ended in 2012, according to the Pentagon.

In the most recent documented encounter in July 2019, USS destroyers on patrol were suddenly swarmed by flashing, Tic Tac-shaped drones, which were able to travel long distance at high speeds

The USS Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, is in the same class as the naval ships targeted by drones in a brazen attack off the coast of California in 2019. It uses a high-tech an onboard intelligence team known as a SNOOPIE to track unknown flying objects

The USS Kidd, pictured above in 2011, was one of four Navy destroyers swarmed by sophisticated drones in 2019. An investigation has failed to uncover the origin of the drones

A detailed account of the 2019 encounter published by The Drive shows the drama began on the night of July 14 2019.

Deck logs from the USS Kidd show that just before 10pm that night two drones were spotted.

An onboard intelligence crew responsible for documenting and investigating contact with unknown vessels - known as the Ship Nautical Or Otherwise Photographic Interpretation and Exploitation team - or SNOOPIE - was engaged to figure out who, or what, the mystery flying objects were.

Within a few minutes of the sighting, reports show the USS Kidd moved into quiet mode, minimizing communications as it sought to work what the threat level was.

It contacted a nearby warship also on patrol, the USS Rafael Peralta, who also engaged their onboard photo intelligence team, or SNOOPIE.

Several other US Navy destroyers on patrol nearby began noticing strange lights.

The USS John Finn also reported UAV activity, and noticed a 'red flashing light' at 10:03pm, according to its logbook.

Just over an hour later at 11:23pm, the USS Rafael Peralta spotted a white light hovering over the flight deck.

The drone was able to remain hovering above the destroyer's helicopter landing pad while traveling at speeds of 16 knots and in low visibility.

The nearly 90-minute encounter was well beyond the capability of commercially-available drones.

The next night, the drones returned, this time as the warships were patrolling closer to the Californian mainland.

They were first spotted by the USS Rafael Peralta and the ship's SNOOPIE team was engaged at 8:39pm.

At 8:56pm, logs show the USS Kidd had also come into contact with drones.

'The drones seem to have pursued the ships, even as they continued to maneuver throughout the incident,' The Drive reported.

Logbooks onboard the USS Russell show drones were swarming all over it, dipping in elevation from 1000 to 700 feet and seemingly able to move in any direction.

The USS Russell had separate contact with drones nine occasions in less than an hour.

Then at 9:20pm that night, the USS Kidd noticed 'multiple UAVs' around the ship. 

US warships have state-of-the-art detection systems, but an investigation by the US Navy chief and the FBI has been unable to discover the origin of drones 

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter shows off its high-tech weaponry

The USS Rafael Peralta was also swarmed by as many as four drones. It was contacted by a passing cruise ship, the Carnival Imagination, to say they too had spotted up to six drones.

The three-hour frenzy of activity continued until close to midnight, with none of the warships able to say with certainty where the drones had come from.

The Navy's top commanders including the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) and commander of the Pacific Fleet were notified.

The Los Angeles bureau of the FBI was also brought in to look at the incident.

An initial investigation found that just a handful of civilian ships were in the area at the time that could have been used as landing pads for the drones.

Investigators suspected the drones may have been launched from the ORV Alguita, a catamaran in the area.

And while the Alguita did have drones onboard, it was soon established its aircraft were not capable of such aeronautical feats.

Naval intelligence was brought in on the investigation and it was soon turning its glare inwards.

The area is home to a large US Naval Base on Sam Clemente Island, where sensitive training operations are often undertaken.

Soon afterward, the Navy classified the investigation, preventing further information from being released to The Drive.

There were further drone sightings later in July 2019, with SNOOPIE teams aboard the destroyers again being called on to identify the drones and work out where they were coming from.

The bizarre incident was first noticed by filmmaker Dave Beaty, a UFO researcher who UFOs.

In June 2020, he Tweeted: 'Did the navy ship #USSKidd #DDG100 encounter a UAP in July 2019 in So Cal OPAREA Trying to find out more. The ship logs indicate a 'Snoopy Team' was deployed - an intel section that tries to visually ID objects. DM if you know more. Near San Clemente island.'

Later, relaying information he'd received from a Navy source, Beaty said a crew member on board 'could see them with the naked eye and they were almost eye level with the bridge hovering'.

'They were the same tic-tac shaped objects.'

Beaty said the sightings occurred in the same areas as another infamous UFO sighting in 2004 which became known as the 'Nimitz Encounters', when at least six Super Hornet pilots made visual or instrument contact with the UFO on November 14, 2004.

The clip became one of the most-touted pieces of evidence in the UFO community when the Pentagon confirmed its authenticity in 2017.

In January, Chad Underwood, the former Navy aviator who shot the famous leaked video clip, broke his silence in an interview with New York Magazine.

He said the oblong, wingless 'Tic Tac' shaped object was spotted off the coast of Mexico over the Pacific.

The encounters, which are documented in numerous interviews with first-hand witnesses, remain a mystery, and the object's incredible speed and movements have led to speculation that it was extraterrestrial in origin.

The original FLIR video from the USS Nimitz encounters leaked online as early as 2007.

Witnesses say that clips of the video had been circulated widely on the Navy's intranet - used to communicate between ships in the carrier group - and an unknown sailor in the group likely first leaked it.

Read more:

• We can't do a thing to stop UFOs - it could be America's biggest spy failure since 9/11, warns ex-Pentagon investigator
• www.mysterywire....
• Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious 'Drones' Off California Over Numerous Nights

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Over the years, I’ve come across a lot of people in the UFO field who claim to be what we might call “UFO whistleblowers.” I have to admit, though, that on many occasions they are nothing of the kind. Instead, they’re totally pathetic “Walter Mitty”-types who like to have people think they’re something special. They’re not. With that said, however, on occasions the real deal does pop up. And, today, I’m going to share with you one particular story today – a story that involved myself back in the 1990s. At the time I was busy looking into the U.K. government’s involvement in the UFO phenomenon. But, not in regards to the Ministry of Defense. As you may know, the MoD was, for many years, the place in which most of the UFO reports went to. It’s a lesser-known fact, however, that a lot of UFO-related work was also done by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the U.K. equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency,  and by the intelligence department of the Royal Air Force; at the time the Provost and Security Services. It was while I got further into all of this that I was approached by a man who I referred to as the “Sandman.”

For years the Sandman had worked for an arm of the U.K. police force called Special Branch. Not only that, the Sandman claimed that me and two more UFO researchers in the U.K., Robin Cole and Matthew Williams. The former spent a lot of time digging into the GCHQ-UFO link, while the latter was focused almost totally on a now-closed facility in the southwest of England call Royal Air Force Rudloe Manor. For years, there were rumors that Rudloe Manor acted as a kind of “Hangar 18” facility where dead aliens and crashed UFOs were held – and way under the surface of the green fields of England. Such claims were never confirmed, of course. But, there’s no denying the fact that both Williams and Cole became big headaches for the U.K. government. Indeed, the Sandman told me that Williams, me and Cole were watched closely from 1996 to 1998 by various agencies. When this revelation surfaced, a lot of people in the UFO research field in the U.K. scoffed at such claims. They were wrong to do so. In 2012, the claims of the Sandman were vindicated. The National Archives (where the now-declassified UFO files of the Ministry of Defense are held) revealed the following:

Rudloe Manor

“File DEFE 24/1984/1 (p294) contains a 1996 Parliamentary Question from Martin Redmond MP asking on how many occasions MI6 and GCHQ have monitored UFO investigations. This was interpreted to mean ‘have the agencies been keeping watch on UFOlogists.’ A background briefing says ‘neither agency in fact undertakes such activity, though GCHQ cannot rule out the possibility’ they had monitored ‘in other contexts individuals who have made a study of UFOs.’The MP was told the government do not comment on the intelligence and security agencies (p298). File DEFE 24/1987/1 (p262-65) reveals that in 1997 Special Branch took an interest in a UFOlogist who became obsessed with rumors of a secret UFO facility beneath RAF Rudloe Manor in Wiltshire. The base had become known as the British equivalent of the secret US military airbase ‘Area 51’ among conspiracy theorists. An internal note said ‘Special Branch…do not believe he poses a specific threat to security, but they are alert to the risk that others may use him as a conduit for their activities.'” Those two men were confirmed as Williams and Cole.

Take note of all that: it was in 1996 when the Sandman told me that both Cole and Williams were being watched – by several agencies, no less – and it wasn’t until 2012 when the government confirmed that fact. And confirmed the agencies involved, too. So, despite what the debunkers sometimes say, the fact is that real “UFO whistleblowers” do surface from the shadows – and, on top of that, they do provide good, solid information.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 29 - 06 - 2021

UFO Sighted Over Mexico ( June 27, 2021 )

UFO was sighted over Mexico on June 27, 2021

STATEMENT : Ovni no Mexico 2021 Ovni in Mexico 2021

• credit : Everton HEnr

UFO Sighted Over Fort Lee, New Jersey ( June 26,2021 )

Fast Moving UFO was sighted over Fort Lee, New Jersey on June 26,2021 

STATEMENT : UFO in Fort Lee NJ?

ORIGINAL VIDEO OWNER : Fort Lee NJ & Much More

ORIGINAL VIDEO URL : https://youtu.be/e_1l2ZSpgyg

RELATED VIDEO

Energy portal Sighted ( June 24, 2021 )

Energy portal ? Strange Portal Connects Earth to Sun | Space : Oneidea is that on the side of Earth facing the sun, our magnetic field presses against the sun's magnetic field. And about every eight minutes, the two fields briefly reconnect,forming a portal through which particles can flow. The portal takes the form of a magnetic cylinder about as wide as Earth.

• credit : Emery Pleiadian : Switzerland

UFO Sighted Over Turin, Italy ( June 26, 2021 )

UFO was sighted over Turin, Italy 

STATEMENT : Recorded day 26/06/2021 Turin / Italy : What is this?

• credit : Erika Cordeiro

UFO Sighted Over Bermuda ( June 21, 2021 )

UFO Sighted Over Bermuda Peninsula on June 21, 2021

STATEMENT : UFO flying over the Bermuda Peninsula ′′ June 21, 2021

• credit : Ivan P Marra

UFO Sighted While Flying Over Nevada ( June 28, 2021 )

UFO was sighted while flying over Nevada on June 28, 2021

STATEMENT : Surprised : Flying over Nevada

• credit : Ulysses Ribeiro

UFO Discovered in 1967 NASA Lunar Orbiter 3 Photograph.

Ufo Discovered in Lunar Orbiter 3 photograph frame number 3162.

Link to photograph https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lu...

Link to Archive https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lu...

UFO Invisible To The Naked Eye Filmed Over Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range In Guerrero Mexico

This footage was filmed on May 23, 2021 from Taxco a town in the state of Guerrero, Mexico. This object which appears invisible to the naked eye and other recording devices but was only picked up by his night vision camera. The night vision that was used to film this was "Sionyx Aurora Pro" and this enabled him and us to see this object. There is a extinct volcano that is part of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range named Cerro Mohinora and this is where this object was filmed hovering over, with the witness recording from his vantage point we get a good view from where he filmed and we can see that there is nothing there.... The witness stated the following "I took this video on may 23, 2021 in Taxco Guerrero around midnight from a well-known hotel next to the magic town of Taxco, watching the song appreciate some lights on the left side of the town which are only perceptible through the night vision of a camera with Sionyx aurora pro."

SOURCE: MUFON/UFO

Stalker: Case Number 116553

• https://ufostalker.com/sighting/116553

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - MUFON CASES - 29 -06-2021

MUFON CASE : 116553 Taxco, Guerrero, Mexico ( June 28, 2021 )

Mutual UFO Network : MUFON SUBMISSIONS : UFO sighting in Taxco Guerrero. - Avistamiento de ovni en Taxco Guerrero.

Long Description of Sighting Report

I took this video on May 23, 2021 in Taxco Guerrero around midnight from a well-known hotel next to the magic town of Taxco, watching the song appreciate some lights on the left side of the town which are only perceptible through the night vision of a camera with Saionyx Aurora Pro.

Este vídeo lo tomé el 23 de Mayo de 2021 en Taxco Guerrero alrededor de la medianoche desde un hotel muy conocido al lado del pueblo mágico de Taxco, ver canción apreciar unas luces del lado izquierdo del pueblo los cuales únicamente perceptibles a través de la visión nocturna de una cámara con marca Saionyx Aurora Pro.

Date Submitted : 2021-06-28
Date of Event : 2021-05-23 / 11:00PM
MUFON SUBMITTER FILE : VIDEOOVNITAXCOPARAMUFON.mp4

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

Long-Awaited US Intelligence ‘UFO Report’ Cites Over 140 Unexplainable Encounters

Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge
Waking Times

US intelligence has released a much anticipated wide-ranging report on military and government agencies’ encounters with UFOs, or what the report calls unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). The now declassified Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) report which has been sent to Congress was made public late in the day Friday, and reveals the US government has encountered over 140 instances of UAP.

The strange flight characteristics “could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis,” the report added. Of these, the report underscored that “We are conducting further analysis to determine if breakthrough technologies were demonstrated.”

Naval and other military aviators have recently gone public with their encounters with “UFOs”…

“There are probably multiple types of UAP requiring different explanations based on the range of appearances and behaviors described in the available reporting,” the report explained. “Although most of the UAP described in our dataset probably remain unidentified due to limited data or challenges to collection processing or analysis, we may require additional scientific knowledge to successfully collect on, analyze and characterize some of them,” it added.

In a separate statement the Pentagon sought to assure the public that it “takes reports of incursions – by any aerial object, identified or unidentified – very seriously, and investigates each one.”

This is particularly given the distinction possibility that some or many UAP sightings may represent “sophisticated collection against U.S. military activities by a foreign government or demonstrate a breakthrough aerospace technology by a potential adversary.”

For example, Russia has made huge leaps in its hypersonic missile program, with China also considered to be on the way.

Interestingly, both of these countries and their advancing, cutting-edge defense technology programs find explicit mention in the ODNI report.

Some Congressional leaders have already dubbed this new report “inconclusive” but have also said it’s a step in the right direction in terms of accounting for “risks to aviation” or possible secretive advanced programs of America’s enemies.

Public interest was recently reignited in the wake of leaked Navy videos purporting to show UFO sightings, short of video clips of which went mainstream in the past year.

Meanwhile, some observers are questioning why it’s suddenly the case that UFO theories and speculation are going mainstream, even to the point that US intelligence is releasing a rare study to the public.

According to independent journalist and geopolitical commentator Caitlin Johnstone, “the fact that Russia or China magically leapfrogging US technology by centuries seventy years ago has been validated as a possibility by the report is a gift to cold warriors eager to ramp up aggressions and inflame a high-budget arms race.”

• Read the full ODNI report here.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

Massive "Dragon Man" skull found in China might be a new human evolutionary branch

400,000 Year Old Giant Skull Humanoid Species, Dubbed Dragon Man Found

A photo of the Harbin cranium.

QIANG JI

400,000 Year Old Giant Skull Humanoid Species, Dubbed Dragon Man Found

The Leak Project was created to offer awareness and information not found in the main stream news. With over 90% of the Worlds Media controlled by only 6 Enormous Conglomerates, many people are looking for more accurate information. The Leak Project offers a refreshing approach to the brain drain media.

Check back daily for new content as we thrive to bring you the cutting edge in news, current events, on scene video footage, interviews and information.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

China toont nieuwe beelden van Marssonde Tianwen-1

China heeft nieuwe beelden verspreid van zijn Marssonde.

 Bron: BELGA

Op foto’s en video’s is onder andere te zien hoe bij de landing op 15 mei het valscherm opende. Een video toont ook hoe de robotjeep Zhurong een verkenningsrit maakt op het Marsoppervlak.

De Chinese ruimtevaartautoriteiten lieten zondag weten dat hun Marsverkenner toen al 42 Marsdagen in het getouw was en een afstand van 236 meter heeft afgelegd. Een dag op Mars is met 24 uur en 40 minuten iets langer dan een dag op onze planeet.

De Tianwen-1 is de eerste Chinese Marssonde.  Ze is in juli gelanceerd en in februari in een baan om de Rode Planeet gekomen. 

© EPA

© Provided by N.C.N. Limited

GERELATEERDE VIDEO'S, uitgekozen en gepost door peter2011

{ https://www.hln.be/  }

Ancient Alien Hand And Centipede On Mars! Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: June 28, 2021

Location of discovery: Mars, Perseverance 124

Source photo: 

• http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/226387

When searching through a Mars photo of Perseverance, I noticed some very important scientific artifacts that NASA clearly missed. The most significant of them was a gloved hand laying on the surface with its palm side up and hand open. The other thing I found was a centipede-like creature on top of a rock. This animal had an very big bump on is head that may have been a horn. Its color is a dark red...very similar in shape, size color to that of a centipede. This is 100% proof that life exists on Mars. It may not be intelligent life, but nevertheless its an animal form of life. I also found a few other anomalies that point out that life once existed on Mars. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Mysterious Lights Over Gujarat, India June 2021, Video, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: June 22, 2021

Location of sighting: Gujarat, India

 

People living in the city of Gujarat reported glowing lights over the city. The also reported hearing a large explosion when the lights first appeared. In the video there are two sets of hovering lights moving over the city. One will have 3-4 continuous glowing orange lights and then another begins to follow it. Each set of four lights are just one craft. The explosions heard are from the UFOs shooting away out of earths atmosphere or into earths atmosphere...at high speed. The speed had to have broken the sound barrier for the sonic boom to be that big. UFOs can easily do that. These are 100% real UFOs and are proof that an alien base exists somewhere near the city of Gujarat, India 5-6km below the surface. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

UFO "Fastwalker" flying at high speed over Sandia Mountains, New Mexico captured on camera on May 23, 2021. 

 “Fastwalker” is a term used by NORAD and branches of armed forces to describe unidentified aerial phenomena moving and/or changing directions at high speed far beyond what current aerospace technology is capable of.

Source: www.mufon.com

  

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

On May 23, 2021 a photographer captured three unidentified lights over a mountain in Taxco Guerrero, Mexico 

The light are only visible only through night vision of a Saionyx Aurora Pro branded camera.

  

RELATED VIDEO, selected and posted by peter2011

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

Roswell: The UFO mystery that still haunts America

Americans’ fascination with UFOs has surged during the Covid pandemic and recent sightings are being taken more seriously with a Pentagon report into UFO sightings about to be released. But as Planet America’s John Barron explains, few UFO mysteries have inspired as much intrigue as the Roswell incident in New Mexico in 1947.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Scientific Evidence for the Many Myths of the Great Flood

Have you ever heard about Noah's Ark story? This story of the great flood is one of the most popular stories from the Bible. But it is far from the only great flood story to be found in history. Christians are quite familiar with Noah's story when God destroyed all of creation through the great flood owing to the wickedness of men. While many people perceive all this as the great flood myth, scientists have found evidence of the great deluge. Before going to the scientific evidence, let's take a look at the known mythologies that relate to the flood myth.

The Great Flood: Myths in the Bible, Hindu Texts and More

Noah's story in the  Hebrew Bible  is probably the most well-known myth relating to the great flood. However, a number of other myths related to this event also exist.

According to the  Gilgamesh flood myth, Enlil, the highest god, decided to completely destroy the whole world by means of a great flood as the humans had increasingly become noisy. Ea, the god who created human beings of divine blood and clay, warned Utnapishtim secretly about the flood and gave him instructions to build a boat and be saved.

• Does ‘New Evidence’ Prove Noah’s Ark Is Buried on a Turkish Mountain?
• Evidence that Noah’s Ark Landed on a Mountain 17 Miles South of Ararat

In the Bible’s  Book of Genesis , it is written that Yahweh (the name of the monotheistic god of the Israelites), who created man from dust, decided to bring the great flood to Earth because of mankind’s increasing corruption.

Yahweh was, however, pleased with Noah and instructed him to create an ark for saving humans and animals. On completion of the ark, Noah, his entire family, and two of every type of animal on earth entered the ark. Once the door of the ark was closed, the destructive flood started and cleared all other living beings from the face of the earth. After the flood ended, everyone inside the ark came out, and Yahweh promised never to subject humans to something like the great flood again. The rainbow is known as the symbol of Yahweh's promise.

A 3D illustration of Noah’s Ark in a storm during the Great Flood. Reality or myth?

( fergregory / Adobe Stock)

According to Hindu mythology there is a story about "manvantara-sandhya," a great flood. In the story, Vishnu's Matsya Avatar warned Manu, the first man, about the impending flood and instructed him to construct a giant boat. 

According to Zoroastrian Mazdaism, Ahriman tried to destroy the whole world by means of a drought. It is believed that Mithra shot an arrow at a rock, and the flood poured out. Only one man, along with his cattle, survived the flood in an ark.

As per Plato,  Timaeus describes a flood myth that is quite similar to the other versions of the great flood. In the Timaeus version, the Bronze race of humans made Zeus angry with constant warring. Zeus decided to cause a flood to punish humanity. The  Titan Prometheus , who created humans with clay, shared the plan with Deucalion and advised him to build an ark. It took nine days and nights for the water to recede, and the ark landed on a mountain.

Researchers study a ship graveyard discovered in the Black Sea that may be linked to the Great Flood.

( Paul Vinten  / Adobe Stock)

Scientific Evidence of the Occurrence of the Great Flood

While there are a number of stories or myths relating to the great flood, scientists have recently found evidence of the flood. The scientists believe that the great flood did take place around 7,000 years ago in the Black Sea region. 

In a book named  "Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event that Changed History,"  two marine biologists Walter Pitman and William Ryan, describe a flood that took place several thousand years ago, before the  Biblical story was written by the ancient Hebrews .

According to the two  marine biologists , nearly 12,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age, the Black Sea was a partially dried freshwater lake. It was separated from the Mediterranean Sea by the  Bosporus Strait , which is a land strip.

The shore of the Black Sea was fertile and was used by the people to start large farming societies. When the ice sheets that covered the Northern Hemisphere started melting, the levels of the sea began rising. It is believed that the  Mediterranean Sea  broke through the Bosporus Strait about 7,600 years ago.

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With a force about 200 times that of Niagara Falls, the seawater had started rushing in. The level of the Black Sea was increasing by 6 inches (15 cm) every day. Within one year, about 60,000 square miles (15,539,929 hectares) was engulfed and disappeared beneath the rising waters. The settlers of the land moved to different high grounds and never returned.

Pitman and Ryan hypothesize that this trauma story was handed down for about 3,000 years and has been recorded in the form of myths and songs. One of the versions is believed to be the story of Noah's Ark found in the Bible.

The hypothesis of the two marine biologists is mainly based on the sediment cores of the Black Sea as well as seismic profiles. The cores did tell a strange and unique story. Pitman and Ryan discovered a single mud layer that was typically left after the great flood.

It lay over sediment layers that were at one time land surface. The surface contained mud cracks, plant root fossils, and freshwater mollusks that were similar to the dried-out lakeshore. The ancient shoreline was submerged about 460 feet (140 meters) below the Black Sea. 

The marine biologists have also pointed out that according to the study of ancient civilizations made by archaeologists, during the flood several peoples with new customs appeared at different places. They were even found in Egypt, as well in the foothills of the Himalayas, and around Paris and Prague. The majority of these “new” people were Indo-European speakers. According to Ryan and Pitman, these peoples might be the Black Sea farmers who had to leave their homes due to the great flood.

The Great Flood (Die Sintflut, Suendflut), a painting by Lesser-Ury (1861-1931), depicts the “horror” of what the deluge of the Bible might have looked like.

(Center for Jewish History, NYC /  Wikimedia Commons )

Archaeological Evidence of the Great Flood

In addition to the evidence offered by Pitman and Ryan, there are also other pieces of evidence that support the occurrence of the great flood. One such significant piece of evidence was provided by the world-famous underwater archaeologist Robert Ballard. He is especially known for locating and exploring the Titanic wreck. 

Ballard found evidence of people who had perished in the great flood that took place in the Black Sea and linked it with Noah's Ark story.

Ballard and his team made use of advanced robotic technology to find evidence that might support the Noah story. They were able to unearth an ancient coastline that was about 550 feet (168 meters) under the water surface. It was considered significant proof of the catastrophic event. Ballard took some samples including saltwater and freshwater mollusks from the ancient beach for testing. 

When radiocarbon dating of the samples was done, it was revealed that the freshwater mollusks were relatively older in comparison to the saltwater ones. All the freshwater mollusks that were taken for sample testing were of the same age.

It could be assumed that all the mollusks died due to the occurrence of a sudden flood. This is because if they had died due to the slowly rising water, the ages would have differed. It was found that the mollusks died somewhere around 5,600 BC. It is approximately the same time when the great flood during Noah's time is believed to have occurred. 

About 310 feet (94 meters) below in the Black Sea, Ballard and his team were also able to find an ancient house that had collapsed. In addition to the house, they also unearthed a number of stone tools, storage vessels made of ceramic, and ancient mud. The archaeologists believe that the culture found at the bottom of the sea was thousands of years old.

The evidence collected by Robert Ballard and his team suggests that the traumatic great flood story was handed down from generation to generation. This eventually inspired Noah's Ark story that is mentioned in the Bible.

"The Deluge" drawing was used as the frontispiece to Gustave Doré's illustrated edition of the Bible. Based on the story of Noah's Ark, the drawing shows humans and a tiger doomed by the flood futilely attempting to save their children and cubs.

(Gustave Doré /  Public domain )

Scientific Evidence Against the Great Flood

While there is scientific evidence that supports the occurrence of the great flood, there is also scientific evidence that argues against it. Some believe that the great flood may have occurred during Noah's time, but that it happened over the entire Earth rather than some regional parts.

As per the Bible, the rain during the great flood lasted for 30 days, and the Earth was flooded for 150 days. Only after one year, two months, and twenty-seven days, did the Earth dry and thus Noah, his entire family, and all the animals were able to move out of the ark.

The great flood was intended to completely destroy all life on Earth. As the sedimentary rocks over all the continents do contain fossils, the great flood could represent the destruction of all living beings. Thus, the story of the global flood mentioned in the Bible might have been true.

However, the sedimentary rocks have interlayers of gypsum, evaporite rock salt, anhydrite, and magnesium and potash salts. All these are related to red beds that contain fossilized mud cracks. The red beds and mineral compounds have a measurable combined thickness on various continents.

The red color of the red beds is mainly due to the presence of  hematite, an iron oxide that is formed from oxidized magnetite grains when the mud gets exposed to oxygen present in the open air. Mud cracks can only occur under severe drying conditions that result in the shrinking of mud and the formation of polygonal cracks.

The evaporite deposits are believed to occur when a marine sea that existed disappears and becomes completely dry. In such a case, the evaporites are expected to be found at the top of the flood deposits of the great flood. However, the evaporites were found in different layers and not on the top of the flood deposit. This makes certain scientists believe that the great flood never took place.

Moreover, it is written in the Bible that at some time the flood waters started receding and left the ground completely dry. There were no repeated cycles of floods of this size. According to this, it is quite logical that the red beds and evaporite deposits in different levels of the flood deposit could only be formed in local climates having desert drying conditions.

However, it is not possible this was formed at the same time the great flood covered the surface of the whole Earth. On this basis, it can be said that a massive regional flood could have occurred but not a whole-Earth flood.

The Matsya Avatar of Vishnu Uttar Pradesh, India. Matsya is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Often described as the first of Vishnu's ten primary avatars, Matsya is said to have rescued the first man Manu from a great deluge. The Matsya Avatar is often depicted as a giant fish.

(Victoria and Albert Museum /  Public domain )

Conclusion

While much debate surrounds the “truth” of the great flood, it is quite hard to say whether it actually occurred or not. As per the Bible, Noah used to live in the  Mesopotamian desert , but the coastline of the Black Sea was forested and lush back then.

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More and more geologists are coming up with different revised theories and trying to build solid proof for an event that occurred during ancient times.  Geological expeditions  continue to search the Black Sea. These very expensive geological expeditions are also getting funded by people who are interested in knowing the truth of the Noah's Ark story mentioned in the Bible. 

Scientists and archaeologists are still trying to locate ancient villages beneath the surface of the seas. It will be very interesting to see what additional evidence for the great flood is revealed in the coming years. 

• Top image: The Deluge (1840), a painting by Francis Danby, part of the Tate Gallery collection, which shows how horrible the Great Flood must have been, if, and when, it happened.            
• Source: Francis Danby /  Public domain

By Bipin Dimri

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

AI Finds New Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA Mutations in Human Genome

Scientists affiliated with the GLOBE Institute’s GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have created an Artificial Intelligence program that is helping them identify ancient mutations in the human genome. As they explain in an article in the online journal eLife, they are using this program to find out more about the genetic materials modern humans inherited from archaic hominin species, particularly noting the DNA inherited from our long-extinct cousins the Neanderthals and the Denisovans.

The scientists use the term “adaptive introgression” to describe this type of cross-species inheritance. Introgression refers to the process by which outside genetic material is absorbed into the human genome, while adaptive refers to the evolutionary advantage humans gain from possessing such material.

This new AI program is uniquely suited for identifying instances of adaptive introgression. In the years ahead, it may dramatically expand our knowledge about the relationships that were formed between ancient Homo sapiens (modern humans) and their nearest living relatives.

Early human migrations from Africa and onwards across planet Earth, measured in thousands of years ago (kya), included Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans. And now we know the modern human genome, as a result of hominin species interbreeding, has a lot of genetic material from Neanderthals.

( designua / Adobe Stock)

The Human Genome: Early Human Migrations and Interbreeding

When humans migrated from Africa to Europe, Asia, and beyond more than 60,000 years ago, they met the Neanderthals, who were already living in those areas. Moving eastward they eventually encountered the mysterious Denisovans, who resided in what is now southern and eastern Asia and in Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and the nearby islands of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia).

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While these were separate species, they were closely related to Homo sapiens , close enough to make interbreeding possible. Neanderthals and Denisovans went extinct tens of thousands of years ago, but at least some of their genetic material has survived inside human DNA because of the interactions that took place in prehistoric times.

Only a few traces of Denisovan DNA are likely to be found in the collective human gene pool. But scientists believe that up to 40 percent of Neanderthal DNA may have survived inside the genomes of humans. It is widely spread out, meaning that Neanderthal DNA makes up no more than two percent of any individual’s total genetic material.

An image of the DNA helix that hints at the powers of AI or deep learning methods in learning more about the evolution of the human genome.

( Siarhei / Adobe Stock)

Deep Learning AI Insights Into the Human Genome

Those 40 percent and two percent figures are estimates, not precise measurements. Scientists don’t know for certain exactly how much Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA human beings have inherited, or how it might be distributed ethnically or geographically. They also aren’t sure where all of it is located inside the human genome. Most importantly, they still aren’t sure which functions it performs. These are the issues the GLOBE Institute scientists are trying to remedy.

"We developed a deep learning method called 'genomatnn' that jointly models introgression, which is the transfer of genetic information between species, and natural selection,” Fernando Racimo, a GeoGenetics Centre geneticist and the co-author of the eLife paper, told the author of a University of Copenhagen article about this new study. “The model was developed in order to identify regions in the human genome where this introgression could have happened."

“Deep learning” is a general form of artificial intelligence (AI). The specific form of AI applied in this case is known as a convolutional neural network (CNN), which is a type of deep learning program used for image recognition .

In this experiment, the researchers ran hundreds of thousands of simulations as a way to teach the CNN to identify patterns in genomes that would be created by adaptive introgression. The AI network was specially trained to spot mutations traceable to interactions with Neanderthals or Denisovans.

“Our method is highly accurate and outcompetes previous approaches in power,” Racimo said. “We applied it to various human genomic datasets and found several candidate beneficial gene variants that were introduced into the human gene pool.”

DNA sequences in colored letters on a black background containing the word "mutation." Based on the recent AI study of the human genome at the University of Copenhagen, researchers are now focusing on mutations more and more to understand the evolution of the modern human genome.

( Catalin / Adobe Stock)

Twists and Turns in Our Genetic Roadmap

So far, some of what the scientists have discovered confirms existing theories about where Neanderthal DNA could be found. But in the process they uncovered some new and surprising information as well.

“We recovered previously identified candidates for adaptive introgression in modern humans, as well as several candidates which have not previously been described,” said GeoGenetics Centre researcher Graham Gower, the lead author of the eLife article.

Some of the newly discovered candidates involve mutations that impact human metabolism and immunity system functioning.

“In European genomes, we found two strong candidates for adaptive introgression from Neanderthals in regions of the genome that affect phenotypes related to blood, including blood cell counts,” Gower explained. “In Melanesian genomes, we found candidate variants introgressed from Denisovans that potentially affected a wide range of traits, such as blood-related diseases, tumor suppression, skin development, metabolism, and various neurological diseases.”

Gower is quick to point out that these are preliminary findings. As of now, the scientists aren’t completely sure what impact these mutations might have on those who carry them. They might cause positive responses, negative outcomes, or have no significant effect at all.

In general, scientists assume that when mutations last for tens of thousands of years, they will do so because they are in some way beneficial. Humans who interbred with their archaic cousins likely improved the gene pool overall, adding new genetic material from species that had been surviving in environments that were relatively new to African-born Homo sapiens .

A Neanderthal skull (left) next to a Homo sapiens skull. Though the skulls are very different, it turns out that the modern human genome is almost 40% related to interbreeding and mutations related to Neanderthals.

( procy_ab / Adobe Stock)

Finding Prehistoric Facts with Future Technologies

As their study continues, the University of Copenhagen researchers hope to learn more about the actual effects of the mutations they’ve found (and those they’ve yet to find, but soon will) in the human genome.

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Also, they plan to work backward from the mutations to trace the histories of the ancient people who introduced them into the gene pool. By studying which mutations developed in which population groups, they may be able to determine where Neanderthal, Denisovan, and Homo sapiens interactions occurred in the distant past, and where they were the most extensive.

This type of knowledge will give anthropologists, evolutionary biologists, and archaeologists a better idea about where fossilized remains of various species might be found, along with any artifacts they might have created and left behind. 

• Top image: A drawing of a Neanderthal man looking to the horizon and wondering if he will meet another "human" and, if so a human woman. The human genome it turns out has a lot of Neanderthal genes and now a Danish AI program is proving it.               
• Source: ginettigino / Adobe Stock

By Nathan Falde

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

Aliens May Already Have Discovered Us

Our planet’s shadow against the Sun could have been seen from thousands of nearby solar systems.

Usually it’s we who are searching for planets outside our own Solar System. Lisa Kaltenegger from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University and Jackie Faherty from the American Museum of Natural History in New York looked at it the other way around. Assuming aliens have the same level of technology that we do, would they be able to detect us?

To try to answer that question, the authors consulted a huge data set of precise star positions, from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission. Taking into account the past, present, and future locations of stars and changing viewing geometry, they determined how many star systems would be in position for observers to see Earth transiting in front of the Sun—an important technique for deducing the presence of life. Their analysis identified 1,715 stars within 100 parsecs (about 326 light years) from the Sun that were in the right position to have spotted life over the past 5,000 years, with an additional 319 stars entering this special vantage point in the next 5,000 years.

Most of these stars can be assumed to host planets, many of which could be in the habitable zone, and perhaps could even be Earthlike. The authors estimate that 29 potentially habitable worlds might exist within 100 light years from us. All of them would, in theory, be able to detect radio signals from our planet, which we started to send out about 100 years ago.

We already know that some of the stars in this sample have exoplanets, including the Ross 128 system, the Teegarden’s star system, and the Trappist-1 system, with an astounding seven terrestrial-size exoplanets. Ross128 is only about 11 light years away, and is the 13^th closest system to ours. From there, an Earth transit would have been observable for 2,158 years, up until 900 years ago. From the Teegarden’s star system we are currently not observable, but we will be starting in 2050, for another 410 years.

Life has existed on our planet for four billon years, and widespread oxygen-breathing life has been here since the Great Oxidation Event about 2.6 billion years ago. So, in principle, many more star systems could have detected life on our planet before humans came along by analyzing the gases in our atmosphere during transit events. And even within our cosmic neighborhood, a substantial number of alien civilizations could have been watching as life evolved on Earth.

In the end, all such speculations come down to the prevalence of life in the Universe. Based on some estimates, life—and perhaps even complex life—could certainly exist on some of the planets that have been swept by radio signals from Earth or may have seen our planet transiting against the Sun. Whether intelligent, technologically advanced life exists on these worlds is much more questionable. But it remains a possibility.

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RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE RACING TO BEAT NASA BACK TO THE MOON

A new space race is now underway.

IN THE COMING YEARS, MULTIPLE SPACE AGENCIES will be sending astronauts to the Moon for the first time since the closing days of the Apollo Program.

For NASA, this will represent the long-awaited “return to the Moon,” while every other space agency will see it as a tremendous step for their space programs.

One thing they all have in common is that this time around, the goal is to build the necessary infrastructure that will allow for a long-term human presence.

However, amid all the excitement of this approaching moment in history are concerns about the lack of an international framework that will ensure our efforts are for the sake of “for all humankind.”

Whereas NASA is seeking partners for its Artemis Program through bilateral agreements, Russia and China are pursuing an agreement of their own. They call it the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), and they too are looking for partners in this endeavor.

The detailed plan for the ILRS was made public with the release of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) Guide for Partnership, a document prepared by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) on June 16.

As the first volume in what is clearly an evolving mission architecture, the Guide lays out the purpose and intent of the Sino-Russian agreement and establishes a roadmap and a timeline for the ILRS’ development.

According to the Guide, the ILRS represents a merger of Russia and China’s plans for lunar exploration, something that has been in the works for many years.

• In 2019, the two countries signed bilateral agreements to establish a common data center for lunar and deep-space exploration.
• They also agreed to cooperate with their respective Chang’e 7 and Luna 26, both of which will explore the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin in 2024.

As is stated in the Preface to the Guide:

“Considering the fruitful experience from the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation in the areas of space technology, space science and space application, China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the State Space Corporation “Roscosmos” (ROSCOSMOS) jointly initiated the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) based on their [respective] existing lunar exploration plan.

“The most efficient and productive investigation, exploration and use of the Moon can be achieved only in a broad international partnership with an attraction of other countries, international organizations and international partners. CNSA and Roscosmos jointly invite all interesting international partners to cooperate and contribute more for the peaceful exploration and use of Moon in the interests of all humankind, adhering to the principles of equality, openness and integrity.”

In this respect, the Guide constitutes the official reply of China and Russia to the Artemis Accords, the series of bilateral agreements designed to establish common principles for lunar exploration.

The Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the historic charter that established that “the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind.”

To date, twelve countries have signed the Accords:

1. the United States
2. the United Kingdom
3. Canada
4. Australia
5. New Zealand
6. Italy
7. Japan
8. Luxembourg
9. South Korea
10. Ukraine
11. the United Arab Emirates
12. Brazil

However, when the Accords were first announced in May of 2020, Roscosmos director-general Dmitry Rogozin stated they were “US-centric” and strayed too far from the framework for the ISS. As such, Russia would not participate.

The following October, during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Rogozin went on to say:

“The most important thing here would be to base this program on the principles of international cooperation that we’ve all used. If we could get back to considering making these principles as the foundation of the program, then Roscosmos could also consider its participation.”

On March 3^rd, 2021, Russian and China made it clear they intended to follow when they announced that they would be partnering to create an ILRS, which they described as “a comprehensive scientific experiment base with the capability of long-term autonomous operation, built on the lunar surface and/or on the lunar orbit.” With the release of the Guide, Russia and China have made the details of their plan public for the first time.

Similar to the Artemis Program, the ILRS calls for the creation of multiple facilities to enable long-term missions to the lunar surface. For Artemis, one of the most vital components is the Lunar Gateway, an orbital habitat that will provide a dock for the Orion spacecraft.

The next is the Human Landing System (HLS), a reusable lunar lander that will carry astronauts to and from the surface. Last, there is the Artemis Base Camp that will support the long-term exploration of the surface.

Timeline of the Artemis Program. Credit: NASA

China and Russia have a similar idea in mind for the ILRS, which is defined thusly in the Guide. [Note: some corrections appear in brackets due to translation issues]:

“[The] ILRS is a complex experimental research [facility] to be constructed with [the] possible [involvement] of partners on the surface and/or in orbit of the Moon. [It is] designed for multi-discipline and multi-purpose scientific research activities, including exploration and use of the Moon, moon-based observation, fundamental research experiments[,] and technology verification, with the capability of long-term unmanned operations with the prospect of subsequent human presence.”

According to the design, five facilities will make up the ILRS, starting with the Cislunar Transportation Facility (CLF) — an orbital station that mirrors the purpose of the Gateway.

The second is the Support Facility on a lunar surface (similar to the Artemis Base Camp) that will include a command center, a global Telemetry, Tracking, and Command (TT&C) network, an energy supply system, a thermal management system, and various support modules.

The third is the Lunar Transportation and Operation Facility (LTOF), where lunar vehicles will be stowed and maintained when not in use. This will include transporting cargo to other facilities, conducting exploration missions on the surface, or missions to explore the interior of stable lava tubes.

The fourth is the Lunar Scientific Facility, which will support lunar science operations on the surface, in-orbit, or in deep space.

The fifth and final facility mentioned is the Ground Support and Application Facility (GSAF), which is intended to offer operational support to communications and missions. It will also serve as a data center for lunar and deep-space missions, which China and Russia previously agreed to establish as part of their joint lunar efforts.

TIMELINE & OBJECTIVES — Overall, the Guide lays out the eight objectives for the ILRA, which are similar to what NASA hopes to accomplish with the Artemis Program. They include the characterization of lunar topography, geomorphology, and the geological structure of the surface.

In addition, the joint Chinese-Russian program will seek to characterize the physics and chemistry of lunar materials and the body’s internal structure to get a better understanding of its geological record.

Beyond that, the IRLS will serve as a base for conducting lunar astronomy and Earth observation, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and vital biological and medical researcher.

These objectives and the development of the ILRS itself are to be met during a three-phase process that will unfold between today and 2035. These include the Reconnaissance, Construction, and Utilization phase, and each incorporates future missions into their planning.

PHASE I — RECONNAISSANCE (2021 TO 2025)

This is currently underway and is expected to last until mid-decade. The objectives in this phase include exploring the South Pole-Aitken Basin for potential sites for the ILRS, as well as refining the design of the base itself.

Another important objective is the verification of technologies that will allow for precise soft landings in the southern polar region. Past and future missions that will (have) contributed are also indicated.

On the Chinese side, these include the Chang’e-4, Chang’e-6, and Chang’e-7 missions. The Chang’e-4 mission, which arrived on the Moon in 2018 and is still operational, consists of the Chang’e Lander, the Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit 2) rover, and the Queqiao relay satellite. The missions will be launched sometime in 2023/2024 and will return samples from the Moon’s southern polar region and scout out locations for a base.

On the Russian side, missions related to the ILRS include the Luna-25, Luna-26, and Luna-27, consisting of two landers and one orbiter (Luna 26). These missions will launch beginning in October 2021 (Luna-25), followed by the second and third in 2024 and August 2025 (respectively). If all goes well, China and Russian will be able to begin the next phase of operations by the middle of this decade.

PHASE II — CONSTRUCTION (2025 TO 2030)

At this point, one of the main goals will be the verification of technologies related to the command center of the ILRS. Similarly, the samples obtained by the Chang’e-6 and Chang’e-7 missions will be returned to Earth for analysis, which will give mission planners a better idea of where the safest and richest resource environment can be found. This will be followed by the delivery of massive amounts of cargo to build the base and the commencement of joint operations.

Missions of note in this phase include China’s Chang’e-8 mission that will launch by 2027. This mission will test technologies like 3D regolith printing and others necessary for the construction of the ILRS. Russia will also be sending its Luna-28 mission that year, a sample return mission that (like Chang’e 6 and 7) will obtain regolith from the southern polar region to determine its composition and the presence of resources.

PHASE III — UTILIZATION (2030 TO 2035)

This final phase will involve the completion of all in-orbit and surface facilities that provide energy, communication, research, exploration, and transport services. It will also involve the verification of all ISRU-related and other potential technologies. Once the ILRS is complete, China and Russia hope to maintain and expand it as needed. This phase will involve five jointly-developed IRLS missions to establish the base architecture:

• IRLS-1: establishment of the command center, basic energy, and telecommunications facilities
• IRLS-2: establishment of lunar research exploration facilities (sample collection, lunar physics, geology, lava tubes)
• IRLS-3: establishment of lunar ISRU technology verification facilities
• IRLS-4: verification of general technologies like biomedical experiments, sample collection, and return
• IRLS-5: establishment of lunar-based astronomy and Earth observation facilities

Illustration of NASA astronauts on the lunar South Pole. Credit: NASA

PARTNERSHIPS — The Guide also establishes that partner organizations will have the opportunity to conduct their own missions as part of each phase.

Those missions are to conform to the objectives of each phase in question, with possible roles ranging from assisting with exploration to the construction of necessary infrastructure in orbit and on the surface, and the creation of base facilities. As it is summarized in the Guide:

“All Partners are encouraged to join ILRS project based on their own situation. Any Partner willing to contribute to the ILRS, through a jointly coordinated negotiation with China and Russia, can participate including co-lead status in any part of the project. The objective, plan, interface, standards, interoperability and scientific application of the participating project(s) or missions shall be aligned with generation architecture and functions of ILRS.”

The Guidelines and Opportunities for these partnerships are laid out in the last two sections of the Guide. The duties of prospective partners are spelled out using a five-tiered alphabetic classification system.

1. For Category A: Space Mission Cooperation, partners are asked to contribute to the “development of the general architecture, scientific objectives, road-map of ILRS, and participate with scientific or engineering missions of ILRS.”

2. Those partners classified as Category B: Space System Cooperation, must cooperate with China and/or Russia on one or more space systems based on the general architecture and functions of the ILRS.

Examples include the ILRS’s power system, a launcher system for another party’s spacecraft, or an independent lunar probe to piggyback on a CNSA or Roscosmos mission. Alternately, they can choose to participate in one or more of the missions led by the CNSA or Roscosmos.

Artist’s impression of surface operations on the Moon. Credit: NASA

3. For Category C: Subsystem Cooperation, partners will be required to develop one or more space subsystems depending on the specific mission or ILRS system.

4. Much the same is true for Category D: Equipment Cooperation, where partners will provide one or more sets of equipment based on the defined mission or ILRS subsystem.

5. Last, Category E: Ground and Application Cooperation applies to partners cooperating on the building of the CLF, LTOF, and/or GSAF.

Overseeing these partnerships is the Joint Working Group established by the CNSA and Roscosmos, which has designated subgroups for handling legal affairs, scientific objectives, and engineering objectives. Specific opportunities for collaborating on various missions are also laid out, as is a list of contacts for interested parties.

One thing that is abundantly clear from this Guide is the similarities it has to the Artemis Program and the Artemis Accords. These are evident in terms of the mission architecture, but also in terms of the stated purpose of the joint venture and the desire to forge partnerships.

As noted, the language used in the preface is indicative of the Outer Space Treaty, especially where it states that the overall aim is “the peaceful exploration and use of the Moon in the interests of all humankind.”

As a comparison, consider Section 1 of the Artemis Accords (Purpose & Scope):

“Adherence to a practical set of principles, guidelines, and best practices in carrying out activities in outer space is intended to increase the safety of operations, reduce uncertainty, and promote the sustainable and beneficial use of space for all humankind.”

Illustration of Artemis astronauts on the Moon.

Credits: NASA

In both cases, the language is an attempt to call forth the spirit of the Outer Space Treaty. However, as many critics have stated, the Artemis Accords suffer from the fact that they are tied to a specific space agency and program. This was certainly the basis of Rogozin and Russia’s resistance when the Accords were first announced, hence why Russia and China have come together to do the same.

In short, they have decided to establish a set of bilateral agreements that would allow others to participate in their program of lunar exploration. While it’s not clear what the long-term implications of this will be, it could possibly lead to tensions and territorial disputes down the road. After all, one of the hallmarks of the current era of space exploration is its plurality, where multiple space agencies (and commercial space) are involved instead of two competing superpowers.

But when three of the five major space powers create two competing frameworks and ask others to join them, one can be forgiven for concluding that there’s a new Space Race in town!

It also makes the need for a truly international legal framework — as advocated by the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) — all the more pressing. If we truly want our future in space to be “for the good of all humankind,” steps need to be taken to prevent it from becoming the Wild West 2.0.

• This article was originally published on Universe Today by MATT WILLIAMS. Read the original article here.

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