jlf1961
Posts: 14840
Joined: 6/10/2008
From: Somewhere Texas
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quote:
SYMPOSIUM ON UNIDENTIFIED
FLYING OBJECTS
HEARINGS
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE AND ASTRONAUTICS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NINETIETH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
JULY 29, 1968
Dr. Sagan: "Apparently what is now happening is that the Air Force surveillance radar is throwing away the data that is of relevance for this inquiry. In other words, if it sees something that is not on a ballistic trajectory, or not in orbit, it ignores it, it throws it in the garbage."
"Well, that garbage is just the area of our interest. So if some method could be devised by the Air Force to save the output that they are throwing away from these space surveillance radars, it might be the least expensive way to significantly improve our information about these phenomena."
This statement was concerned with the NORAD habit of throwing away recordings of 'fast walker' radar tracks.
The definition of a Fast Walker is as follows:
Any radar track which does not exhibit any ballistic trajectory, has originated from outside earth orbit, and has exhibited unusual flight characteristics which cannot be explained by atmospheric bounce.
Atmospheric bounce is the effect the atmosphere has on objects that are on a collision course with the surface and due to atmospheric density changes trajectory.
Now, since the NORAD systems are designed to alert operators to any high velocity object which is of sufficient size and velocity to either be a man made object on a ballistic trajectory OR an extra orbital object on an impact trajectory.
AND
NORAD systems differentiate between man made objects which have a constant and regular radar return and natural objects which has an irregular return due to axial rotation.
Therefore, 'Fast Walker' alerts are triggered only after a series of programmed parameters have been met and the computers decide that a human operator needs to figure out what the crap is going on.
Now, since in the case of NORAD, radar track recordings are not 'thrown out in the garbage' in the literal sense, they are kept on the computers to allow the computers to use them as reference data, however, the written report by the operators are filed in the basic, "when we figure out if this crap is really important we will let someone know, otherwise we will keep our mouths shut so we do not end up stationed at some weather outpost at the south pole" file drawer.
While it isn't public knowledge, the usual result of an astronaut reporting an unidentified object is extensive psychological examinations to rule out the possibility of some sort of mental instability caused by a weightless environment.
The two original mercury astronauts that reported sightings were out of the flight rotation for some time until they satisfied the NASA admin people that they were not crazy. The Gemini crews that made similar reports were taken out of the Apollo rotation until the same satisfaction was made. As far as shuttle crew reports, with two exceptions, there have been no incidents.
Former Soviet Space agency records recently released show that several cosmonauts that reported unusual sightings spent extended vacations in various medical facilities in remote locations throughout the Soviet Union.
Which brings us back to the following theories concerning manned interplanetary or interstellar flight:
1) If we do run into any intelligent species out there, our crews will probably have orders to suicide and destroy the ship in order to prevent the aliens from finding out where it came from OR
2) Our ships will go out armed with every conceivable weapon system we can design and mount on a space going craft, and upon encountering an intelligent alien species, the mission commander will say, with the all to human response to the unknown, "It looks hostile, lets blow the bastard out of space! Open fire!"
Which will result in the alien commander saying, "Grezaler Hogunzaie Ficounta!!!!"*
Now this will mean that out grandchildren or great grandchildren will be born into a world with no cities, no technology, and absolutely no idea what the hell happened except in the form of some story about the angels from the heavens coming down and blasting their ancestors back to the stone age for their terrible sins.
Now, there is the possibility that before our race is so rightfully subjected to this punishment, the few hundred thousand of us that actually believe that there are better things to do than destroy everything might get transplanted to some non polluted world, given the tools and technology needed to actually develope a more compassionate and intelligent race, and most likely be assigned the job of watching our cousins and making sure they behave.
*rough translation: What the hell do those primitive idiots think they are doing? Kill the bastards, and find out where their homeworld is and destroy it, blast that race back to their primitive pre civilized cultural level and hope the hell they do it right the next time!"
_____________________________
Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think?
You cannot control who comes into your life, but you can control which airlock you throw them out of.
Paranoid Paramilitary Gun Loving Conspiracy Theorist AND EQUAL OPPORTUNI
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