reply to post by zorgon
My question [#2] is...
What exactly IS NASA's 'current policy' on "people coming in contact with extra-terrestrials or their vehicles."
And where is it written?
Oh yeah, Dr. Z, - I've been looking for this one myself for years...
In fact, allow me to ruminate on your question a bit:
Let's accept that even with all of their detractors and erroneous ways, NASA has indeed assembled quite a cadre of sharp minds - scientists,
administrators, military men, lawyers, engineers, policy makers - etc.
Let's also accept that as a government bureaucracy (*cough* - I mean, government "agency"), they have thought of and documented every possible
scenario and potential variable that may confront their operations in space.
As any military man will tell you, one must never enter a program or operation unless and until a thorough requirements analysis assessment is made to
determine proper plans of action to deal with every possible contingency.
For one thing, you do not want to send billions of dollars of investment in man and machine into space unless you've considered how you would respond
and react to ANY and EVERY potential encounter, finding, or engagement. Failure to do so would be illogical, irresponsible, and possibly
disastrous.
Thus, the question begs: What
is the OFFICIAL policy of NASA (and all similar international space agencies, for that matter) should their
astronauts (or mechanical agents) encounter something "unexpected" while on their adventures?
For example, we‘ve all heard about the supposed code-speak employed by some astronauts during the Apollo missions (e.g.,”… there is a “Santa
Claus”). Rumors of Armstrong making remarks on the surface of the moon (not fully substantiated), Aldrin while enroute to the moon, and numerous
others before and since commenting on “UFOs” and “Alien Objects”, etc. and captured in the static of voice transmissions notwithstanding,
exactly WHAT is the policy?
Surely, NASA has advised their astronauts, despite their denials, that if they should encounter something, however unlikely, they are instructed to…
what?
I don’t believe for one second that NASA would spend billions and send astronauts and instruments to the moon and beyond and have ABSOLUTELY NO PLAN
to deal with anomalous encounters such as this.
Consider this: Wouldn’t YOU want to know what you’re supposed to do in case you encounter something, well, “other-worldly” in space or on the
surface of a celestial body somewhere? What if you spot a relic or artifact on the moon’s surface that obviously is NOT ours? Forget ET for a
minute. How do you deal with such a finding? How do you report it? How do you document it? You mean to tell me we have NO policy for reporting
back a finding of such significance?
How about UFOs? What if you’re in orbit around the moon or enroute and you encounter an unmistakable self-propelled, intelligently-controlled craft
zig-zagging past, or, better yet, pulling up alongside you?
Now, aside from the interesting, but inconclusive efforts of exopolitics guru Dr. Salla and his pals, and the admittedly questionable tactics of
Greer, the pontifications of Stanton Friedman, the deductions of Dr. Amir Aczel, and the cast of other thousands weighing in on the subject – what
say NASA?
How about it? Surely we can’t believe that NOTHING in the way of official guidance is provided to our astronauts, cosmonauts, kinonauts, and soon,
if we are to accept trends, citizen-nauts or is even available if asked?
Ok, so Part 1211.1xx of NASA’s Title 14 was repealed/invalidated in 1991. Big deal. Did anything take its place? If so, where is it? If not,
why the hell not!?!? There SHOULD be! My money says there IS in fact such a policy.
The current
iteration of Title 14 just shows part 1211 as “Reserved”
What does that mean? "Reserved" as in ATS (no pun intended)? Reserved as in “redacted”? Reserved as in”removed”, “replaced”,
“revised” - what?
How about the Ruskies? What do they tell their boys (and girls)? “If ET knocks on your porthole asking if you have any Grey Poupon, ignore them
– we have no policy dealing with such an occurrence, it can’t happen - it won't happen - ever”.
What is being told to Burt Rutan and all those other soon-to-be commercial space-faring outfits? “There will be nothing to see up there, but if you
do encounter something, you won’t live to tell anyone about it!”
And what if a rover on Mars stumbles upon something - irrefutable? If Spirit or Opportunity roll up to a giant ET-McDonalds ruin or a crashed
ET-troop transport – is there no policy in place for dealing with such an event? And I don’t mean some rock that looks like a skull, a shadow in
the shape of a beer-bottle, or one of Singh’s worms either. I mean a no-doubt-about-it work of non-human engineering. Not one line of code, not
one sentence of instructions, not one paragraph of policy to consider such a possibility?
I call complete and utter B.S. on that. Period.
Like Zorgon and many others here, I’ve accumulated Terrabytes of documents and a huge library of books and reference works on this subject and I
STILL have not found anything that validates such a policy is in place. And I will stake my life (scratch that)… er, I will stake my, umm, “good
name” on the existence of some formal contingency plan for handling an encounter during space operations.
So far, no astronaut, scientist, official, or even space agency clerk that I’ve asked (and I’ve asked many) will acknowledge the existence of such
a document or policy (though I have a had a few winks and raised eyebrows –especially from the military types).
I guess we mere mortals are not-to-know. FOIA, my butt. *sigh*.
Anyway – thanks for asking the questions (again) Zorgon. And I appreciate all of the answers and commentary provided. Some of us are not into
chasing rainbows or shadows or fuzzy points of light on grainy amateur film or ET-on-toast (pareidolia) or other ET-ghosts. I want just the facts,
Ma’am. The truth.
I hate being lied to, and like many of you, I’m convinced that we are.
Carry on…
p.s. One semi-official told me once at a space-weapons conference that NASA and other 'agencies' are very concerned that should a common-citizen
have an ET encounter that they would NOT represent Earth's government(s) optimally and so such encounters are both 'discouraged and denied'. When
I asked him who IS sanctioned or approved for such encounters if and when they MAY occur - the conversation abruptly ended. No surprises there, I
guess...
So - a corroborate question to Zorgon's #2:
"WHO SPEAKS FOR EARTH"?
Does the USA or ANY Earth government have a plan? WHAT IF they land on the proverbial White House lawn? Does everyone run around like a bunch of
idiots with no one having any idea what to do next with only the First-Dog running out to greet the visitors with some yelping and maybe a snap at
their ankles? Again- B.S. Sure, we're collectively stupid, but we're not THAT stupid. Are We?
So what IS that policy, where is it, and who wrote it??
[edit to fix link]
[edit on 7/29/2009 by Outrageo]