The year 1977 was a remarkable time for those fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial life. A series of events, both earthbound and celestial, captivated the imagination of people around the world. These events sparked a renewed interest in the search for life beyond our planet.
It began on August 15, 1977, when a strong, narrowband radio signal was detected by a radio telescope at Ohio State University. Dubbed the “Wow!” signal, it remains one of the most intriguing examples of an unexplained signal in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
Just five days later, on August 20, 1977, NASA launched the first Voyager space probe. It carried a Golden Record containing sounds and images of Earth, intended as a message to any intelligent life form that might encounter it.
As the year progressed, the United Nations Assembly debated the existence of UFOs. A proposal to study the phenomenon was presented on October 6, 1977, as reported by The New York Times. This marked a significant moment in the history of UFO research. It brought the topic into the mainstream and sparked a global conversation about the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
The release of Steven Spielberg’s movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” on November 16, 1977, further fueled the public’s fascination with UFOs and alien life. The film’s depiction of a peaceful encounter between humans and extraterrestrials resonated with audiences. It helped to shape the cultural narrative around the topic. It’s iconic 5-note melody by John Williams is famous to this day.
But perhaps the most bizarre and unexplained event of the year occurred on November 26, 1977, when a strange broadcast interrupted a news program on ITN, a British television network. At 5:10 p.m. GMT, a deep buzzing sound replaced the audio. This was followed by a distorted voice claiming to be Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command. The voice delivered a message of peace and wisdom, stating,
“For many years, you have seen us as lights in the skies. We speak to you now in peace and wisdom, as we have done to your brothers and sisters all over this, your planet Earth.”
While the “authenticity” of this broadcast remains a topic of debate, it has become a fascinating footnote in the history of UFO research.
The broadcast itself may have been achieved by technological hacks. Nevertheless, its 1977 message is thought-provoking and still valid today:
It speaks about the need for humanity to come together in peace and harmony to avoid disaster. The message also discusses entering a new age of enlightenment, referred to as the “New Age of Aquarius.” The speaker warns about the presence of false prophets and guides who may exploit people’s energy and resources. The message encourages listeners to be aware of their choices, to protect themselves, and to use their imagination to create a better world.
A well-researched podcast about the Southern Television Broadcast interruption is found here:
Archive: The Interruption | Stak
On 26th November 1977, a mysterious alien voice calling itself “Vrillon” broke onto the Five O’Clock News. Vrillon had a simple warning for the viewers of Southern Television: live in peace or leave the galaxy. For forty-five years, those responsible have not been identified. Tommie Trelawny has reopened the case.
Whether or not 1977 was truly a year of contact, it was undoubtedly a year that sparked a renewed interest in extraterrestrial life and intelligence. It continues to inspire scientific inquiry and popular fascination to this day.
Are UFOs over US airspace allowed to travel at superfast speeds, but it’s not allowed over European airspace? A Ukrainian UFO raises questions.
Update Feb 24, 2024 (Newsweek).
Mystery disk-shaped UFO spotted by recon drone in Ukraine
“I’m telling you, it’s a UFO, for sure. It is staying in place, on the screen,” a Ukrainian soldier can be heard saying in the video.
A groundbreaking UFO study published by Ukrainian astronomers has stirred up speculation with claims of mysterious flying objects captured on radar, leaving both skeptics and believers buzzing.
Half a year after the onset of the Russian invasion, these researchers unveiled striking evidence of unidentified aerial phenomena soaring across the skies, clocked at astonishing speeds of up to 54,000 km/h!
But as renowned astronomer Avi Loeb throws cold water on the findings—asserting they could simply be artillery shells—the debate over what truly lurks above Ukraine intensifies. Is it extraterrestrial life, or are earthly conflicts warping our perceptions? Buckle up as we dive into this cosmic controversy!
SETI pope Avi Loeb claimed that Ukrainian astronomers mistook Russian artillery shells for UFOs. The UFOs were clocked at 54,000 km/h.
But this cannot be artillery shells: the world’s fastest artillery shell travels at 2,977 km/h. The world’s fastest missile (Avangard) reaches 37,044 km/h. That’s well short of the reported 54,000 km/h.
Avi Loeb then asserted that the astronomers had only estimated the distance, resulting in a ten-fold error in both distance and speed. (Even then, the objects photographed would still too fast to be artillery shells.) It’s not true that the astronomers only estimated the distance: they computed the distance by triangulation. That’s a scientific method with very precise results!
Then Avi Loeb claimed that no HUMAN-MADE objects can travel at these speeds in Earth’s atmosphere, as otherwise, there would be a fireball around them due to intense air ionization and friction.
Case In Point: the objects were not HUMAN-MADE.
And why does Avi Loeb initially dismiss the observations of the Ukrainian astronomers as being wrong, but then later argues that if the observations were valid, it wouldn’t be possible due to air friction?
54000 km/h vs. 74000 km/h? Whaaat?
Avi Loeb disregarded the observations of a team of Ukrainian astronomers over Ukraine airspace as unlikely, because the UFOs traveled at 54 000 km/h. His theory being that at these speeds the air molecules surrounding the UFO would ignite by friction (air resistance), creating a huge flaming fireball. This was clearly not the case. Hence, Avi Loeb says, the speed must have been wrongly deduced.
However, the Pentagon TicTac video shows a UFO that traveled at a top speed of 72,000 km/h. How is it possible for UFOs over US airspace to travel at superfast speeds, but it’s not allowed over European airspace?
Here is the in-depth TicTac video analysis by Dr. Kevin Knuth from the Entropy Magazine, estimating the TicToc UFO top speed at 46,000 mph (74,000 km/h):
Estimating Flight Characteristics of Anomalous Unidentified Aerial Vehicles
Several Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) encountered by military, commercial, and civilian aircraft have been reported to be structured craft that exhibit ‘impossible’ flight characteristics.
And here is the non-scientific version from Meer.com, by Dr. Tim Mounce (though he got the speed wrong: its 46,000 mph and not 45,000 mph).
USS Nimitz Tic Tac UFO: unveiling inexplicable physics
Physics analysis reveals astonishing maneuvers beyond human understanding
And here, now, is the story of Ukraine UFOs:
The Ukraine UFO study
Half a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, the Ukrainians published a UFO study.
It was claimed that not one but two meteorite-observing stations had discovered something extraordinary at the same time: flying objects moving faster than the unaided human eye can see.
“The eye does not fix phenomena lasting less than one-tenth of a second,” the paper said. “It takes four-tenths of a second to recognize an event. “ — Ukrainian UAP study
One observing station was based in the capital of Kyiv and the other in the village of Vinarivka, 132 km to the south.
The Ukrainian astronomers detected the UFOs with specialized meteorite detection equipment:
“Ordinary photo and video recordings will () not capture the [unidentified aerial phenomena]. “ — Ukrainian UAP study
Triangulation
The equipment was 132 km apart, meaning that they could triangulate the speed, position, and size of the objects really well.
Triangulation is a technique that astronomers do all the time. For instance, it’s used to determine the distance of stars.
The objects measured between 3 and 12 meters and were clocked at speeds up to 54,000 km per hour (33,554 mph)!
Publication
The Ukrainians first published their findings on a preprint server named Arxiv:
“Unidentified aerial phenomena, I. Observations of events”
Scientists use Arxiv to receive feedback from peers before publication. Arxiv also provides public access to papers that might otherwise be hidden behind paywalls.
Everybody assumed (without basis in fact) that the Ukrainian UFO sightings were somehow related to the raging Ukraine—Russia conflict. — Erich Habich-Traut for the Contact Project
Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who had gained worldwide fame in 2018 with his theory that comet Oumuamua was an extraterrestrial probe, was aware of the Ukrainian study.
But he hadn’t looked at it closer until he was asked by the director of the new UAP office in Washington, DC, to write a short paper about it.
The Contact Project first heard of Avi Loeb’s “debunking” of the Ukrainian study from his email:
Quote: “You might enjoy the essay and related paper below. I was reluctant to even read the Ukranian paper, but on Monday night I was visited at home by the director of the new UAP office in DC and he asked me to write a short scientific paper on UAP. So yesterday morning at 4.30AM (before my routine morning jog) I had a look at the Ukrainian paper and within an hour figured that they got the distance to their dark objects wrong by a factor of ten (or else there would be a huge fireball around each of them as a result of the friction with the air). After correcting that everything falls into place, with the parameters of artillery shells As Feynman noted, there’s a great pleasure in figuring things out. There is no way out of this argument because they claim the objects are dark, meaning that they block light. The cross-section with photons implies that the objects must interact with air molecules.” — Avi Loeb
Morning Jog at 4:30 am
According to his email, Avi quickly reviewed the “Ukranian” paper before starting his daily morning jog at 4:30 am. Within one hour he had already concluded that the objects could not move at the speeds claimed by the Ukrainians (because the air would burn around them from friction), and they were, in fact, artillery shells:
Avi Loeb contended that the Ukrainian astronomers had failed to exercise due diligence, resulting in a ten-fold miscalculation of the UFOs’ speed. He said that was because they had not triangulated the distance of the objects and only estimated their distance.
Then Avi Loeb said the UFOs were in reality (Russian) artillery shells.
From that point on, the “debunking train” rapidly gained momentum, leading nearly every publication that had previously supported the story to criticize the Ukrainian astronomers’ findings as inaccurate Russian artillery.
I scratched my head.
When were the observations made?
How did Avi Loeb know that the UFOs were artillery? The Russian bombardment of Ukraine had started after the 24th of February 2022. There was not a single mention in the Ukrainian UAP paper of when the observations were actually made. Only a vague reference in the footnotes to an Astronomical Schools Report from 2021.
Clearly, that was an omission. To find clarity on the matter, I wrote two letters to the Ukrainian astronomers:
Quote “Dear Mr. Zhilyaev, Avi Loeb has made a comment regarding your paper on Arxiv, that your observations are those of artillery shells. Do you believe this to be a possibility?” — The Contact Project
That first letter got no reply. Avi Loeb’s comments about artillery shells became the de facto explanation for UAP in Ukraine.
A few weeks later, I decided to write a second letter to the Ukrainian astronomers, being more precise in my question. I also put Avi Loeb in the BCC, in case he wanted to clarify his argument:
Quote “Dear Mr. Zhilyaev, writing on behalf of the Contact Project, (https://contactproject.org) I’m curious about your UAP sightings.
Arxiv: “Unidentified aerial phenomena I. Observations of events,” by B. Zhilyaev, V. Petukhov, and V. Reshetnyk https://arxiv.org/pdf/2208.11215.pdf
I would like to note that your preprint archive paper does not say precisely WHEN your observations took place, and I am curious about that date.
In your references (2) regarding “phantoms,” you quote a publication from 2021, a date well before the Russian invasion in 2022.
(2) Zhilyaev B.E., Vidmachenko A.P., Petukhov V.N., et al., 2021, Astronomical Schools Report, 17, N 1–2, 1–8
Is it correct then to assume that at least some of the observations that are the basis of your preprint paper are from a time when there were no artillery shells flying through Ukrainian skies?
From my reading of your paper, I understand that you had access to two observation stations. You probably triangulated the object distance from that?
What do you say?” — The Contact Project
This time I did receive a short reply from the lead astronomer of the Ukraine UAP study:
Quote: “We have been watching UAP since 2018. We do not associate their activity with the war in Ukraine. Observations from 2 points are carried out for the purpose of triangulation.” — B.E. Zhilyaev
It was as I thought: the Ukrainians had claimed nowhere to have made their observations in 2022 during the war.
Instead, the UFO/UAP sightings date back to the year 2018. Furthermore, the Ukrainian astronomers had not “estimated” the distance of the objects; instead, they had used two observation posts to triangulate the distance scientifically. This also made it possible to calculate their size.
CONCLUSION
The observations made by the Ukrainian astronomers were from 2018, not during the war. In fact, they had been monitoring UFO sightings since then. Furthermore, the team used two observation posts to triangulate the distance of the objects scientifically, which allowed them to calculate their speed and size.
This information raises questions about Avi Loeb’s conclusions. Given that the observations were made before the war, it becomes unlikely that the objects were artillery shells. The ability to triangulate the objects also contradicts Avi Loeb’s argument.
The truth, in this case, requires persistence and the ability to interpret ambiguity.
(the authors published further papers, clarifying and doubling down on their findings): arXiv:2211.17085 [pdf, ps, other] physics.pop-ph astro-ph.IM Unidentified aerial phenomena II. Evaluation of UAP properties Authors:B. E. Zhilyaev, V. N. Petukhov, V. M. Reshetnyk Abstract: …sky led to the detection of two luminous objects at an altitude of 620 and 1130 km, moving at a speed of 256 and 78 km/s. Colorimetric analysis showed that the objects are dark: B – V = 1.35, V – R = 0.23. The size of objects is estimated to be more than 100 meters. The detection of these objects is an experimental fact. Submitted 13 November, 2022: 13 pages,34 figures, Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies
arXiv:2306.13664 [pdf, ps, other] physics.pop-ph astro-ph.IM Unidentified aerial phenomena. Observations of variable objects Authors:Boris Zhilyaev, David Tcheng, Vladimir Petukhov Abstract: NASA commissioned a research team to study Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP). The Main Astronomical Observatory of NAS of Ukraine conducts an independent study of UAP. A research team from San Diego also decided to conduct a study of UAP. Observations of events that cannot scientifically be identified as known natural phenomena established the existence of the UAP. Submitted 11 June, 2023: 5 pages, 9 figures, Kinematics and Physics of Celestial Bodies
I’m excited to share a fresh perspective on the Contact Project. While many gaze into the vast expanse of space, searching light-years away for evidence of extraterrestrial life, I believe we should look closer to home. Yes, radio astronomy may one day unveil the whispers of alien civilizations beyond our solar system, but in my view, Earth is already a crossroads for extraterrestrial visitors.
We don’t need to venture far to find “ET.”
THE E.T. MOVIE PHONE
Radio amateur Henry Feinberg explains the communicator he built for the movie “ET: The Extraterrestrial.” Have you ever wondered how quickly the mothership responded to ET’s call? The E.T. movie phone can transmit actual messages into space to orbiting saucers. Doesn’t that sound ludicrous?
E.T.’s mothership wasn’t actually very far from Earth. That’s how he was rescued so quickly. The banner for the Contact Project embodies this very idea. What many see as a simple child’s toy, reminiscent of the beloved movie “E.T. The Extraterrestrial,” is, in fact, a working communications device capable of sending signals into Earth orbit.
I’m not saying that we should build this contraption. But the idea that it may be possible to contact ETi by sending radio signals is the core idea of this website, the “ContactProject.Org.”
In the world of science and technology communication, Henry Feinberg (call sign K2SSQ) shines brightly. A true innovator at heart, he crafted the remarkable communicator featured in the film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
How to built a ET communicator, according to a radio ham
Using everyday household items, Henry pieced together an ingenious device that could transmit E.T.’s iconic “phone home” signal. The communicator consists of three distinct components. At its core lies a modified Speak and Spell, with its keys reconfigured to form an entirely new alphabet.
From each key, Henry connected wires to another pivotal piece—the programmer. This unconventional programmer is built atop a turntable, but instead of a record, it features a saw blade adorned with multiple coats of insulating spray paint.
Henry crafted openings in the saw blade that correspond to specific letters. As the turntable spins, the saw blade passes under a row of Bobby pins, which contact and activate the Speak and Spell just as if one were pressing the buttons directly. Adding to the complexity of this creation, Henry ingeniously fashioned a ratchet system using a knife and fork hinged together. As the turntable rotates, the knife and fork pivot back and forth, precisely indexing the saw blade to generate the next letter of the message.
To further enhance his creation, Henry attached a rope to a nearby tree branch in the forest. As the wind rustled through the trees, it pulled the branch back and forth, gently advancing the saw blade tooth by tooth. With this setup, he not only programmed a message but also needed to transmit it across the cosmos.
For the transmission, Henry utilized a speaker-microphone from a CB walkie-talkie that belonged to Elliott. He ingeniously routed the signal to a UHF TV tuner—an ingenious piece that E.T. had “borrowed” from Elliott’s mother’s television set. This tuner elevated the signal from the CB frequency into the microwave range, channeling it into a coffee can that vibrated to amplify the transmission.
Finally, the message was funneled through an umbrella lined with a reflective coating, which directed the signal outward into the vastness of outer space. Each component harmonized beautifully, showcasing not only Henry’s talent as an inventor but also the enduring possibilities of communication across galaxies.
During April 2020 I had a lot of time on my hands. It was the first Corona lockdown in Germany. I decided to sort through old 35 mm negatives in an old drawer in our basement. The drawer serves as a storage box.
As I was pulling the film strips through the scanner, I came across negatives from England, where I had lived in 1995. Between those negatives were two frames of particular interest.
Ilford XP2 35 mm film, 1995
Ilford XP2 film frames 7 and 8 showed an UAP. I was not prepared to find these pictures. I had completely forgotten this UFO sighting for 25 years. The only other two people who knew about it were my girlfriend and her father who were with me when the sighting took place.
The blurry camera images are not as good as what I saw with my own eyes that night in 1995. I got two exposures of the same object driving in a straight line at 70 mph on the motorway. That made it possible to actually triangulate distance, speed and size of the object:
Triangulation of distance to UAP, frames 7 & 8
It has been suggested that what I saw was an advertising blimp parked near the motorway. I don’t think so, because it had no advertising or any markings on it. Also, the object became 25% smaller as we drove towards it for approx. 15 seconds at 70 mph.
To get smaller the blimp would have to have traveled faster than 70 mph. But a blimp top speed is only 55 mph.
UAP?
That leaves me with the question: what did I see?
This is the reason I am stepping forward, now. I know how to answer this type of question, once and for all.
—–
The Mission of ‘The Contact Project’: to investigate UAPs/UFOs using real-time tracking, radio, video, gigapixel images and passive radar, so that this type of question can be answered without doubts.
The engine of this initiative will be an app designed to coordinate real-time reporting, alerting, documenting and contacting efforts.
The goal of the ‘Contact Project’ is to discover whether or not humanity is equipped to respond to extraterrestrial contact.
The CONTACT INITIATIVE looks for answers about the nature of UAPs/UFOs.
My name is Erich Habich-Traut and I’m the initiator of the ‘Contact Project’.
I’ve coordinated a multinational science project 2001 – 2015 with my website “Our Planet Earth From Space”, which tracked Earth Changes: http://opefs.com.
The difference between the Contact Project and classical SETI is that UAPs are included in its search for extraterrestrial life.
The Contact Project wants to gather high quality evidence about the phenomenon. It also wants to inform and enthuse the public about the possibility of contact
UFO ALERT One possibility to gather evidence on UFOs and make contact with ETi that the Contact Project has investigated is an app based approach- a smartphone app that records GPS coordinates of UFOs after a user alert. The following is past tense:
Users could take snapshots or video of the UFO with their smartphone. But that was not the primary goal. When the smartphone was used to photograph the UFO, its gravity sensors record the elevation and the compass records its azimuth.
The UFO alert then would have been sent to an astronomical database, NORAD database and air traffic databases to identify known flying objects. Secret military projects were to be excluded via NORAD TLEs.
The remaining objects qualified as prospective UAP. They would have been investigated by forwarding their GPS coordinates to close-by search partners using the same Contact app. All this was to happen near real-time.
The search partners were to be selected by their proximity to the sighting and their capability/qualifications.
Search partners could have been HAM radio operators, videographers, gigapixel camera operators, Unistellar telescope operators and (passive) radar operators. Passive radar was a subset of radio HAM enthusiasts.
To motivate the public to take part in this search prizes were to be given for successful detections of UAPs, staggered by evidence weight:
more important: 4. reception of radio emissions, 5. verifiable conversation with ETI (CETI), 6. physical alien artifact, 7. actual landing of UAP with ETI.
Alternative to cash prizes, credits may be given. Those could be collectible non-fungible tokens (NFT’s), whose value is based on their desirability.
The whole endeavor (and prize money) would have been funded by private enterprise through the “Alien Marketplace” advertising space. This marketplace was accessed through the Contact app. To filter out fakes and false identifications AI algorithms and volunteers were to evaluate the results. The volunteers may have been paid cash or NFT tokens that can be traded on the Alien Marketplace.
MY OWN MOTIVATION
MUFON #111680, UK, 1995
My own motivation to get this “Contact Project” app off the ground are my own UAP sightings from Ireland in 1986 and 1995 in the UK.
The 1995 UAP I managed to photograph twice on 35mm film, making it possible for me to finally triangulate it’s approximate size, distance and speed in May 2020, when I found the lost and forgotten negative film from 1995.
According to a Gallup poll over 40% of the American public believes in UFOs. Now, after the release of the Pentagon ODNI UAP report in July 2021 the climate seems right to get to the bottom of this and ask the question for real and to get a real answer: Are we Alone?
After this introduction, could I please interest you in reading the proposal outline and flowchart of the “Contact Project”?
Keywords: Contact Initiative, GPS tracking, smartphone app, crowd sourced, automated alert system, distributed, public and specialized observers, passive radar operators, proactive HAM radio operators, gigapixel camera operators, CETI, METI, SETI, commercial funding, NFT, alien marketplace
Here’s the PDF version of the Contact Project research proposal, together with the introductory note and the “Contact app” flowchart. The working title for the Contact App development is currently “UFO Alert!”.
Download and email these documents to promote or evaluate the Contact Initiative. If you do forward these documents I’d be interested in the responses you get.
Contact Project: The Introduction Letter
Contact Project: The Research Proposal
Contact Project: The Contact app flowchart
A note on the Alien Marketplace, funding, etc. As with most projects or initiatives, a positive cash flow greatly contributes to development speed and stamina.
The last chapter of the research proposal is the “The Alien Marketplace”. This type of chapter is more at home in a business plan than a research proposal and it outlines a funding possibility.
To finance the Contact Initiative a lottery and ad platform funded by advertisers and NFT trading technology are optional but not mandatory. It seems to be the most straightforward way to finance the app and its development and growth.
The Contact Project and Initiative welcomes donations and investments. Mostly the two are mutually exclusive, but I’m not an expert. How investment into the Contact Project could convert into equity has not been explored. I’m open to suggestions.
For donations: we are not tax exempt since this is the early start-up phase.
Definition contact /ˈkɒntakt: 1. the state of physical touching. 2. the action of communicating or meeting.
By definition, merely receiving an extraterrestrial transmission does not fulfill the criterion of “Contact”.
Doug Vakoch, President of METI
It was in 2015 that scientists Douglas Vakoch, David Grinspoon, David Brin, Seth Shostak and others discussed this issue at the American Association for the Advancement Of Science (AAAS): is it a good idea to transmit messages to possible intelligent extraterrestrials in the Cosmos?
Within a week of this discussion a statement was signed and released, together with 24 other SETI experts, declaring that a “worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent”.
When the statement was signed, SETI by radio telescopes was humanity’s best hope to contact Aliens.
A then 68 year old phenomenon titled by the public as “UFOs” was known about at the time of this statement in 2015. But UFOs were not considered to be connected in any shape or form to Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Neither were “UAPs”.
Even though there is no proof of it, some people have always believed that UFOs/UAPs are somehow connected to extraterrestrial intelligence. Those people were not necessarily represented at the AAAS conference in 2015, but they express their beliefs at other venues.
We, the Contact Project & Initiative, hope that the Contact app will be downloaded by many millions of people worldwide.
Once deployed, every one million app users will contribute to about 1 sighting per week that has absolutely no reasonable explanation. This estimate is based on the Allan Hendry study and a US UAP sighting survey.
We believe we have better chances of finding extraterrestrials or their technosignatures by targeting UFOs/UAPs than by targeting distant stars.
It doesn’t compute to intercept or attempt interstellar Alien communications with light-speed radio waves. At this stage in technological development, even we have a better outlook of building faster-than-light spaceships (Dr. Erik Lentz), than to generate impossible faster-than-light radio waves.
Why should Extraterrestrials be any different? It makes more sense to search for superluminal objects (UFOs) that can travel interstellar distances in days, rather than to listen for relatively snail-paced radio beams, taking years to cover the same distance.
Radio waves can only carry information. Objects on the other hand can carry more than information, such as passengers, but… objects can also carry much more information.
For instance, to physically store the information of all books ever written on Earth (Ref. 1) it requires the volume of 10 stacked 3.5 inch HD drives (175 terabytes of data (Ref. 2), HD capacity in 2021 (Ref. 3)).
In other words, in 2021 the knowledge from all books ever written on Earth fits inside a cube measuring 15 cm each side, weighing 6.7 kg (Ref. 4). To download the same amount of data by radio through space, considering our current data transmission capabilities between Mars and Earth (Ref. 5), it would take about 7.4 years (Ref. 6) of continuous transmission.
The Contact Project is about the reception and transmission of signals, as well as the possibility of physical contact. The gold standard for evidence is physical evidence. In a matter of such importance and possible consequence to human civilization as the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence, nothing else may be sufficient to prove it.
Headline of the Chicago Sun, June 26, 1947. This started modern UFO/UAP history.
It’s been 74 years since the first widely publicized UFO encounter of Kenneth Arnold in 1947, who coined the term “flying saucer” when he saw nine objects skipping along the sky from his plane. Since then there have been tens of thousands reported unidentified flying objects in the Earth’s skies, some of them even similar in shape to Arnold’s sighting.
Countless theories about the origin and purpose of these phenomena exist. UFOs were a subject of public interest and regularly reported in the media until the end of the 1960’s .
Fall RIver Herald News, July 29 1952: The invasion of WashingtonUFO/UAP captured from government survey plane in 1971 over Lake Cote, Costa Rica
This pretty much ended serious mainstream media coverage of UFOs.
THE SAGAN STANDARD The mantra became that ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’, a phrase known as ‘The Sagan Standard’.
To find extraordinary evidence for the existence of technologically intelligent aliens, lacking suitable specimens for testing, Sagan proposed instead to search for their signals in the sky with radio telescopes.
This concept he illustrated in his movie “Contact”, which had its premiere in 1997.
Two years after the premiere of “Contact” the University of Berkeley made it possible for anyone with a computer to join in the search for alien signals, when they launched the seti@home screensaver.
The seti@home screen saver
165000 people seized the opportunity to find ET on their computer, taking part in the largest participatory computing project in history. I was one of the first to sign up, on the 16th of May 1999. Sadly, seti@home stopped processing new data on March 31 2020. No announcement had been made whether or not it had been successful in its mission: to find radio evidence for extraterrestrial life.
PENTAGON ACKNOWLEDGES “UAPs” The next month, on the 27th of April 2020, 73 years after the first widely documented flying saucer sighting, the Pentagon publicly acknowledged the existence of UFOs, supplying pilots testimony, audio- and video recordings.
By now the UFO phenomenon had been so thoroughly discredited that skeptics quickly began questioning the Pentagon’s UFO/UAP material.
However, the material didn’t just consist of fuzzy camera footage, but also recorded radar tracks and simultaneous sightings by pilots and aircraft carrier personnel.
In any UFO/UAP sighting, camera images are corroborative evidence of the witness testimony. Very often the quality of the camera can not capture what the witnesses have perceived.
The Contact Initiative uses a wide variety of methods to verify UFO/UAP. First we have the human observer, who may be able to capture the UFO image in low-res with his smartphone camera.
Then the location of his sighting is forwarded to a number of search partners in his neighborhood. They will try to capture the UFO with HD telescopes, cameras and radar, as well as listening with RF scanners to incoming radio waves from the object.
Excerpt of “UFO Alert!” flowchart
The more data about a UFO/UAP sighting exists, in as wide a range of frequencies as possible, the easier it is to verify the sighting as genuine. And if that wasn’t enough, HAM radio amateurs will try to hail the sighting.
The Contact Initiative does not rely on images. Having the UFO Alert! app is like carrying the resources of an airplane carrier in your pocket.
Would ETI use radio waves moving at the speed of light to seek contact… if there was an alternative?
“Natural communication” between species using conventional radio is almost impossible over interstellar distances.
As ‘natural communication’ I describe an exchange of ideas where the sender can expect a reply before he/she has died from old age…
Using radio waves for communication is like sending mail with the Pony Express. Radio is bound to the “slow” speed of light, at about 1 billion km/h.
That may seem fast, except it isn’t, considering interstellar distances. Extraterrestrial species live so far from us that at best it will take us 8.7 years to send and receive a return message.
That is the time it takes for radio waves to pass to and from our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri.
Clearly, the speed of horses or light is not sufficient to speak to ET. Unfortunately, we can’t make horses or light go any faster. Is it possible to develop something faster than light to send a message (or people) to far-off lands?
Something faster than light?
Can the Alcubierre/Lentz drive move objects at hyperspeed? Is there any hint that extraterrestrial intelligence ever used “spacecraft unknown to humanity” to visit Earth, maybe to seek contact?
Are UAPs/UFOs spacecraft in the traditional sense, with occupants, or do they just contain a message that can be unlocked, for instance by transmitting a radio key sequence?
SETI, by contrast, has not found any techno signatures of verified alien origin despite over 50 years of searching. Has SETI not been successful because it has looked for technosignatures in the wrong direction?
The Contact Initiative believes that there is a reasonably good chance for an UFO/ET connection to exist. This, I believe, is sufficient grounds to include UFOs/UAPs in searches for techno-signatures of alien civilizations
Superluminal spacecraft are the easiest way to contact civilizations that have not developed faster than light communication technology, such as Earth.
It makes sense to attempt listening for radio signatures from UAPs.
Robert Fish wrote in an Email to John Podesta that
“there was a specific electronic signature (frequency) emanating from them (UFOs/UAPs) when they were going into or coming out of the water, so they were easy to track.”
The SETI Institute is concerned with the effects of contacting ETIs on distant planets that are not aware of our existence. SETI Institute doesn’t want to alert potentially hostile Aliens to our presence.
On the other hand, we have been aware of UAP/UFO for decades, if not millenia. And, unless they are blind, so have UAP/UFO.
Therefore the (First) Contact protocol is not applicable.
Reconstruction by author, MUFON #82139, Ireland, 1986
Based on personal experience the author of “The Contact Initiative” estimates the chance to spot an UFO/UAP in any one day to be approx. 1:10.000.
UAP photographs on 35mm negative film, frame 7 of 2. MUFON #111680, UK, 1995, The UAP was grayish without markings as seen here. Photograph by author.
You may have a chance to take pictures or video of an UFO once every 50 years, as I did in 1995.
More impartial data than personal experience about the frequency of sightings comes from surveys. There are not a lot of surveys on the subject of UFO/UAP. More surveys should be carried out.
But there is one:
STUDY ON PUBLIC UAPSIGHTINGS One available survey comes from Century Fox Home Entertainment. They did a poll for a promotional campaign of the Ridley Scott movie “Phoenix Forgotten“.
Reconstruction of “Phoenix Lights” by eye witness Tim Ley, USA TODAY, 1997
The “Phoenix Forgotten” plot was inspired by the “Phoenix Lights” UFO phenomenon from 1997. (Ref.: 1, Ref.: 2)
Over 1700 Americans were asked if they had ever seen an UFO: 16.74% responded positively (Ref.: 3).
If that percentage is any guideline, then we can say that 16.74% of 258.3 million adults (Ref.: 4), about 43 million Americans, had a UFO sighting.
MISIDENTIFICATION OF UFOs According to author Leslie Kean, “roughly 90 to 95 percent of UFO sightings can be explained”. (Ref.: 5)
The chief investigator of CUFOS in 1979, astronomer Allan Hendry, concluded from 1307 cases that 91.4% had a clear and simple prosaic explanation. 8.6% were classed as “UFOs” and 1.5% of those cases had no possible plausible explanation. (Ref.: 6)
This leaves us with 645,000 unexplained sightings from 43 million. This covers a time-span of 38.4 years, it being the median age of the US population (Ref.: 7).
If there are 645,000 completely unexplained UAP sightings in 38.4 years, we get 16,796 (sixteen thousand seven hundred ninety six) sightings per year. That’s 46 UAP cases without possible plausible explanation daily in the USA.
I believe this to be a fairly high number.
The Contact Initiative doesn’t want to wait around to get results. To maximize the chances of spotting UAP/UFO a large number of volunteer UFO/UAP spotters are needed.
And the method of spotting and forwarding a report of a sighting must be as simple as taking a photo or video.
The “CONTACT APP” (name may be changed) will be designed for this purpose, to be as simple as possible. But it will be the most powerful civilian use flying object identification program on the market.
One of its appeals will be that it provides near instantaneous identification of objects and phenomena commonly mistaken as UFOs: celestial objects, meteors, planes, blimps, military training exercises, satellites. The app gives feedback to the UFO spotter if what he/she saw is a known phenomenon.
The app records with high accuracy the position and time of the sightings and the number of users who see the same thing.
POSSIBLE UAP/UFO YIELD PER MILLION APP DOWNLOADS If the Contact app is downloaded one million times (corrected), then the chances are that we will see 65 UAP cases without possible plausible explanation in a year.
That amounts to a bit more than one really, really, puzzling UFO case per week. This should be enough to engage and keep the attention of the public. Because, what good would be an UFO app that doesn’t spot UFOs?
PEACE OF MIND On the other hand, incorrect identifications of common or explicable phenomena as UFOs should become less with the Contact App. This way the great majority of witnesses would feel less stress.
EDUCATIONAL VALUE A large number of participants serves to raise the awareness of the possibility of Extraterrestrial Contact. What does it mean to be a part of a greater community of diverse intelligences in the Cosmos?
GOAL OF THE CONTACT INITIATIVE (CONTACT PROJECT) The goal is to prepare for and meet a technological superior non-human species. That we’re not the most advanced technological species in the Universe is logical:
THE SAGAN The Universe is billions and billions of years old. In it there are billions and billions of habitable planets. Modern human technology only exists since a few hundred years and we left the stone age just about 5000 years ago.
The development of life and intelligence is most likely not a one-time miracle confined to an infinitesimal speck of the Cosmos, the Earth.
BENEFITS OF FRIENDS The potential benefits of contact to an advanced intelligent extraterrestrial species are incalculable to the future and destiny of the human race.
It may be that we don’t have much in common with each other except curiosity. But that alone would be a driving force of human determination and progress, geared at finding out more about the other.
DON’T BE AN OSTRICH Should it turn out that UAP/UFOs are otherworldly emissaries of non-friendly intent, then it would also be important to find out. It could be fatal to stick our collective heads into the sand.
ULTIMA R̶A̶T̶I̶O̶ RADIO These are the reasons why the Contact Initiative proposes to contact “UFO sightings in progress” by radio waves.
References: 1.: Kurt Russell claims he saw — and reported — the ‘Phoenix Lights’, https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2017/06/14/kurt-russell-claims-reported-phoenix-lights-ufos/394749001/
2.: Ex Arizona Governor saw a UFO during the 1997 Phoenix Lights, https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Former_Arizona_Governor_says_he_saw_a_UFO_during_the_1997_Phoenix_Lights
3.: New survey shows nearly half of Americans believe in aliens, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/new-survey-shows-nearly-half-of-americans-believe-in_b_59824c11e4b03d0624b0abe4
4.: U.S. Adult Population https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/united-states-adult-population-grew-faster-than-nations-total-population-from-2010-to-2020.html
5.: UFOs, UAPs and CRAPs https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ufos-uaps-and-craps/
6.: Identification studies of UFOs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_studies_of_UFOs
7.: US MEDIAN AGE https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/65-older-population-grows.html
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