NASA's UFO panel stresses need for better data in initial public meeting

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? NASA last summer announced it was assembling an independent team to study UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena – previously referred to as UFOs, but now called "unidentified anomalous phenomena." The space agency held the first public meeting involving the commissioned team this week before their report arrives this summer, and it was a dog and pony show from the get go.

Nicola Fox, associate administrator for science at NASA, said the study was commissioned to create a road map on how to use the tools of science to evaluate and categorize the nature of UAPs going forward. This road map, Fox added, will help the government obtain usable data to explain the nature of future UAPs.

"The nature of science is to better understand the unknown and to do that, our scientists need data," Fox said.

Not just any data, mind you, but high quality data. Daniel Evans, assistant deputy associate administrator for science research at NASA, said the team's objective is not to go back and look at grainy footage of UAPs. Presumably, one would want to study the highest quality data available captured using the most sophisticated equipment around.

Such data does exist, but there's one problem: it's classified.

Fox said UAP sightings themselves are not classified, but the sensor platforms used to capture the data are. Imagine if a fighter jet took a photo of the Statue of Liberty. That picture would be classified – not because of the subject but because of the camera system used to capture it. In short, the government wants its data collection capabilities to remain a mystery to other countries.

As such, NASA's team is only analyzing unclassified data from civilian government entities, commercial data, and "data from other sources." If they are intentionally excluding the best evidence, why even bother at all?

"Lack of high quality data makes it impossible to draw scientific conclusions on the nature of UAP." – Nicola Fox, NASA

All of this came within the first 15 minutes of the four-hour meeting.

David Spergel, chair of the NASA team studying UAP, said that after the preliminary data collection stage, they learned that current data collection efforts are unsystematic and fragmented across various agencies. What's more, data is often collected using instruments that are uncalibrated for scientific data collection.

Spergel also touched on the stigma associated with the phenomena, and that it likely leads to many incidents going unreported. NASA wants to help eliminate the stigma, he said, which could lead to the collection of more high quality data.

Unfortunately, those hoping for a smoking gun will have to wait a bit longer. "The origin of UAPs remains unclear," Spergel said.

One could spend a lifetime traversing the UAP rabbit hole and barely scratch the surface. There's been a lot of movement on the subject as of late, leading some to believe that we are in the early stages of public disclosure.

Late last year, President Biden signed into law the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which included an amendment providing protection to whistleblowers who supply information about "any activity or program by a department or agency of the Federal Government or a contractor of such a department or agency relating to unidentified anomalous phenomena, including with respect to material retrieval, material analysis, reverse engineering, research and development, detection and tracking, developmental or operational testing, and security protections and enforcement."

Given the incomprehensible vastness of space, it seems highly improbable that we are alone in the universe. There's no shortage of theories to subscribe to, including the belief that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth for a long time and that the government knows way more about the subject than we've been led to believe.

Image credit: Astronaut by Pixabay, Truth by Jonathan Martin

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https://www.techspot.com/news/98929-nasa-team-studying-uap-calls-higher-quality-data.html

 

[user556]

But then they won't show up. Or they'll still be out of focus anyway.

 

[texasrattler]

They already said they know high quality photos exist, it's just the tech used is classified. But surely the government can oversee a group that needs to have access to the photos. This why people lead to a conspiracy cause this is simply bs. We have some kind of evidence but don't have access, come on.
Governments must know more than they want to say otherwise if this is all just nonsense, then there wouldn't be all buracratic bs.
There is something they know, it's just getting the info. We all want to know what these things are. Because they are something, if not man made, who, what and where did they come from needs to be answered.

 

[wiyosaya]

Lots of things in NASA require security clearances to be able to work on them. They ought to be able to find people inside NASA that have the requisite security clearances to review the existing UFO data. Of course, they would not be able to show it to us normals, but at least there would be a possibility of coming to some conclusion about what UAP are and where they come from. Perhaps the bigger problem is that NASA is a science-based organization. As such, if they were unable to present the data that supported their conclusions because it came from a classified sensor, I expect that it would be as if they had no evidence at all in the eyes of the scientific community at large.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Higher quality data = IAP. Identified. It's a [balloon, plane, dust mote, etc...'] and on to the next one.

 

[loki1944]

With current economy; this useless crap can be put on indefinite hold

 

[brucek]

Not a huge believer in aliens, but given our massive defense budget I think a minor reallocation to improve the sensor platforms so that drone-like objects operating above an aircraft carrier or nuclear missile base can be properly identified and handled as appropriate.

Also it should be illegal for our military and civilian leadership to turn their backs on reports of obvious threats made by say multiple qualified naval officers and backed up by multiple instrumentation systems. The answer is not "we don't have the answer ready today so we're going to be pretend we didn't see it", the answer is "we're going to make a priority of figuring out how to properly monitor, assess, and handle this foreign object in our highly secure and sensitive airspace."

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Independent group of highly qualified individuals who are not allowed to look at the data because it is classified? "Government at work." Feynman's rule.

 

[yRaz]

Curious, now that everyone has a high quality cameras in their pockets at all times connected to the internet we don't see UFO videos anymore. If someone was to live stream a UFO it would go viral instantly. I whole-heartedly believe that Aliens exist but I don't believe they've been anal probing us, as unfortunate as that may be.

 

[Kam7r]

Aliens exists... it's certain... BUT, near us, being able or wanting to reach us... not so likely

 

[texasrattler]

Higher quality data = IAP. Identified. It's a [balloon, plane, dust mote, etc...'] and on to the next one.

Balloons don't shine bright in the day or night n get brighter at times. They also don't zip across the sky.
While some thing that are more static could be a Ballon, doesn't discount all things just being a Ballon.
Of course some objects could be n are planes in the sky but when you see a plane then the object behind it, that ain't no plane.

Imo, there is a reality that some people need to realize that there is something in the skies that DOES NOT resemble human craft. So what is it, who is it, it's what some people are trying to find out.
There will always be fake evidence, just how it is. That does not mean all things are fake or that all things are explainable because that is simply not true. Science cannot explain everything in the world or universe.

 

[texasrattler]

Curious, now that everyone has a high quality cameras in their pockets at all times connected to the internet we don't see UFO videos anymore. If someone was to live stream a UFO it would go viral instantly. I whole-heartedly believe that Aliens exist but I don't believe they've been anal probing us, as unfortunate as that may be.

The more you zoom in the more pixelated an image gets. You'd have to have a very good camera. The majority of the world don't bother to look up or care. Only a few actually do.
For all anyone knows is that "Aliens" have been here the whole time. Maybe they never had to reach us like a lot say, maybe they have just been here.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Balloons don't shine bright in the day or night n get brighter at times. They also don't zip across the sky.
While some thing that are more static could be a Ballon, doesn't discount all things just being a Ballon.
Of course some objects could be n are planes in the sky but when you see a plane then the object behind it, that ain't no plane.

Imo, there is a reality that some people need to realize that there is something in the skies that DOES NOT resemble human craft. So what is it, who is it, it's what some people are trying to find out.
There will always be fake evidence, just how it is. That does not mean all things are fake or that all things are explainable because that is simply not true. Science cannot explain everything in the world or universe.

The clear images have all been identified, that's the point. Where are the clear images with aliens in them?

It's only fuzzy pixel-poor images that are "mysterious" to people who like to imagine their favorite fictions. Sure it's fun to dream that there are aliens here but unexplained dots in videos are useless when it comes to actual evidence of aliens. They're just fuzzy dots that are yet to be identified and overwhelmingly likely are boring, mundane things.

Though them being experimental military air/spacecraft would be cool.

 

[wiyosaya]

The clear images have all been identified, that's the point. Where are the clear images with aliens in them?

It's only fuzzy pixel-poor images that are "mysterious" to people who like to imagine their favorite fictions. Sure it's fun to dream that there are aliens here but unexplained dots in videos are useless when it comes to actual evidence of aliens. They're just fuzzy dots that are yet to be identified and overwhelmingly likely are boring, mundane things.

Why then, does even the government admit that there are a small, but certain percentage of the UAP reports that remain unidentified?

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Though them being experimental military air/spacecraft would be cool.

IMO, they are not experimental military air/spacecraft/water craft.

Aliens exists... it's certain... BUT, near us, being able or wanting to reach us... not so likely

According to older theories, however, the latest theories propose that super-luminal travel is, at least, theoretically possible. Humanity has not figured out the technology behind it, yet - https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a42593019/traveling-faster-than-speed-of-light/
With the supposed age of the universe at some three-times that of the Earth, that, at least, allows for the possibility of civilizations much older than Earth's civilization and, perhaps, they have developed the technology for super-luminal travel.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Why then, does even the government admit that there are a small, but certain percentage of the UAP reports that remain unidentified?

Because all they are is fuzzy pixels in a video. So: unidentifiable. Which is the point.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

You cannot prove a negative in science. But continued decades of absence of evidence very strongly argues that none of the thing you're looking for exists.

 

[brucek]

Where are the clear images with aliens in them?

Are there a lot of clear mobile phone images of military spy planes, drones, missiles, satellites, or submarines as they are operating on real missions? There's no doubt those things exist but consumer cell phones are usually not in the right place nor are designed to capture clear images of fast moving objects that are miles away. You're used to seeing great pictures in the movies or recruiting poster but that's because the military or weapons manufacturer invested significant effort & expense to make those photos possible.

I'm willing to discard every report that is not backed up by multiple independent trained and experienced observers from multiple different angles, further confirmed by non-human sensor equipment, and then only those that took place in an operating environment taken seriously by the military, such as over a major military exercise or base. That still leaves us with a non-zero sample set of unexplained incidents that require better explanation.

I have no idea if it's human tech, an unexplained natural phenomenon that bug out both human and electronical perception, intentional spoofing by adversaries or crazy teens, aliens, or something else. But I'd sure like it to be taken seriously until we do know.

 

[Arbie]

The 1950s had an active cult of flying saucer conspiracy theorists, The writings of the cult leaders followed same formula and tone as we see from election denial cultists today.

Individual anecdotes were each taken as "irrefutable proof" of a visitation, and woven together in elaborate narratives that implicitly assumed gigantic cover-ups, some existing for centuries.

Doubters, or anyone pointing to the lack of any verifications, or to contra-indications, or to the absence of corroborating evidence, were roundly mocked.... how could they fail to observe this obvious pattern? Couldn't they see right through all the official statements? Or were they part of the cover-up?

Huge revelations were routinely predicted.

With no social media or easy monetization - and no saucers ever actually appearing - that frenzy died down as the leading purveyors aged and dropped out. Today the study of that cult is a minor topic in social science.

 

[texasrattler]

The clear images have all been identified, that's the point. Where are the clear images with aliens in them?

It's only fuzzy pixel-poor images that are "mysterious" to people who like to imagine their favorite fictions. Sure it's fun to dream that there are aliens here but unexplained dots in videos are useless when it comes to actual evidence of aliens. They're just fuzzy dots that are yet to be identified and overwhelmingly likely are boring, mundane things.

Though them being experimental military air/spacecraft would be cool.

No they haven't. They don't have access to them. They know of photos but can't study them. This is about UAPs not aliens. If UAPs turn out to not be man made then we can start talking possible aliens or other life that's been or coming here. For now it's about things in the sky that don't appear to be known craft. Our government says they aren't ours n other governments say they aren't theirs, well if what they say is true, then wtf is out there flying around.

 

[texasrattler]

The 1950s had an active cult of flying saucer conspiracy theorists, The writings of the cult leaders followed same formula and tone as we see from election denial cultists today.

Individual anecdotes were each taken as "irrefutable proof" of a visitation, and woven together in elaborate narratives that implicitly assumed gigantic cover-ups, some existing for centuries.

Doubters, or anyone pointing to the lack of any verifications, or to contra-indications, or to the absence of corroborating evidence, were roundly mocked.... how could they fail to observe this obvious pattern? Couldn't they see right through all the official statements? Or were they part of the cover-up?

Huge revelations were routinely predicted.

With no social media or easy monetization - and no saucers ever actually appearing - that frenzy died down as the leading purveyors aged and dropped out. Today the study of that cult is a minor topic in social science.

There are plenty of videos of saucers out there, whether you believe they are real is another debate.
There is one from I believe Russia that shows a flying saucer landing or going to land. The video is from 1935ish. I believe it's been studied n to be real as far as I know. I heard that it was hard to fake cause it was shot in 8mm or something. If I'm not mistaken, this was before the Black Forrest incident that took place in Russia.