Russia reveals nuclear spaceship that will fly to Mars ‘in very near future’
Russia has revealed a "spacecraft of the future" that could one day put humans on Mars.
Roscosmos showed off concept designs for the sci-fi spacecraft – but failed to say exactly when it would launch.
The spaceship is currently in development at Russia's Keldysh Research Centre, which is racing to create the nuclear propulsion engine.
"Today, the Keldysh Centre is working on the development of a spacecraft equipped with more powerful engines – a new class of nuclear power units, which do not need either the sunlight or solar batteries for operation," said a spokesperson for Roscosmos.
Nuclear space travel could revolutionize the quest to hop between planets in our solar system.
Space scientists currently struggle with current methods of propulsion, like chemical propellants or low-power electric engines that rely on solar batteries.
These methods of space travel are slow, which creates problems for astronauts on board the craft.
"A person should not spend more than a year or two in space," said Vladimir Koshlakov, who heads up the Keldysh Centre.
"Nuclear-powered spacecraft will allow a relatively fast journey, and, most importantly, a return flight.
"This technology has special significance for interplanetary flights and research of far planets."
According to Russia's TASS news agency, Koshlakov believes that a flight to Mars using a nuclear propulsion engine is "technically feasible in the near future".
The space expert reckons it could take just over half a year for humans to travel to Mars using the nuclear system.
"[The journey] to the Moon will last several days, yes, while a flight to Mars will last about seven or eight months," said Koshlakov, speaking to the Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
Roscosmos has already been testing ground trials for the engine's cooling system, which are believed to have been a success.
And the space agency also has plans to make a prototype of a "megawatt-class" nuclear engine, which would be used for "flights into deep space."
This isn't the first time Russia has experimented with nuclear technology for space travel.
Between 1970 and 1988, the Soviet Union launched 32 spacecraft with thermoelectric nuclear power reactors on board.
And Russia has been testing nuclear rocket engines since the sixties.
UFO investigation launched by Irish aviation officials after pilots flying BA and Virgin Airlines jets report seeing mysterious bright lights 'moving fast' above the country
BA pilot on flight from Canada to London reported 'very bright light' over Ireland
She said the object came up on the left side before it 'veered to the north'
Pilot of Virgin Airlines jet saw 'multiple objects following same sort of trajectory'
Irish Aviation Authority is investigating the UFO sightings after filing a report
A UFO investigation is underway in Ireland after pilots flying BA and Virgin Airlines jets reported seeing mysterious bright lights as they crossed the country.
The Irish Aviation Authority launched the probe after sightings on November 9 at around 7.40am.
The pilot of British Airways flight BA94 from Montreal to London contacted Shannon Air Traffic Control after seeing the object on the left-hand side of her Boeing 787.
She asked whether military exercises were taking place, according to Airlive.
Air traffic control reportedly said nothing was showing on their radar systems, to which the unnamed pilot replied: 'OK. It was moving so fast.'
She added that after approaching on the left side, it 'rapidly veered to the north'. She described it as a 'very bright light' that 'disappeared at very high speed'.
The pilot of Virgin Airlines flight VS76 from Orlando to Manchester then reported seeing a similar thing, the website reports.
He described it as a 'meteor or another object making some kind of re-entry' and said it was 'multiple objects following the same sort of trajectory – very bright from where we were.'
Both planes were flying in high-level airspace - an altitude from between 28,500ft and 42,000ft.
Airlive says a third pilot also saw the bizarre lights and that the Irish Aviation Authority has filed a report with the sightings due to be 'investigated under the normal confidential occurrence investigation process'.
Mysterious interstellar object could be 'lightsail' sent from another civilization
NASA may have ruled that Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever spotted in our system is a "metallic or rocky object" approximately 400 meters (1,312 feet) in length and 40 meters (131 feet) wide, but a new study from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says it could be something much more exciting – it could be "a lightsail of artificial origin" sent from another civilization.
The study, which was posted online earlier this month, suggests that Oumuamua's strange "excess acceleration" could be artificial in nature, as it has been implied that it is not an active comet.
"Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment," researchers wrote in the paper.
The paper continues: "Lightsails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative. The lightsail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars."
They even theorized that Oumuamua "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," though that scenario was called "exotic."
The paper was written by postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy and professor Abraham Loeb, the director at the CfA's Institute for Theory and Computation.
Other studies have suggested that other "Oumuamua-like objects" will potentially enter our solar system, with some potentially carrying life.
"The likelihood of Galactic panspermia is strongly dependent upon the survival lifetime of the putative organisms as well as the velocity of the transporter," according to a paper published in The Astronomical Journal by Manasvi Lingam and the aforementioned Loeb.
They added: "Velocities between 10−100 km s−1 result in the highest probabilities. However, given large enough survival lifetimes, even hypervelocity objects traveling at over 1000 km s−1 have a significant chance of capture, thereby increasing the likelihood of panspermia."
The paper continues: "Lightsails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative. The lightsail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars."
They even theorized that Oumuamua "may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilization," though that scenario was called "exotic."
The paper was written by postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy and professor Abraham Loeb, the director at the CfA's Institute for Theory and Computation.
Other studies have suggested that other "Oumuamua-like objects" will potentially enter our solar system, with some potentially carrying life.
"The likelihood of Galactic panspermia is strongly dependent upon the survival lifetime of the putative organisms as well as the velocity of the transporter," according to a paper published in The Astronomical Journal by Manasvi Lingam and the aforementioned Loeb.
They added: "Velocities between 10−100 km s−1 result in the highest probabilities. However, given large enough survival lifetimes, even hypervelocity objects traveling at over 1000 km s−1 have a significant chance of capture, thereby increasing the likelihood of panspermia."
First and foremost, the abductees are not allowed to remember what happened to them." ~ Dr. David Jacobs
Amongst the most controversial people in the world of Ufology is David Jacobs, Ph.D. According to Wikipedia, the recently retired Associate Professor of History at Temple University specializing in 20th century American history and culture. Jacobs is particularly well known in the field of Ufology for his research and authoring of books on the subject of alleged alien abductions.
Jacobs obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1973, in the field of intellectual history. He wrote his dissertation on the controversy over unidentified flying objects in America. A revised edition of his dissertation was published as The UFO Controversy in America by Indiana University Press in 1975 and sold out (very unusual for an academic work).
As a faculty member of the Department of History at Temple University, Jacobs specialized in the history of 20th-century American popular culture. He stated that his current research interests “involve a delineation of the role of anomalous experiences in personal and cultural life.”[3] For over 25 years[1] Jacobs has taught a course on “UFOs in American Society.”
In this exclusive interview for EMN shot at Contact in The Desert, Joshua Tree California, Jacobs suggests that the abduction phenomenon is not a benevolent, other-dimensional spiritual experience like so many people report. Rather, Jacobs’ research through hypnotic regression with alleged alien abductees suggests that alien-human hybrids are engaged in a covert program of infiltration into human society worldwide.
“These human hybrids are training to live here,” Jacobs asserts, “and they are being trained by the abductees.” And what is the end game according to Dr. David Jacobs? “The planetary acquisition through the creation of human-like hybrids.” “The more you look at this”, says Jacobs, “the more rational it becomes.”
How Would Humanity React If We Really Found Aliens?
If aliens reach out to us, what would happen first?
It's a question that has puzzled science-fiction fans and scientists alike for decades, and we already may have a hint of how people will react. On Oct. 30, 1938, a dramatized version of the 1898 H.G. Wells novel "The War of the Worlds" played on the CBS Radio system across the United States. The story details how Martians attacked Earth.
The radio broadcast caused a reaction when people mistook it for a real radio report, but accounts vary as to how much of a reaction there was. Some accounts describe nationwide panic, while others say not very many people actually listened to the broadcast. The promise of alien life stars in Episode 1 of "AMC Visionaries: James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction," which debuts on AMC tonight. Still, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) researcher Duncan Forgan told Space.com the "War of the Worlds" broadcast may be instructive to think about as SETI scientists worldwide update their "first contact" protocols. [E.T. Etiquette: How Should Humanity Interact with Alien Life?]
"If you pick the right science fiction — the hard science fiction — it's placed in the best possible educated guesses about what will happen," said Forgan, who is a research fellow at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. He explained that "hard" science fiction refers to science fiction that emphasizes accuracy (think the 2015 movie "The Martian," for example).
If researchers find a signal today, Forgan said, one of the things they will have to manage is a public used to getting constant news updates on Twitter and other forms of social media. It's something Forgan and his colleagues are already working on. The International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Committee created a post-detection protocol in 1989 that was slightly updated in 2010; a new update is starting soon and should be finished in a few years, Forgan said.
Scientific work
Famed directors James Cameron and Ridley Scott talk aliens in "AMC Visionaries: James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction," which premieres on AMC on April 30.
For the most part, scientists assume alien contact would happen through a signal purposely sent toward Earth. The "acid test" is to make sure the signal is verified by multiple observatories, said SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak. "It would take a while to verify, and then the people who like to think about these matters say you would have a press conference and announce this to the world," he said, but he added that wouldn't work unless everyone in the project was sworn to secrecy. In this era of news leaks, he said that situation is very unlikely to hold.
So, scientists try instead to stick to a protocol that includes informing the public. The 2010 IAA protocol is only two pages and covers facets such as searching for a signal, handling evidence and what to do in the case of a confirmed detection.
If the evidence gets out to the public while the scientists are still analyzing the signal, Forgan said they could manage the public's expectations by using something called the Rio Scale. It's essentially a numeric value that represents the degree of likelihood that an alien contact is "real." (Forgan added that the Rio Scale is also undergoing an update, and more should be coming out about it in May.)
If the aliens did arrive here, "first contact" protocols likely would be useless, because if they're smart enough to show up physically, they could probably do anything else they like, according to Shostak. "Personally, I would leave town," Shostak quipped. "I would get a rocket and get out of the way. I have no idea what they are here for."
But there's little need to worry. An "Independence Day" scenario of aliens blowing up important national buildings such as the White House is extremely unlikely, Forgan said, because interstellar travel is difficult. (This feeds into something called the Drake Equation, which considers where the aliens could be and helps show why we haven't heard anything from them yet.) [The Father of SETI: Q&A with Astronomer Frank Drake]
Early SETI work
To find a signal, first we have to be listening for it. SETI "listening" is going on all over the world, and in fact, this has been happening for many decades. The first modern SETI experiment took place in 1960. Under Project Ozma, Cornell University astronomer Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope (located at Green Bank, West Virginia) at two stars called Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. He scanned at a frequency astronomers nickname "the waterhole," which is close to the frequency of light that's given off by hydrogen and hydroxyl (one hydrogen atom bonded to one oxygen atom). [13 Ways to Find Intelligent Aliens]
In 1977, The Ohio State University SETI's program made international headlines after a project volunteer, Jerry Ehman, wrote, "Wow!" beside a strong signal a telescope there received. The Aug. 15, 1977, "Wow" signal was never repeated, however.
There have been many, many projects since then. As a taste: The SETI Institute was founded in 1984; while it may be the most famous of the SETI projects, there are many other independent SETIs at universities and institutions worldwide that have done work over the decades. One of the center's major initiatives was Project Phoenix, which scanned nearby, sun-like stars. Currently, the SETI Institute, in collaboration with other institutes, is working on a concept called the Allen Telescope Array, which has dozens of radio dishes in northern California.
In 2015, the well-known physicist Stephen Hawking and many other researchers launched Breakthrough Listen, a project that will scan 1 million Milky Way stars and 100 nearby galaxies for extraterrestrial life.
Space-based SETI
While searches of alien messages aren't ongoing in space, there have been efforts to communicate with any beings that may come across our spacecraft.
The Pioneer 10 and 11 probes flew by Jupiter (and in Pioneer 11's case, Saturn) to eventually make their way out of the solar system. Before their launches in 1972 and 1973, respectively, a Pioneer plaque was mounted on board each spacecraft. It shows the form of the human body and where the Earth is located in the galaxy.
The twin Voyager probes launched in 1977 to examine the outer solar system. Voyager 2 reached interstellar space in 2012, while Voyager 1 is still at the edge of the solar system. Each of the spacecraft includes two golden records with sounds recorded on Earth, ranging from whale calls to music to the word "hello" in many languages. The record also has diagrams of the human body and where our solar system is located.
Scientists also transmitted a radio message from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico in 1974. The so-called Arecibo Message includes such things as the numbers 1 through 10; the atomic numbers of elements such as hydrogen and oxygen; information about DNA; and diagrams of a human body, the Earth and our solar system.
In a related field, the study of exoplanets has accelerated in recent years with the Kepler mission, which has found more than 2,000 confirmed exoplanets alone, as well as other observatories on the ground and in space. Scientists are now trying to characterize which of these planets may be the most habitable. Atmospheric studies and more detailed looks at star activity will be some of the activities scientists undertake with future telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which will launch in 2020.
After 3 UFO encounters, retired educator and Nogal resident calls himself a believer
Richard “Bill” Thorp has lived in Lincoln County 31 years, he’s a retired educator and past vice president of the Lincoln County Historical Society. He also claims to have encountered unidentified flying objects three times, twice in the Nogal area and twice when others saw the phenomena too.
“The second experience was thrilling. I wish I could experience it again over and over,” he said Monday. “I am a believer.”
The first sighting
The first encounter occurred in 1953 when Thorp was working as a roustabout in the oilfields around Loco Hills, a small village 25 miles east of Artesia, where he had graduated from high school. He’d worked in that capacity since he was 16, but two years later still was the youngest at the job rod and tubing on the Caprock about eight miles south of Maljamar.
“The driller had stopped the machine and suggested we get a drink” a short distance away from where the water was sitting in a truck. When the break was over and everyone moved back to the platform, Thorp returned to the truck where he had forgotten his gloves. As he turned to join the crew, “There it was,” he said. “Coming out of the southwestern sky at an unbelievable rate of speed was a small dish-shaped object. The disk was shiny and bright but strangely appeared to be tumbling end-over-end in the sky. It was alternating from shiny bright to less bright over and over. It did this until it went out of sight in the northeastern sky.”
The whole experience took less than six seconds and he didn’t mention it to his fellow workers. He knew it wasn’t a satellite, because Sputnik, the first Russian satellite was not launched until years later.
“This was July 1953,” he said. “Everyone was aware that flying saucers might exist, because of the Roswell incident, which happened just a few years before in 1947.”
A UFO crashed near Corona. The debris and some say bodies of aliens were transported to Walker Air Force base in Roswell. The military later claimed the object was a weather balloon, but many dispute that statement, including descendants of Major Jesse Marcel Sr., an intelligence officer at Walker, who insisted the debris and bodies were not from earth.
The second sighting
Retired educator Bill Thorp says a UFO descended toward the Carrizo Mountains near his New Mexico home.
The second incident was in 2000 and took place on the front deck of Thorp’s home in Nogal.
“This incident was much closer, perhaps as close as 1,000 feet,” Thorp said. “It traveled at a fantastic rate of speed, but much slower than the first. I had time to look, to analyze, to calibrate. But perhaps the best thing about the second sighting was that I had a witness. This thing passed directly over my house. My wife, Beverly was standing beside me and she witnessed everything.”
His wife is known for not embellishing a story, he said.
The incident occurred about 10:35 p.m. because the couple just watched local news from Albuquerque. Thorp went out to the front porch to soaked in the cloudless night with bright stars and a new moon. Their house sits at 7,300 feet elevation and the stars added just enough light to silhouette every mountain range and landmark for 20 miles, Thorp said. Carrizo Peak is nearly due north from their house and between the house and the peak is an 18-mile wide valley.
“As I stood admiring the silhouette of the Carrizo Mountains, suddenly coming up from behind the main peak there appeared three lights that (seemed to) clear the peak by perhaps 500 feet,” Thorp said.
He knew from the space between the lights and their brightness, it was not a plane from Holloman Air Force Base. He called to his wife.
“We stood together and watched the object as it approached us with an incredible speed,” he said. “In just a few seconds, another light appeared.”
They determined the object was diamond-shaped, because it blocked out the stars. An intense white light was on the front point of the diamond, with another on the back point. Two green lights were on the side points and a red light was located in the middle on the underside of the diamond, he said.
The couple was struck that the craft seemed to be using their house as a beacon, he said. They wondered if the building materials that came from Walker Air Force Base might have retained some sort of fingerprint. As it approached the house, they never moved or looked to the right or left, they just kept bending their heads and necks straight back until the craft went out of sight over their house. They immediately ran to the back deck upstairs on the opposite side of the home.
“As we reached the back deck, it was still in sight and was very low heading directly toward the soft glow of lights given off by the village of Ruidoso,” Thorp said.
He estimated that the object began to descend over Carrizo Peak at 9,656 feet. and over their house at about 8,000 feet, which is 700 feet above their house.
“It was a huge flying object, not to be estimated in feet,” Thorp said. “I would estimate the width to be between a quarter of a mile to a half mile,” at the widest point. Even more startling, the passage was almost silent.
“There was no jet sound, nor any sign of a jet wash, no movement of air, no sonic boom,” he said. “There was one faint sound. If you listened closely, there was a very faint hum.” The type of propulsion was unknown on earth, he concluded.
The Thorps thought surely others would see the craft and there would be reports in the newspaper or on radio and television, but nothing appeared. They talked to another person, who said she saw the craft and lives in a direct line two miles south of the Thorps. The woman described the exact shape and lights. The couple looked all summer, but the craft never returned.
The third sighting
The last incident happened at 9:15 p.m. May 11, 2015, as Thorp, his wife and their youngest daughter, Bonnabeth, were about five miles from home returning from Las Vegas, Nev. They were on the alert because driving at night meant wildlife could be near or on the road.
“Bev was the first to see it,” Thorp said. She saw a single large amber light high in the sky, but soon all three were straining to look through the windshield or out the windows of the car as six brilliant large amber lights appeared in a straight line. They seemed to be in pairs with a slight separation between each twosome.
“The lights were close, probably within 500 feet to 1,000 feet above the ground,” Thorp said. He pulled the car off the road at the first safe place to get a better view.
“I thought it was very unusual that the lights never broke their formation,” he said. “They were pretty round and perfectly distinct from one another, there was no diffusion of light rays that you see when lights are in the distance.”
Then as if all were controlled by one source, they went off. The sky went black.
“If I had to make a judgment, I would say they were not observation lights, but the cabin lights of a craft,” Thorp said.
He pulled back on the road and started home again when two lights reappeared, this time in the eastern sky on the left side of the highway. They weren’t moving and went out after about four seconds. Twenty seconds later, the lights came on again. Thorp believes they were viewing multiple crafts, again with absolutely no sound.
The women were a bit unsettled by the experience and considered the lights ominous and unfriendly. When they reached the house, they propped chairs up against the doors.
“If these beings had the technology to travel from planet to planet, they probably can overcome the technology of small wooden chairs propped up against doors,” Thorp told them.
Within days, the Thorps spoke to two other people in the area who said they also witnessed the lights. His daughter pulled up background on the Internet about the Phoenix Lights that appeared in March 1997. Descriptions were extremely similar. It turned out, that literally thousands of such sighting have been reported over the planet. Authorities have dismissed most as either natural phenomena or military.
But Thorp said he doesn’t believe they were natural, some sort of fragment from the Borealis, a reflection of his own headlights, an airplane, a satellite or secret military testing. While he expects family and friends to believe what he’s described, he doesn’t expect those from the outside to accept the experiences.
“Like most people in the world, seeing is believing and if they don’t see it, they don’t believe it,” he said. “Just don’t tell me that I saw an airplane. I’m 83 years old and I know what an airplane looks like. I also know what one sounds like.”
