While doing some other work this morning I stumbled across a web site promoting something called the “Extraterrestrial Contact Act of 2005″. It is a proposed piece of legislation that would “establish a protocol to allow public interaction with Extraterrestrial Intelligences that may make, or express a desire to make peaceful contact with the people of Earth.” It includes a “contact protocol” for what the government would do in the event that ET “makes, attempts to make, or expresses a desire to make peaceful contact with the people of Earth” (evidently they’ve covered their bases should a fleet of Klingon warships show up in Earth orbit). It also states that citizens have the “irrevocable right to freely interact, associate and communicate with Extraterrestrial Intelligences, whether on or off the Earth”, should you have any question about the legality of your late-night meetings with ET.
This effort is led by Darryl Anka, who has “conducted metaphysical and consciousness-raising seminars and lectures for the past 22 years”, apparently making him an expert on extraterrestrial contact and law. Another person involved in this effort, April Rierdan, “has worked in the field of metaphysics and extraterrestrial research for the past 10 years.” So these folks are experts, kids: don’t try drafting ET contact law at home.
Not surprisingly, no one in Congress has introduced this legislation. Go figure.
That reliable, proven, Soviet rocketry:
Disaster as climate probe crashes
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1588336,00.html
Robin McKie in Frascati
Sunday October 9, 2005
The Observer
A satellite designed by British scientists to measure how fast Earth’s polar ice caps are melting crashed shortly after its launch from a Russian missile site yesterday.
CryoSat, the £100 million brainchild of UK climate expert Duncan Wingham, was supposed to survey the thinning of Earth’s ice caps from space. Instead it plummeted into the Arctic Ocean at around 4.15pm.
The loss is a major blow for climate research – and for Europe’s ambitions to become a major space power. Last night delegates, dignitaries, and senior scientists – who had gathered at Europe’s Esrin space control centre in Frascati, Italy, to celebrate CryoSat’s success – stood in grim huddles as they tried to digest the news of its fate.
…
The evening of the launch had appeared, initially, to be going well when, at 4.02pm, the probe was blasted into the upper atmosphere on an old Soviet SS-19 ballistic missile from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, outside Archangel in northern Russia. But 90 minutes later, when the probe was supposed to fly back over Europe after making its first orbit round the Earth, mission control staff found they could not pick signals from the satellite.
…
Several hours later the truth emerged. The second stage of the Russians’ SS-19 rocket had failed to separate from its third stage and the whole assembly, including its satellite, had plunged into the Arctic Ocean
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1588336,00.html
Which is worse, having the Russians as our enemies or as our friends?
While this is going on, we have an Italian company bidding on a major defense contract for helicopters, after having won the contract to build the presidential helicopter fleet, another Italian company is vying with a European consortium to sell us a twin engine cargo airplane – no US competitor in sight to mess up this one. This will probably make a nice complement to the A-400M our defense dept has no answer for, and which they will probably be happy to buy in place of US designed and built C-130s when it is available. We launch the Web telescope on an Arian. The aerial common sensor airplane for the Army and Navy will be built by Brazil. Our venerable F-15s get waxed by the Indian Air Force flying MiG-21s, 27s, and Su-30s, while its replacement ticks well past the second decade of development, and the Air Force announces a $6B program to upgrade the F-35 – even though it is years from being built. I think the aliens have already landed.
And what do the above comments have to do with the proposed ET legislation?
Anyway, one guy who is an expert on this sort of thing is Dr. Steven Dick, currently the NASA historian. I had the pleasure of working briefly with Dr. Dick when I volunteered as an escort at the Naval Observatory (he used to work there). He has written voluminously on the subject of extraterrestrial intelligence, and has done so in a very academic way; that is, he is well-respected for his views on the subject, among others. His particular focus is more on human culture and its interpretation of what “extraterrestrial” means to different peoples and individuals. Fascinating stuff…
Oh, and by the way, Russian hardware, for the most part, is quite reliable. We’ve had our share of failures, too.
We need to respect each other’s efforts when it comes to space exploration and exploitation. This also means we must wish our Chinese friends well on their journey into space this Wednesday.
Migrating into space is a human adventure, not an American or Western one.
Oh, and by the way, Russian hardware, for the most part, is quite reliable.
According to who, Pravda?
We let our good friends talk us into putting the space station into an orbit where it is useless for the only real potential purpose it had, a base for the assembly of lunar or planetary missions. The good news is, now the only way we can get to the useless station is via a Russian rocket. How very international. And good luck to your comrades, the Chinese too.
. This also means we must wish our Chinese friends well on their journey into space this Wednesday.
You go wish your anti-Christian, anti-demcracy, anti-free speech Chinese dictators well. Go lick their boots, why don’t you?
All you little pee cee stooges, brainwashed to parrot the party line that all cultures and all value systems are equal. Why don’t you try to think independently?
I’d actual think better of “Phil” if he turned out to be an actual Chicom imitating an Anglo-American. At least he’d be standing up for his own kind if he were Chinese.
David,
Be very careful here. You don’t know me one bit, and if you did you would not have said those things.
The data on Russian launch vehicles is clear – do your homework.
As far as questioning my patriotism – you are very lucky this is a virtual discussion. Nothing angers me more than someone questioning my love of the United States.
observe the permalink of this post … this must be a conspiracy or .. something
Wow, this site is getting a little shakey.
Back to lurking.
As far as questioning my patriotism – you are very lucky this is a virtual discussion. Nothing angers me more than someone questioning my love of the United States.
I wouldn’t question your patriotism any more than I would that of anyone in NASA, the DoD, or their contractors who advocate selling off the ability to defend ourselves. I can’t wait until we start buying the Airbus tankers to replace the venerable KC-135. On the up side, however, anyone who threatens people on a space policy blog does not really need to concern themselves with what others might think about their patriotism.
Given the current state of discussion I am closing comments on this post.