'Aliens Are Out There': NASA Appoints Director of UAP Research, Report Says UFOs 'Pose Threat' to US Airspace

NASA chief Bill Nelson on Thursday said he believes that “aliens are out there” as the space agency released the first findings of its report into unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), or UFOs. It announced it is appointing a director of UAP research in response to one of the recommendations made by the independent study team. The report, however, stated that due to a limited number of high-quality observations of UAP, it is impossible to draw firm scientific conclusions about their nature.

The UAP independent study team, which is a counsel of 16 community experts across diverse areas, said in their report that UAP pose “threat to US airspace safety” and this is “self-evident”. It stated that the study of UAP presents a unique scientific opportunity that demands a rigorous, evidence-based approach along with a systematic reporting framework, including public engagement as well as crowdsourcing, and keeping a check on reporting stigma. It also said artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are essential tools for identifying these rare occurrences.

A press release issued by NASA stated that the agency commissioned the independent study to better understand how it can contribute to ongoing government efforts to further the study observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as balloons, aircraft, or as known natural phenomena from a scientific perspective.

“At NASA, it’s in our DNA to explore – and to ask why things are the way they are. I want to thank the Independent Study Team for providing insight on how NASA can better study and analyze UAP in the future,” said Nelson.

He added: “NASA’s new director of UAP research will develop and oversee the implementation of NASA’s scientific vision for UAP research, including using NASA’s expertise to work with other agencies to analyse UAP and applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to search the skies for anomalies. NASA will do this work transparently for the benefit of humanity.”

What are the key findings of the report?

1. The report stated that NASA is in an excellent position to contribute to UAP studies within the broader whole-of-government framework. Here are its key findings:
2. NASA’S fleet of earth-observing satellites should play a powerful supporting role to determine the environmental conditions that coincide with UAP
3. It is essential to note the pivotal role that structured data curation plays in a rigorous and evidence-based framework to better understand UAP
4. The US commercial remote-sensing industry offers a potent mix of Earth-observing sensors that have the collectivepotential to directly resolve UAP events
5. The standardisation of collected information via well-crafted calibration will make it possible to carry out a rigorous scientific investigation into UAP. NASA’s experience in this area will be vital
6. NASA should leverage its considerable expertise in this domain to potentially utilise multispectral or hyperspectral data as part of a rigorous campaign
7. NASA’s expertise should be comprehensively leveraged as part of a robust and systematic data strategy within the whole-of-government framework
8. AI and ML, combined with NASA’s extensive expertise, should be utilised to investigate the nature and origins of UAP
9. NASA, with its expertise in data calibration, management, and advanced analysis is well-positioned to take a central role in these efforts
10. The panel regards placing physical constraints on UAP, together with the suite of plausible natures and origins, as being within reach
11. With its world-leading expertise in data curation and organisation, NASA is well-positioned to advise on the best methodologies for establishing repositories of civilian airspace data
12. Leveraging the Aviation Safety Reporting System for commercial pilot UAP reporting would provide a critical database
13. NASA’s strong partnership with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be pivotal to designing future air traffic management systems to acquire UAP data.

What role will the director of UAP research play?

The main purpose of the director of UAP research is to contribute to the federal government’s unified UAP effort. Previously, a NASA liaison to the Department of Defense covered limited UAP activities for the agency.

“The director role will centralise communications, resources, and data analytical capabilities to establish a robust database for the evaluation of future UAP. The director also will leverage NASA’s expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and space-based observation tools to support and enhance the broader government initiative on UAP,” NASA said.

What are the key recommendations?

The report stated that NASA can play a prominent role in the government’s effort to understand UAP by furthering the study and data collection of UAP. It recommends that NASA use its open-source resources, extensive technological expertise, data analysis techniques, federal and commercial partnerships, and Earth-observing assets to curate a better and robust dataset for understanding future UAP.

NASA will advance citizen reporting by engaging with the public and commercial pilots to build a broader, more reliable UAP dataset to use to identify future UAP incidents as well as destigmatise the study of UAP.

“Data is the critical lifeblood needed to advance scientific exploration, and we thank the independent study team members for lending NASA their expertise towards identifying what available data is possible to understand the nature and origin of future UAP,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

She added: “The director of UAP Research is a pivotal addition to NASA’s team and will provide leadership, guidance and operational coordination for the agency and the federal government to use as a pipeline to help identify the seemingly unidentifiable.”

Why was it essential to use unclassified data?

The independent study team was set up outside of NASA and used unclassified data from civilian government entities, commercial data, as well as data from other sources.

“Using unclassified data was essential for our team’s fact-finding, open-communication collaboration, and for upholding scientific rigor to produce this report for NASA,” said David Spergel, president of the Simons Foundation and chair of the UAP independent study team.

Spergel added: “The team wrote the report in conjunction with NASA’s pillars of transparency, openness and scientific integrity to help the agency shed light on the nature of future UAP incidents. We found that NASA can help the whole-of-government UAP effort through systematic data calibration, multiple measurements and ensuring thorough sensor metadata to create a data set that is both reliable and extensive for future UAP study.”

The US space agency announced last year it was reviewing evidence regarding UAP, replacing the term ‘UFO’ in official parlance. The subject has long fascinated the public but was shunned by mainstream science. The independent study team shared their preliminary observations in May, finding that existing data and eyewitness reports are insufficient to draw firm conclusions while calling for more systematic collection of high-quality data.

While NASA’s probes and rovers scour the solar system for any fossils of ancient microbes, and its astronomers look for signs of intelligent civilisations on distant planets, its historic posture has been to “debunk” sightings on our home planet. There have been more than 800 “events” collected over 27 years, of which two to five percent are thought to be possibly anomalous, the report’s authors said during the May meeting.

(With AFP inputs)