Flying On The Fringe

Welcome to my new series, “Interview With An Alien.” It’s long been a dream of mine to be scooped up by some UFO, and if not to be transported to another planet, to at least have a meaningful conversation with a being from another world. This series is for all those as crazy as I am, whose imaginations run wild in the ships of science fiction.

PART ONE: AMBASSADOR IKIRA FROM THE PLANET HAPIDA

S: Amabassador Ikira, thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me.

I: My pleasure. We’re looking forward to a friendly relationship with Earth, and I’m happy to have the opportunity share with you.

S: We’re eager to get to know you. How did Hapida become aware of Earth?

I: We received a signal from a probe launched from your planet long ago. Of course, by the time it was within range of our system, much had changed on your planet. Humans, fortunately, still look much the same as the images on that probe, so at least we knew a little of what to expect. Your technology, however, has progressed significantly.

S: Yes, Voyager launched in 1977. I would imagine our current technology is still primitive by your standards, since, if I understand correctly, your people have been space farers for over a hundred generations.

I: That is true. However, our lifespan is comparatively much shorter than yours. Our planet rotates faster, and because our sun is small and has a weaker gravitational pull, it also revolves around the sun in a shorter time period. It’s a complex mathematical formula, but our year would be roughly equivalent to about seven months in your time.

S: Tell us about your home planet. How does it compare with Earth?

I: It’s radically different. Hapida is surrounded by dense clouds, and our sun is a weak, red dwarf, so very little light reaches the surface. We have many tall, slender trees with foliage high above the ground, but almost no ground plants. I am utterly fascinated by your oceans. So much water! Our only water sources are below ground, and we are adapted to using very little. It seems you waste a lot.

S: We are guilty of that. Until recently, it seemed to us to be an abundant and never-ending resource. We’re only now beginning to understand how little is fresh, drinkable, water, as opposed to salt water, and conservation efforts are far from adequate.

I: Our planet would be grateful even for the salt water. It could be treated and made drinkable.

S: An expensive process when our human population is so huge. Your population numbers only a few million, is that true?

I: Yes. We marry for life, and each couple has only one or two children in a lifetime. We are cold-blooded, so our entire metabolism is slower than humans’. You eat three times a day! I can’t imagine consuming that much. I eat about once every seven or eight of your days.

S: You have large, beautiful eyes. I assume that’s an adaptation to the dark conditions on your planet.

I: Yes. As you know, I had to ask you to dim the lights in your office. Most of the time here I have to wear very dark glasses, as well as a breathing apparatus. Your atmosphere is too oxygen rich.

S: That seems awfully inconvenient. I hope it isn’t too unpleasant for you.

I: For me, it is worth the inconvenience to explore your world.

S: Definitely worth some inconvenience. I’d like to ask another personal question, if that would be all right?

I: Of course. I can always choose not to answer. (She utters a series of quick hisses through her nose, a sound I learned earlier is a chuckle. She has a wonderful sense of humor!)

S: Tell me about the appendages on your head. Do they have a function?

I: Yes. Because our planet is dark, our eyesight is poor, compared to humans. Our filiki provide extra sensory data. It is apparently a sense humans lack. We… touch the air around us and pick up vibrations and magnetic and electrical currents.

S: Fascinating. I wish I had those senses. What other species inhabit your planet?

I: Like most planets that have achieved sentient life—there are quite a lot of them, you know—we have a variety of species, though not so varied as earth. Many of ours have developed life cycles below ground, and cold-blooded species outnumber warm-blooded ones about fifty to one. We only have sixty two warm-blooded species, and most of those lay eggs. We don’t have any birds, though we have a dozen species that float in the air. Most of them look a little like your lizards or snakes with flaps of skin that unfold to glide through the air. I have a pet peliri at home. It has a soft, fuzzy skin but is long like a snake. They love to wrap around your arm and be carried around. They coo, or kind of trill, when they’re happy.

S: Interesting. A fuzzy snake. What do they eat?

I: They inhale microorganisms in the air, so they are very easy to care for.

S: (Now I’m really laughing). That would be a blessing. I have five cats, and I’d better not forget to feed them!

Readers, check in on January 13, 2010, for the continuation of this interview. In Part Two of my interview, we’ll learn a little more about Ikira’s world, Hapida, her culture, other species, and some of their holidays and celebrations.

I was hoping to get to see some of the Delta Aquarid meteor shower from a mountaintop in the Ozarks this weekend, but the viewing will be hampered by a full moon. Fortunately, according to earthsky.org, that won’t be my last chance.

Meteor numbers for this shower don’t bump up significantly at this shower’s peak; in fact, they’ll continue on into August and overlap with the famous Perseid meteor shower. The moon will turn new on August 11, 2018, providing dark skies for both the Perseids and the Delta Aquariids around then. The Perseids radiate from the constellation Perseus. The Delta Aquariids radiate from the constellation Aquarius. That means those August meteors will be flying from two different directions in the sky. Lots of fun to watch!

(By Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd in ASTRONOMY ESSENTIALS, earthsky.org, July 23, 2018)

Where I live, my view is obscured to the south, but I have a great view to the north, so I plan to go out sky-watching on August 11 and focus on the Perseids. Who knows, with any luck, I might get to see meteors streaking across from both north and south.

Here’s a beautiful shot of one (from earthsky,org) taken in my neck of the country, in the Geno Ketcham Richland Creek Wildlife Area in Arkansas.

Have fun my friends, and keep looking to the stars!

For all those who believe in UFOs…

For all those who’ve been fortunate enough to see one…

And for all those who are waiting for good fortune to visit them in the future…

July 2 is World UFO Day.

Some people celebrate it on June 24, the anniversary of the date that American aviator Kenneth Arnold sighted nine UFOs near Mount Ranier, Washington on June 24, 1947. July 2 commemorates the date of the infamous crash at Roswell, New Mexico.

My interest in was sparked in the 1970s after I became hooked on reruns of Star Trek in college. I joined the organization MUFON and followed it for several years. As a science fiction writer, I spend a lot of time researching space and space-related issues. The Milky Way is estimated to be about 100,000 light years across. It’s next to impossible to estimate the number of stars it contains, but the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission is mapping the locations of approximately 1 billion stars in the Milky Way. ESA says Gaia will map one percent of the stellar content of the Milky Way, which puts the estimate of the total stars in our galaxy at 100 billion. Gaia’s goal is to make the best-ever three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.

Just a few decades ago, astronomers debated whether planets like Earth were rare in the galaxy. With the power of modern day telescopes and other instruments, we now know non-Earth planets, called exo-planets, are quite common. And a large number of them orbit their stars in what is referred to as the “Goldilock’s zone,” the zone in which a planet can contain liquid water. One system recently discovered has six planets orbiting in the habitable zone, so close to each other that a being standing on one of them could see the others even during the day. Now that’s what I call cool!

All of that leads me to believe it won’t be long before we discover some type of extraterrestrial life.

But the big question is, has extraterrestrial life already discovered us? Although governments around the world have done their best to hide evidence of such life, there is evidence out there.

In 1977, Peter Sturrock, a professor of space science and astrophysics at Stanford University, mailed 2,611 questionnaires about UFO sightings to members of the American Astronomical Society. He received 1,356 responses from which 62 astronomers – 4.6 percent – reported witnessing or recording inexplicable aerial phenomena. This rate is similar to the approximately 5 percent of UFO sightings that are never explained.

The countries of Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been declassifying their UFO files since 2008. The French Committee for In-Depth Studies, or COMETA, was an unofficial UFO study group comprised of high-ranking scientists and military officials that studied UFOs in the late 1990s. They released the COMETA Report, which summarized their findings. They concluded that 5 percent of the encounters were reliable yet inexplicable: The best hypothesis available was that the observed craft were extraterrestrial. They also accused the United States of covering up evidence of UFOs. (https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/do-aliens-exist-are-they-real-national-ufo-day-13033434.php)

We might not yet have what would be considered incontrovertible proof of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth, but we certainly have enough evidence to warrant open minds and serious scientific study.

Live long and prosper…and dream big.

You might also like to visit:

https://www.theufochronicles.com/2018/07/scientists-revisit-question-of-aliens.html

https://wgnradio.com/2018/06/25/world-ufo-day-and-ufo-sighting-phenomenon/

While visiting one of my favorite Facebook groups, Space Opera, I came across an interesting topic. Someone had posted a photo of an asteroid named Bennu and a claim that it was “expected” to strike the Earth in 2135. That sort of thing always peaks my interest, so I checked it out on Space.com. No big surprise, the claim was bogus. “Expected” turned out to be about a 1 in 1265 chance, and it isn’t due to make its pass until “late” 22^nd century. Sounds like pretty unlikely odds to me. Not to mention that would give us plenty of time to do something about it if it was on a collision course.

For those of us who write in the realm of science fiction, science FACTS are important. Of course, we have the advantage of suspension of disbelief, and I for one, play heavily on things that are currently hypothesized, but not yet known. Nonetheless, one thing that bothers me in science fiction is when a known fact is ignored or stretched beyond belief. There is plenty of room for us to imagine in the realm of the unknown, without ignoring what is already known as fact.

My favorite was a line I caught in an old Star Trek rerun. Dr. McCoy and Kirk were on a previously undiscovered planet, and McCoy was scanning for life signs. They are standing in front of a bush, and McCoy’s scanner picks up something several meters away. He says something like, “It’s the only sign of biological life around.” Really? Is there a form of life that isn’t biological? And what is the bush they’re standing in front of? Maybe it’s one of those non-biological forms of life. Or maybe, it’s a stage prop, and it isn’t a form of life at all.

As I discussed in my previous post, NASA has laid out a three-stage plan for developing the technology and systems necessary to carry us to Mars, humanity’s first step toward becoming a space-faring species.

Stage 2 of NASA’s plan is called “The Proving Ground.” In the Proving Ground, NASA will learn to conduct complex operations in a deep space environment, mostly in the region near the moon, called “cislunar.” Experiments near the moon still allow crews to return to Earth in a matter of days. In cislunar space, NASA will advance and validate capabilities required for human exploration of Mars.

Stage 2 includes a series of Exploration Missions (EMs), starting with EM-1, the first integrated test of the SLS and Orion ships, anticipated in 2018. In 2020, the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission will collect a large boulder from a near-Earth asteroid, then ferry it to the Proving Ground, and the Asteroid Redirect Crew Mission will allow astronauts to investigate and sample the asteroid boulder.

NASA also plans an initial deep-space habitation facility for long-duration systems testing to allow autonomous operations, including rendezvous, docking and state of the art information technology solutions. The agency will also study concepts to minimize resupply needs through reduction, reuse, and recycling of consumables, packaging, and materials.

Other key operational capabilities required to become Earth Independent will also be identified and developed during Stage 2.

I won’t live long enough to see humans achieve travel beyond our own solar system, unless some alien race decides to give us a boost. But if NASA manages to stay on schedule with its plan for manned travel to Mars, I just might hold out that long.

I can’t wait to see the first transmissions from the Mars habitat.

I apologize to my fans for failing to post for so long. I have been working on edits for my first book, Trial By Error, to be released some time later this year.

Inspired by Star Wars and many other galactic-spanning science fiction stories, my book will involve routine travel among the stars. Meanwhile, back on the real planet Earth, our species hasn’t even made it to the nearest planet in our own solar system. I find it heartening that NASA is at least working hard toward that goal, though unfortunately, I may not live to see them achieve it. The current long-range plan is to have humans on Mars by some time in the 2030s.

NASA has laid out a three-stage plan for developing the technology and systems necessary to carry us to our nearest planetary neighbor. Stage 1 is “Earth Reliant” testing aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This stage is called Earth reliant because travel can be accomplished between the earth and the ISS within a matter of hours. Since 2000, NASA has been testing:

Human health and behavioral research                                                            Advanced communications systems

Material flammability tests                                                                             Extravehicular operations

Mars mission class environmental control and life support systems                  3-D printing

Material handling tests for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) demonstrations

The ISS has already provided critical insights into the effects of long-term micro-gravity on the human body and spurred new developments in suits and tools that allow astronauts to spend longer periods outside their spacecraft. And haven’t we all had fun learning about what we can do with 3-D printers?

The second phase, “The Proving Ground, which I will discuss in more detail in my next blog, involves mounting missions to “cislunar” space—the area in the vicinity of the moon. Missions during the second phase will be designed to test the abilities and limits of humans and technology beyond earth’s protective sphere.

The third and final phase, called “Earth Independent,” will build on what we learn on the ISS and in cislunar space to enable human missions to the Mars vicinity, including the Martian moons, and eventually the Martian surface.

It seems so easy in science fiction. Why does it have to be so hard in reality?

Okay, guess I was wrong. The revelations keep coming to me in God’s own time.

Maybe those of us who believe Donald Trump will lead the country in the wrong direction have the wrong idea. Maybe he’s a catalyst—an image so powerful that it’s designed to get us off our collective passivist asses and start taking action.

2017 is the year of peace. It isn’t going to seem like it, not this year, and it certainly won’t go down in the history books that way. I doubt anyone but God himself will see the reality of this year. But it becomes the beginning of peace on earth only if those of us who want to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth take action. We always have free will, and if we choose to sit idly by, the opportunity to change humanity will pass us by.

I am not advocating marching in the streets. From what I’ve seen, that only begets more violence. Peace begins with each of us individually, in how we treat those around us on a daily basis. Believe me, I struggle with this daily in my own tribulations within my own family. I have already learned a great deal through my own series of “revelations.” Not that I’ve conquered the demon of “frustration” that sends me into fits of anger. Not by along shot. But I hope I’m getting better.

Practice peace in all that you say and do. Refuse to be pressured into speaking or acting in harmful or destructive ways. Do not cave to the rhetoric of hate and anger. Do not hide your light under a basket. Live the example and let others learn from it.

This post is one of several that are the result of a powerful inspiration I experienced during the 2016 Christmas Eve service at my church.

I have already said things will not change instantly. It will most likely take more than a generation to achieve true peace. But think in these terms. Once we head in the right direction, as those who cling to violence die, more and more children will be born into a world where peace is a priority. We’re not talking about the Rapture here in the traditional sense, but the end result will be the same. Those who cannot change will leave, and the ones who are capable of living in the new paradigm will raise children who know how to live in it.

It will take time, generations even. But there has to be a starting point.

This is the last revelation I have for the time being. There may be more at some point, or there might not. I have no way of knowing. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the inspiration for these “revelations” came directly from God. I have been driven to action by God’s inspiration many times in the past, but never have I experienced anything as powerful as this was. It has not unfolded the way I expected, but then I have no way of knowing if it is over yet. God moves in His own time and space.