To walk among the stars

Search for life beyond Earth cause for sense of wonder

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press October 22, 2000

Editor's Note: This second of two parts concludes a weeklong series on black world projects and UFOs. Valley Press writer William F. Wu has a doctoral degree in American culture and is author of numerous science fiction and fantasy novels. His work has been nominated for the prestigious Hugo award and one of his stories, "Wong's Lost and Found Emporium," was produced as a 1980s Twilight Zone anthology TV episode.

In Saturday's edition, the previous installment of Dark Skies began a review of lore and attitudes regarding the overlap between black world aerospace and UFO sightings. Today's installment concludes Dark Skies with an account of professional research into these subjects.

Tom McDonough, SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) coordinator for the Planetary Society, also has the title of senior scientist of the Skeptics Society.

A thoughtful, articulate man who has often been interviewed regarding the possibilities of intelligent alien life for televised documentaries, McDonough is the author of the science fiction novel, "The Architects of Hyperspace" (iUniverse.com).

McDonough said the missions of both organizations have a bearing on the subject of the potential for life outside Earth.

He explained that the Planetary Society was founded in 1981 to support the exploration of Mars and the rest of the solar system.

Its range has expanded; throughout the years, the society has funded the work of researchers such as Paul Horowitz, who studied radio signals from space in search of signs of intelligent life, and Charles Townes, Nobel prizewinning inventor of the laser, who conducted searches for pulsating light as evidence of extraterrestrial life.

McDonough went on to describe the Skeptics Society as "a group of scholars, scientists, magicians and ordinary people who analyze claims about UFOs, psychic phenomena, creationism and other controversial ideas, publishing results in a magazine, The Skeptic."

McDonough said the scientific basis for believing life exists beyond Earth begins with a comparison of life on Earth with conditions throughout the universe.

"We don't find anything rare in forming life on Earth. ... No rare elements are involved. The substances are very common."

He added there are grounds for debate about how common other conditions regarding Earth are, such as Jupiter helping to protect Earth from comets by its size and location, lessening the chance of collisions cataclysmic enough to destroy all life on our planet.

McDonough pointed out that while life elsewhere in the universe seems likely based on the example of Earth, whether life will develop intelligence remains a question and "makes it worth looking."

He explained that a way to approach this question, known as the Drake Equation, was formulated in 1960 by Frank Drake, a scientist working with Project Ozma to find newly formed stars with a radio telescope.

The Drake Equation breaks down the big question of whether intelligent life exists elsewhere into a series of smaller questions, including how many stars have planets; how many planets have an orbit in the habitable zone (neither too hot nor too cold); how many planets with life might have intelligent life; and how long is a civilization detectable through space?

"We have evidence for several hundred billion stars similar to the sun," McDonough said. "We've found several dozen planets at nearby stars, though they have lousy orbits (to support life)."

This evidence suggests more distant stars also have planets. "Planet formation .... seems confirmed. Planets are just the debris left over when a star is formed."

McDonough remained a skeptic, however, about the Roswell event - the keystone incident in which UFO advocates believe the Army covered up the crash of an extraterrestrial craft.

McDonough likes the Air Force version, once known as Project Mogul.

"It looks like there was a secret experiment near Roswell with a balloon intended to listen to acoustic waves from Russian explosions. ... They had used tape - already available - to bind stuff, that had a design on it. This gave rise to (reports of) an alien language.

"First it was called a weather balloon. This seems to have been mixed up with another event, an experiment where balloons dropped mannequins to see how they fell."

This, McDonough believes, caused witnesses to think they had seen alien bodies.

"There's nothing convincing to me about aliens visiting. ... I actually take it seriously. It's possible we've been visited in history. I don't know anyone in the SETI community who believes in UFOs."

McDonough added that when he's invited to participate in a panel discussion on UFOs, he's being asked to join as a skeptic in order to balance the claims of those who believe aliens have visited Earth. For that reason, he rarely has a chance to explain that he is open to the subject of alien visitation.

Some in the UFO community "accuse me of being close-minded. I'm glad people are looking into it. I find historical reports especially interesting. But they all have other explanations."

He has a blunt view of reports that aliens have abducted humans: "I find it unconvincing. No one has brought back a piece of technology. There are metals that only mix in space. I look for hard evidence and don't find it."

What about the rumors of alien spacecraft at Area 51?

"A case of a secret area where the military has secret stuff, weird-looking stuff. The stealth fighter and bomber looked really weird (when secret). The military is interested in remote battlefield vehicles. They would make good UFO candidates."

Given McDonough's skepticism about aliens visiting Earth, in his opinion why have the stories fascinated the public so much?

"American culture has been especially receptive to UFO reports. Science fiction movies are so popular. America is the most future-oriented country in the world."

Soucoupe volante?

Granted, but of course America is not the only future-oriented country in the world.

In May, the Boston Globe reported on a new, approved English translation of a study by the French military, a 90-page report called, "UFOs and Defense: What Should We Prepare For?"

The study did not specify "soucoupes volantes," or flying saucers.

Based on a three-year study, officials including retired generals from the French Institute of Higher Studies of National Defense, a strategic planning agency, examined almost 500 international aeronautical sightings and radar or visual cases, including pilots' reports and data from other countries' air forces.

They concluded that about 5% cannot be easily attributed to earthly sources, including secret military exercises.

This 5%, compiled by French Air Force Gen. Bernard Norlain, appear "to be completely unknown flying machines with exceptional performances that are guided by a natural or artificial intelligence."

The credentials of the authors are impressive: Gen. Norlain, former commander of the French Tactical Air Force and military counselor to the prime minister; General Denis Letty, an air force fighter pilot; and Andre Lebeau, former head of the National Center for Space Studies, the French equivalent of NASA. Other contributors included a three-star admiral; the head of a government agency studying the subject; and scientists and weapons engineers.

With such respected authors and extensive data, the French report on UFOs is difficult to dismiss out of hand.

Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, was quoted saying, "People have been digging through the files and investigating for years now. The files are quite convincing."

The fact that a military group conducted this study is significant; the possibility of alien visitation has always, of course, carried the possibility of alien invasion.

For Americans, Hollywood has spread the question most effectively.

The movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still," starring Michael Rennie and Patricia Neal, appeared in 1951, a mere four years after the Roswell incident.

It was loosely based on a story published in a science fiction magazine, "Farewell to the Master," by Harry Bates. In the film, an alien visitor and his giant robot arrive on Earth in a huge disk-shaped spacecraft, with a stern message about peace.

In "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers" (1956), the alien visit has nothing to do with peace.

Both were precursors to films such as "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) and "Independence Day" (1996).

Together, the two previously mentioned films early in the second half of the 20th century helped set the tone, and pose the central military questions, about alien visitation in the minds of the public.

Belief: Roswell researcher

Kevin D. Randle, who has a doctoral degree in psychology, has conducted extensive research into the question of alien visitation.

A co-author of "The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell" with Donald R. Schmitt, Randle's latest book has just been released, "The Abduction Enigma" by Kevin D. Randle, Russ Estes and William P. Cone, Ph.D.

Randle said the new book concludes there is no proof to support claims of human abduction by aliens during the last 35 years.

Asked about Area 51, Randle said: "I was out to Area 51 with Larry King. I think what's going on is the creation of the next generation of military aircraft. Is there alien spacecraft at Area 51? I don't think so."

So far, Randle sounded like a confirmed skeptic regarding claims of alien visitations to Earth. What about Roswell?

"There's no doubt in my mind that what fell at Roswell is extraterrestrial."

Randle bases his judgment on the research he and his co-author Schmitt have done, including government documents and interviews with eyewitnesses to the residue of the crash near Roswell about 11:30 p.m. on Friday, July 4, 1947.

Knowing the argument for extraterrestrial origins of the Roswell event has often been ridiculed, he added that if the civilian witnesses are discounted, "we can make a much stronger case."

The 509th Bomb Group was stationed at Roswell Army Air Field in the summer of 1947. Randle cites Maj. Edwin Easley of the 509th, who was provost marshal in charge of the military police who secured the crash site. Easley eventually retired as a colonel. Randle interviewed Easley several times in 1989 and 1990.

"I always got the impression he wanted to help as much as he could without violating his oath," Randle explained. "He said, 'I promised the president (Eisenhower) I wouldn't talk.'

"I asked, 'Do you think it's extraterrestrial?'

"He said, 'I don't think it's the wrong path (to investigate).' "

Randle also pointed out the presence of Maj. Jesse A. Marcel, who was the first officer, along with plainclothes counterintelligence officer Capt. Sheridan Cavitt, to reach the crash site, led by a civilian.

Marcel viewed debris on the crash site and filled his staff car with as much of it as he could. Later the 509th would secure the area and gather up the remaining debris, also taking what Marcel had brought back to the base.

In a 1979 interview quoted in "The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell," Marcel said, "I was pretty acquainted with most things that were in the air at the time, not only from my own military aircraft but also a lot of foreign countries, and I still believe it was nothing that came from Earth. It came to Earth but not from Earth."

Shortly after the debris had been gathered, Marcel was photographed with a general and the remains of a weather balloon, but he later said the balloon fragments were not the debris he had found on the crash site - and he had been ordered to remain silent at the press conference that followed the picture-taking. By then he no longer had possession of any crash debris himself.

Randle emphasized that of the staff officers of the 509th involved in the Roswell incident, all but one suggested the debris was extraterrestrial.

He discounts the longstanding government claim that the debris was the remains of a weather balloon.

"These guys (the officers of the 509th) were so stupid they couldn't recognize a weather balloon?"

Referring to the extensive information in "The Truth About the UFO Crash at Roswell," Randle said the case for an alien spacecraft crashing at Roswell is sound.

"If we take a look just at alien visitation, I think the answer's yes. I think these other things are proven; they're evidence. You've found a form of evidence that can be taken to the lab. They (scientists) don't want to take this on faith."

Yet the debris actually found by Marcel - and what happened to it - seems to remain hidden from the public just as firmly as black world aircraft.

Among the stars

Life magazine reported in March of this year that 43% of Americans "believe in UFOs" and 54% believe in intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

Americans have been considering extraterrestrial life for over half a century now and still have no aliens, living or dead, or hardware from alien technology, in public view.

Whether we humans are mistaken that aliens have been to Earth or if they are observing us; whether they are, as H.G. Wells wrote, "vast and cool and unsympathetic" or if they are peaceful and benign are questions that remain in the realm of belief and not proof, yet they have already caused us to look upward with a new sense of wonder.

By entering our minds, the questions have altered our culture and challenged our vision.

Kevin Randle, part skeptic and part believer in alien contact, has his own view about the attraction of this subject for the public.

"Isn't it just the mystery?" Randle responded. "If we can somehow solve this mystery, maybe we can walk among the stars."

Uploaded October 23, 2000