Posted on 02/28/2002 3:06:21 AM PST by prisoner6
(Please read the LAST couple of paragraphs!) February 26, 2002 8:00 CDT
The Eisenhower White House spoke quite frankly and calmly about the existence of UFO's in private, but like every other White House before and since, they kept a public polite and disinterested smile facing forward.
One of the main items of discussion for them was the Martian moon known as Phobos. Although there are many who remain adamant that it is a solid and celestial body, there are others who are equally sure that it is not. Dr. S. Fred Singer was special advisor to President Eisenhower on space development.
He briefed the President that it was his opinion that it was actually a hollow structure, perhaps a satellite launched by a far superior Alien race This theory agreed with the one held by Soviet astrophysicist Shklovsky, who professed exactly the same thing and whose opinion sparked no small amount of controversy among his colleagues.
Unlike it's apparent "sister moon" Deimos, Phobos has a very peculiar orbit, leading some scientists to conclude that the only way this is possible would be for it to be slowed by electromagnetic drag and tidal friction in greater proportions than would be possible in a solid orb.
Other advisors who briefed President Eisenhower echoed this opinion as well. James Killian, Raymond Wilson and Dr Iosif Shklovsky all looked at all the data and came to the same conclusions. The location of the 'moon' makes for the perfect placement of a space station for any species, alien or earthling. It would also be ideal to use in sweeping the planet Mars of excess radiation, keeping levels down to an acceptable limit for spacecraft to safely operate.
Shklovsky even wrote a book on the subject, dealing with SETI, or the Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe. The book was called Intelligent Life in the Universe was given to an astronomer for editing, as is standard practice with a book of such nature. The astronomer's name was Carl Sagan. Mr. Sagan read the book and added his own viewpoints along the way, as well as copious notes in the margins of each page with his comments and thoughts.
So insightful was he that Schlovsky eventually named him co-author of the book instead of editor and the resulting book doubled in length from the original Although the two men may have differed in some of their opinions on extra-terrestrial life, they remained ardent supporters of the other's point of view. This was apparent in a reply made by Sagan to a then-Congressman on whether or not the two agreed in their opinions on alien life.
"I think he shares my restraint." Sagan said in reply. " I think both of us would say we think this is an extremely important subject, that we are on the frontier of being able to find out, but that neither of us knows whether there is or isn't life out there.
Let me say if it turns out there isn't life on Mars, that is almost as interesting as if we find there is life on Mars, because then we have to ask, what happened different on Mars than on the Earth, so that life arose here and not there. That will surely give us a very profound entry into the question of follow-up of evolution and the cosmic context."
(Bold and Italics mine...p6)
uuhhh....Gosh Carl...maybe, like...Divine Intervention?
prisoner6
ROFL! Does it brush away plague, too?
However, my understanding is that later observations of Phobos' orbit do not show this effect, and it is now believed that the whole thing arose out of measurement errors.
This occasionally led to some amusing bits, if one follows the typographical symbols noting which bits are Shklovskii and which are Sagan. For instance, there is a sentence where Shklovskii comments on space-based weaponry which he describes as "being developed by the United States", at which point Sagan inserted "and the Soviet Union".
Did I miss something with this acronym?
Carl Sagan...what an actor!
LOL! I missed that until you pointed it out. And Yes, about Carl. Around 1980 he came to Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh to give a lecture open to "laymen". My wife and I went along with several other folks.
To be "cool" I dressed in a brown corduroy sport coat with obligatory suede elbow patches and a turyle neck shirt.
After two hours (at least) of listening to Carl spew, I left disillusioned and disenchanted. The man was pompus, presumptuous, and I am convinced very lucky to have attained his station.
I never wore that coat again.
Oh, I do understand that years later when he was making his "Cosmos" series, he hired an acting coach who tried to teach him how to relate to people.
prisoner6
prisoner6
prisoner6
Ummm... just a wild guess.... so no one thinks it is a space station?
If you were an advanced alien civilization that stumbled into our little neighborhood, and wanted to keep an eye on all those crazy humans... Mars would make a good observation place. Close enough to observe, but far enough away to not be noticed, and just to make sure - in case those apemen learn to build spacecraft; make a space station that looks like a moon.
OK, here goes. Why couldn't God have made life on two planets instead of just one? Why did God make Mars, anyway? What was the point? Did the Solar System occur naturally, and God just moved in and put life on Earth, or did he purposely create the Solar System to be the way it is?
I believe God created the universe and everything in it, but I'm also grateful to all the people, including Carl Sagan, who work to understand how and why the universe works. I have more respect for an athiest who is trying to increase mankind's knowledge than for a Christian whose answer to everything is "because God made it that way."
A-HA! The aliens saw us looking and changed the orbit to make us think the measurements were wrong...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.