"Project Nanu"

"Project Nanu"

I was recently intrigued to see a number of Tweets about an entity called "Project Nanu" on Twitter/X. The Project's 13 August 2023 tweet read:

"We may have been quiet, but we've been very busy behind the scenes building a world first social science platform #coming soon. For pre-release information, to know more about us, & the app...."

The website for Project Nanu advises that:

"Investigate the Unknown presents NANU - Discover - Share - Investigate." There follows:

"At Nanu we promise to ignite the flame of discovery and empower investigative, problem-solving, and creative individuals to investigate, discover and share the unknown in a scientific and approachable way..."

Frequently asked questions

There is a "Frequently Asked Questions" section to the website, which advises that their application "...will be globally available for download enabling users to investigate, share and discover all aspects of the phenomenon." The app will be available "Fall 2023 on Android and iOS."

To the question "Where is the company based" the answer provided is: "The company and developers behind the Nanu app are based in the UK, America and Europe."

As to "Who is the parent company & who is involved" the response is: "Nanu is part of the privately owned Investigate the Unknown group headed up by Nicholas Martin."

At this point of reading the details on the website, a question which came to my mind is what is "the phenomenon" mentioned in the FAQ? I found the answer by looking at earlier tweets posted between 7 and 22 December 2022. There is mention of an interest in "Unexplained Phenomena;" "cryptozoology;"" cryptids;" "scientific anomalies;" "spirituality;" "paranormal;" "haunted locations;" "ghosts and spirits;" "extraterrestrials;" "UFOs/UAPs." In short, a very diverse range of topics.

Company business

I took a look at the parent company cited above, namely "Investigate the Unknown Ltd." via the UK Government's "Companies House" website.

The "Investigate the Unknown Ltd." company is listed as company number 12906585 a "Private Limited Company," incorporated on 25 September 2020, with a registered office in Morden, England.

There is a filing history of relevant documents lodged by the company between 25 September 2020 and 21 July 2023. Under the heading of "People," the following individuals are described:

Edward Crowther. Director. Appointed 11 January 2022, age 38, resides in England.

Philip Jansson. Director. Appointed 13 January 2022, age 25, resides in Sweden.

Nicholas Aaron Martin. Director.  Appointed 25 September 2020, age 31, resides in England.

Ricky Paul Mills, Director, Appointed 15 January 2022, age 26, resides in England. 

Hollyanne Bernadette Wood. Director. Appointed 28 January 2023, age 37, resides in England. 

LinkedIn

On LinkedIn the company Investigate the Unknown has a presence. It states that the company has five employees and:

"We are a company built from passionate individuals that are looking to create a generational project that involves discovery, adventure, investigation, problem solving and to bring the rest of humanity along in our awe-inspiring journey. Our goal for us is to bring the unknown phenomenon to the mainstream and inspire the whole world into discovering, sharing and investigating these mysterious and awe-inspiring stories and sighting."

I then looked for individual LinkedIn profiles for the five employees, and found four:

Ed Crowther

Philip Jansson

Nicholas Martin

Ricky Mills

UAP interests

In browsing all the above information, I wondered who amongst the listed individuals might have an interest in UAP? Ricky Mills' profile speaks to a ghost sighting when he was eight, and "ghosts and spirits" was mentioned in one of the project's tweets. One individual maintains a Twitter/X account where their username is @thatuapgirl and that is Holly Wood, who has been on Twitter/X since 2010. Here is a link to an English newspaper article which describes Holly's UAP interests. Holly may be followed on Facebook here. 

In closing

It is refreshing to see that this particular startup company, is open and transparent in the information which is publicly available about it. I look forward to finding out further details of "Project Nanu" and its application when that is available. 

That 140 page "secret" report on the 2004 Nimitz events

Introduction

On a recent episode of the "WEAPONIZED" podcast, titled "The UFO Hearing-What Happened? What's Next," featuring George Knapp, Jeremy Corbell, Ross Coulthart and Bryce Zabel, there was mention of a 140-page report on the November 2004 Nimitz events. Knapp and Corbell had acquired a copy from unnamed sources. Knapp had considered submitting it to the recent Congressional hearing, but ultimately decided not to. 

What was the report about?

According to Corbell, speaking to Knapp, the 140-page document was:

"...generated by an intelligence agency; all on the Tic Tac. You showed it to certain individuals that would have the power to put that on the Congressional record, and people were threatened by the idea of you doing it...and you didn't put it on the Congressional record, tell me why?" 

Knapp responded, saying:

"Sometimes you have to protect sources even from themselves... it is not classified, but it hasn't been authorised for release."

Corbell went on to say:

"...a 140-page detailed analysis; scientific analysis of the Tic tac UFO encounters of multiple craft above 80,000 feet as Commander Fravor said, in space. Right, that Commander Fravor hasn't ever seen, nor Commander Chad Underwood...hasn't seen it."

Recall

At this point in listening to the podcast detail concerning the report; I had a recollection of seeing something similar, about 140-page length document on the Nimitz encounters. I turned to my copy of the book by Lacatski et al, "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon." There I found it.

"Advanced Physics Analysis of Tic Tac:

In an additional 141 page-report delivered to DIA in December 2010, AAWSAP included a detailed advanced physics analysis of the Tic Tac velocity and acceleration that was distinct from Axelrod's report discussed previously and submitted separately to DIA.

A major part of the analysis of Tic tac speed and acceleration performance utilised ANSYS Engineering Software. Back in 2010, the ANSYS Workbench platform was a powerful multi-domain simulation environment that harnessed the core physics from ANSYS, enabled their interoperability, and provided common tools for interfacing with CAD (computer-aided design), repairing geometry, creating meshes, and post-processing results.

To BAASS's knowledge, this powerful computational capability had not been previously utilized in the 75-year history of UFO study. The 141-page report that was submitted to DIA stated:

"It is hypothesized that through this broader ranging ANSYS analysis, additional theoretical constructs can be generated regarding UAP and USO behavior. These in turn could provide the scaffolding for advanced engineering concepts."

The report included ANSYS simulations and analysis of Tic Tac velocities and acceleration as well as simulations of a Tic tac entering the water and simulations of Tic Tac movement through water. These latter simulations could form a baseline for future UAPTF studied and analysis of the so called "trans medium" UAP behavior, as reported by documentary filmmaker Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp. A 'trans medium vehicle' is usually defined in this context as one capable of operating in multiple domains, for example in the air and underwater.

This 141-page UAP Analysis report, which has been archived at DIA since December 2010, could provide current investigators with useful baseline parameters from which to catalogue future UAP behaviors."

Note: AAWSAP was the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program; BAASS was Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies; and DIA was the Defense Intelligence Agency.

I also checked the Lacatski book's list of BAASS documents submitted to the DIA for the AAWSAP project. One of these was as follows:

"Summary report on BAASS UAP Analysis Capabilities. Tic Tac and sphere Assessment. 23 November 2010 (141 pages.)"

Are they the same document?

It looked to me that the 140-page document referred to by Knapp and Corbell was most likely this 141-page BAASS AAWSAP report. Under the BAASS AAWSAP contract, copies of reports generated were only kept by BAASS and the DIA. Neither BAASS nor the DIA has officially released copies of the multiple documents generated by the Project, as listed in the Lacatski et al book. Knapp said about the report he has: "...it is not classified, but it hasn't been authorised for release." That would fit the circumstances of the BAASS AAWSAP document. All in all, my best hypothesis is that these two documents are one.  

This would not be the first time that "unofficially released" data from the BAASS AAWSAP project has appeared in public. See my article on the resurfacing of the BAASS AAWSAP CAPELLA data warehouse. 

BAASS

Is there any other evidence that can support my hypothesis? Actually, there is. Some time ago I compiled an Excel spreadsheet of all the employees of the BAASS AAWSAP of which I was aware. Some of these employees listed details of their work at BAASS on LinkedIn. One of interest is:

"Education:

2004-2006 University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) MSE Mechanical Engineering.

2007-2012 UNLV PhD Mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering.

2012-2015 UNLV Nuclear engineering.

Career:

Jul 2005-Aug 2008 Engineer 1 Mastec,

Aug 2009-June 2010 BAASS Research Engineer II.

Oct 2010-Jul 2011 Engineer II Arcadis.

Jul 2011-Sep 2011 Bigelow Aerospace. Thermal analyst and computational fluid dynamicist.

"Worked in an interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers studying advanced aerospace weapon system applications including lift, propulsion, control, power generation, signature reduction, materials and armament. Further tasks included: Develop company research topics requiring ANSYS, FEA calculation and carry out research within the fields of aerodynamics, heat transfer, stress analysis and chemical reaction...responsible for compiling, formatting and ongoing technical accuracy of completed scientific analysis reports."

So, this indicates that there was at least one employee of BAASS in the period August 2009 to June 2010 who worked at BAASS; who was using ANSYS; and was responsible "...for compiling, formatting and ongoing technical accuracy of completed scientific analysis reports."

I am aware of this individual's name, but have chosen not to reveal it here, for privacy reasons. There is no suggestion implied here, that this individual provided Knapp and Corbell with a copy of the AAWSAP report.  

Update 8 August 2023

A Twitter/X user, MonkeeSage, noted that there was a relevant portion of George Knapp's submission to the recent Congressional Hearing. MonkeeSage had read Knapp's statement courtesy of a Tweet by John Greenewald, who credited D. Dean Johnson. Included in that statement was the following:

"The very first case investigated by AAWSAP was the Tic Tac incident from 2004. An initial report was compiled by DIA personnel then shared with AAWSAP. A much larger 140-page report, packed with detailed analysis of the Tic Tac and its capabilities, was written by AAWSAP scientists and engineers. Neither Congress nor the public has ever seen the Tic tac report..."

Thus, my deduction that the two reports were one and the same, is borne out. 

The recent French 'webinar' on UAP optical features/signatures

A global issue

Sometimes people forget that the study of UAP is a global issue, and not just centred in the United States of America. I have previously reported on the work of the SIGMA2 Technical Commission of L'Association Aeronautique et Astronautique de France (3AF for short) which is a learned body of the aerospace industry in France. In the clamour surrounding the U.S. Congressional activity re UAP, an event was held on 16 June 2023, both in person in Paris, France and via the internet, put on by SIGMA2.The webinar was organised to discuss the topic of the optical features/signatures of UAP, in order to learn what data exists and how best to collect future data.

The webinar was opened by Luc Dini, Chair of SIGMA2, and followed by an address by Alain Juilet,  former head of the French Foreign Intelligence Service; who two years ago, revealed his interest in UAP.

Speakers

A number of individuals then provided input on the webinar's theme of the optical features/signatures of UAP. Namely;

Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, on "Searches for Extraterrestrial Probes near the Earth with the VASCO and EXOPROBE Projects."

Home - Beatriz Villarroel

Professor Massimo Teodorani, "A Second Life for Project Hessdalen."

Peter A. Reali   "A Forensic Analysis of 'Rubber Duck' A Publicly Available Video Showing a UAP Purportedly Filmed by Arizona National Guard on November 2, 2019."

Dr. Jacques Vallee, "An Approach to UAP Radiated Energy Observables: 5 Study cases."

Luc Dini, "Approach of UAP Optical Observables." 

Professor Kevin Knuth, "UAP Optical Observables."

Round table

Following the presentations, there was a round table discussion, by numerous individuals who were either present in the room in Paris or attending via the Internet. 

Listed participants who were not speakers were:

Rtd. Brigadier Pierre Bescond; Dr. Mike Cifone; Baptiste Friscourt; Pr. Richard Griffins; Dr. Sarah Little; Dr. Filipe Nascimento; Robert Powell; Michael Vailant; Dominique Filhol; Michel Scheller; Dr. Gerard Labaune; Dr. Joel Deschamps; Rtd. Brig. Gen. Jean-Marc Andre; Geoffrey Metchersky; Dr. Andreas Muller; Dr. Nicholas Nasse; Dr. Stephane Pfister; Raymond Piccoli; Dr. Mark Rodhieger. 

Many of the above names will be recognised by blog readers as associated with 3AF Sigma2; the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies; the Society for UAP Studies; independent UAP researchers; plus others. 

Baptiste Friscourt, a student of French UAP research, in a report dated 21 June 2023, gave an excellent overview report of the event. 

The "Tic tac" encounter - a forgotten participant

Douglas Kurth 

An often-overlooked participant in the 14 November 2004 "Tic tac" incident, is former U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Col. Douglas Kurth. Then Lt. Col. Douglas Kurth was the Commanding Officer of Marine Hornet Squadron VMFA-232 on that date. On the day in question, he was in the area flying a single seater aircraft.

In 2021, in the most Indepth interview with Kurth of which I am aware, U.S. researcher Christian Lambright, asked Kurth about that day. In part, Kurth responded:

"That's when they vectored Fravor's flight toward the Unidentified Contact. After a few minutes when my checks were completed, I accepted their vector toward the Unidentified Contact.

I had Fravor's flight on radar and was directly over the top of them when they were observing the supersonic tic tac. I was not on the same frequency as Fravor's flight.

I saws the visual disturbance in the water (which had been previously and accurately reported) and that is what I used as my reference point to orbit around. The disturbance on the water cleared suddenly. It all seemed odd to me at the time. I never saw the object physically myself."

I reported on the above in a blog article dated 29 May 2021. 

Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies

Later, Kurth was recruited by Colm Kelleher for Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) which was successful in bidding for the Defense Intelligence Agency's (DIA) Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP.) In that capacity, Kurth led a BAASS team down to South America looking for pieces of UAP and hoping to learn about their propulsion systems. For more information about this South American trip please click here and here and here and here. 

Further to all of the above, Jacques Vallee's "Forbidden Science: Volume 5" references Kurth a number of times. So, in order to add some additional data, I will extract the relevant portions from Vallee.

12 December 2008

Vallee was talking with Colm Kelleher.

"He has now hired three leaders, including Doug Kurth, a sharp ex F-18 pilot from the Nimitz who will start on Monday and get to work on my Capella project..."

23 January 2009 

"Later Doug Kurth gave me a detailed description of an encounter off the coast of Mexico on 8 December 2004. As Commanding Officer of an F-18 squadron, the VMFA-232, Red Devils, he had taken off from the deck of the Nimitz, on a maintenance test flight. They were vectored to check on a disturbance in the water that corresponded to an unusual blip picked up on radar by several ships. 

He did see the disturbance and heard the conversations between other pilots who saw the object, a white rounded cylinder shaped like a "tic tac" candy, which outmaneuvered them and flew up at enormous speed. It was picked up on infrared and tracked. The event was reported in Naval routine. Nobody was told to keep it secret, and it was the subject of much joking aboard the carrier."

5 April 2009

"Now Doug Kurth has sent me the user's guide he has compiled for Capella, a fine piece of work covering the six databases now assembled..."

Comments:

1. We now have an accurate date for when Kurth commenced work with BAASS, namely Monday 15 December 2008. There has been some confusion previously about when he started, as Kurth's own LinkedIn page states that he commenced with BAASS in December 2007, not 2008. The Vallee date is supported by the fact that BAASS wasn't registered as a company until January 2008, and the DIA's AAWSAP contract did not commence until Sep/Oct 2008.

2. Regarding Vallee's diary entry dated 24 January 2009 with a summary of the "Tic tac" event. The date given for the event, of 8 December 2004, is clearly wrong and there is a mixing of information about Kurth's and Fravor's flights, some correct; some incorrect. 

Amazon.com: Skinwalkers at the Pentagon: An Insiders' Account of the Secret Government UFO Program: 9798487639653: Lacatski D.Eng., James T, Kelleher Ph.D., Colm A, Knapp, George: Books

3. Interesting that Kurth was working on Vallee's Capella database system, and was the one, not Vallee, who compiled a user's guide for it. In the book by Lacatski et al, titled "Skinwalkers at the Pentagon" there is a list of documents which BAASS sent to the DIA. One of these documents is listed as "Capella Date Warehouse Database/spreadsheet User's Guide (12 pages.)"

Slowly, albeit years later, we are getting to understand the role which Kurth played at BAASS.