The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation speaks out about ETs

Extraterrestrial life

The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) S. Somanath, featured in an article on the "India Today" website, dated 22 August 2024. Part of the article reads:

"In a thought-provoking statement, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief has shared his perspective on the existence of extraterrestrial life, suggesting that alien civilisations are not only possible but likely to exist throughout the universe.

The Isro Chairman emphasised the rapid pace of human technological advancement, noting that, just a century ago our civilisation had minimal technological capabilities compared to today."

The India Today website article was reporting on a podcast, hosted by Ranveer Allahbadia, which interviewed S. Somanath. 

S. Somanath

Another website carried more detail from the podcast interview, including:

"Alien systems that are 1,000 years more advanced than us will always be here," he said, suggesting that such advanced civilisations may already be present, perhaps observing or interacting with the universe in ways we cannot yet understand."

"Podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia asked S. Somanath why we mainly hear about UFOs being sighted in America (USA) and South America. Somanath then explains that, scientifically speaking the geographic positions of these regions favor the occurrence of these sightings more than equatorial regions, due to climatic issues. He concluded by saying that, from a non-scientific point of view, many UFO stories are also fabricated...Soon after, the podcaster asked the following question 'But do you think our planet is visited by extraterrestrials?' And, without hesitation S. Somanath responds 'Absolutely without a doubt. My conscience says yes, although I have no proof. As Chairman of Isro, I am telling you this...There are definitely aliens out there in the universe. Aliens means living systems and cultures elsewhere in the universe. If they are ahead in technology by just a thousand years, or 10,000 years, they would definitely visit us...they would be visiting Earth frequently without us knowing.'"

Other space agencies

These statements by the Chairman of ISRO can be contrasted and compared to those of the space agencies of other countries.

France

The French space agency CNES has hosted a group within its organisational structure, studying UAP, for decades. This UAP group has operated under a number of names since its inception, with the current iteration being GEIPAN. It collects sightings from witnesses living in French territories, analyses them and assigns an explanation to them, if one can be found, then openly publishes the details on its website.

USA

In June 2022, NASA announced that an independent study team was to be set up to examine UAP. It reported its findings in September 2023.  Arising out of the findings, NASA established a NASA Director of UAP Research. 

Australia

In an article dated April 2024, I reported upon Freedom of Information Act requests which attempted to establish whether or not the Australian Space Agency (ASA) had any interest in the topic of UAP. I secured a copy of a briefing paper intended for use by the head of the ASA when presenting at the Senate Estimates Committee hearings. Included in these briefing notes were the following statements:

"The Agency does not monitor UAPs, or UFOs in Australia nor seek to resolve these issues....The Agency has no records relating to UAPs or UFOs in Australia...'

Society for UAP Studies - 2024 Conference

Introduction

According to their website:

"The Society for UAP Studies is a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization that seeks to bring together serious thinkers (both academics and professionals) who are committed to advancing the study of the UAP through rigorous scholarly engagement...While we are in conversation with classical 'ufology,' as an organization we do not align ourselves specifically with this tradition..."

Conference 2024

The Society will hold its annual conference, on-line, between 16-18th August 2024. It is titled "Varieties & Trajectories of Contemporary UAP Studies." The following provides details of the speaker and the title of their presentation. Each hyperlink will take you to an abstract of that presentation. 

Keynote speaker - Dr. Brenda Denzler, Independent Researcher and Board of Advisors, Society for UAP Studies (U.S.A.) "The Discovery of OIL -Other Intelligent Life."

Dr. Bertrand Meheust, Independent Researcher & Steering Committee of L'Institute Metapsychique International (France.) "The Problem of Elusiveness."

Dr. Wesley Watters, Whitehead Associate Professor of Critical Thought and Associate Professor of Astronomy, Wesley College (U.S.A.) "Detection and Characterization of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) using Ground-Based Observatories and Satellite Imagery." 

Dr. Douglas Buettner, Deputy Chief Scientist of the Aquisition Innovation Research Center, Stevens Insitute of Technology. "Data Integrity and Chain of Custody Architecture for Scientific UAP Studies."

Dr. Gretchen Stahlman, Associate Professor in the School of Information, Florida State University (U.S.A.) "Information and Communication Ecosystems of UAP Studies."

Dr. Travis Dumsday, Chief of Philosophy & Religious Studies, Concordia University of Edmonton (Canada.) "Understanding UAPs: Surveying Some Non-Naturalistic Ontologies."

Maya Cowan, Ph.D. student in Anthropology, State University of New York at Binghamton (U.S.A.) "Observatories & Experiencers."

Dr. Matthew Szydagis, Associate Professor of Physics, State University of New York at Albany (U.S.A.) "The Latest Scientific News from UAlbany and UAPs."

Dr. Alexey Golubev, Associate Professor, University of Houston. (U.S.A.) "A UFO Over the Planetarium: Public Communication of Science and Debates about Extraterrestrial Contact in the Cold War USSR."

Dr. Kevin Knuth, Professor State University of New York at Albany (U.S.A.) "Simulating the characteristics of extraterrestrial civilizations that encounter Earth."

All in all, it promises to provide an excellent, detailed, look at what academics from a range of disciplines are thinking about, and discussing in relation to UAP studies. 

Police Executives UAP Reference Guide

The MCCA

 According to their website, the Major Cities Chiefs Association is:

"...a professional organization of police executives representing the largest cities in the United States and Canada. The MCCA provides a unique forum for urban chiefs, sheriffs and other law enforcement executives to share ideas, experiences and strategies.

MCCA provides a collaborative forum for the advancement of public safety through innovation, research, policy development, government engagement, community outreach and leadership development."

Initiatives

In February 2024 the MCCA released its First Futurist Initiative Resource: Volume 1 Artificial Intelligence. This was a seven-page Reference Guide to all aspects of Artificial Intelligence.

In July 2024, they released its second Futurist Initiative Resource: Volume 2 Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. This was an eleven-page Reference Guide to UAP. The eleven pages were divided into eleven topics as follows:

MCCA-UAP_Reference-Guide-June-2024-.pdf (majorcitieschiefs.com)

* UAP in the News

* Law Enforcement Considerations

* U.S. Government UAP programs

* Whistleblowers

* UAP and Congress

* UAP and U.S. DoD

* Other U.S. gov. and intel. Reporting

* UAP and NASA

* UAP and FAA

* UAP Reporting Mechanisms

* Key Takeaways.

An excellent guide

All, in all, the Reference Guide is an excellent summary and introduction to the UAP enigma, providing accurate and unbiased information to the reader of such a guide. I reached out to MCCA, "May I ask what led the organization to produce such a fact sheet?" The response was:

"Upon recognizing member agencies are in need of, and are hungry for, quality deliverables that push the profession to look 5, 10, 15 years down the road, the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) is decidedly leaning into the future. Futurist initiative was established in 2023 to examine various innovative concepts and to propose ideas for consideration related to technology, human behavior, national security, training, research, capabilities, and communication. The initiative first examined all things AI, most recently featured UAP, and there is much more to come."  Laura Cooper, MCCA Executive Director.

The publication by a professional law enforcement association, of such a reference guide, is yet another sign that the stigma around discussing the topic of UAP, is slowly diminishing. The MCCA is to be congratulated for its Futurist Initiative in general, and its reference guide on UAP in particular. 

UAP sessions held at the 2024 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference

Conference

The 2024 conference of the U.S. based American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)  AVIATION Forum and 2024 ASCEND was held in Las Vegas in late July/early August 2024. On Monday, 29 July three sessions were held, specifically related to UAP. 

Sessions

"Reinforcement Learning for Cognitive Detection and Characterization of Advanced Aerospace Vehicles." Rajiv Thummala and Gregory Falco. AIAA 2024-3734. Session: Advancing the Scientific Understanding of UAP to Improve Aviation Safety.

Abstract:

The detection and characterization of advanced aerospace vehicles (AAVs) that exhibit novel signatures and deviate from conventional profiles pose significant challenges for traditional air domain awareness systems, which rely on static detection and classification methods. Reinforcement learning (RL) has shown promise in developing cognitive air domain awareness systems capable of adapting to novel aircraft attempting to evade detection. By applying RL, radar systems can potentially learn optimal strategies for detecting and characterizing anomalous AAVs, continually optimizing their approach with each engagement and potentially discovering new detection and characterization methods. 

This paper examines the application of RL and generative adversarial networks (GANs) to facilitate adaptive, intelligent detection and characterization of AAVs, independent of pre-defined signatures or pre-existing trainings. We propose an RL-based framework that leverages adaptive detection and tracking, feature learning, sensor fusion, and transfer learning techniques to iteratively learn to detect and track AAVs from sensor data, even when their signatures deviate from known profiles. 

"The Reported Shape, Size, Kinematics, Electromagnetic Effects, and Presence of Sound of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Frome Select Reports, 1947-2016." Robert M. Powell, Larry Hancock, Laiba Hasan, Sarah Little, Robinson Truong and Tobi Kamoru. AIAA 2024-3735. Session: Advancing the Scientific Understanding of UAP to Improve Aviation Safety. 

Robert Powell -Team | Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (explorescu.org)

Abstract:

Publicly available witness reports, catalogued by military and civilian agencies, of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from 1947 to 2016 were hand-sorted for selection based on four criteria: reliability of witness testimonies, object angular size, greater than 0.15 degrees, sufficient lighting, and sufficient information detail. The resultant database comprises the subset of historical reports that were determined to likely represent unidentified aerial objects.

Out of more than 100,000 reports amassed from one military database and four civilian databases, 301 reports spanning the same years were identified as meeting these criteria. From this selected set, the characteristics of shape, size, kinematics, electromagnetic effects and sound emanation are examined. Detailed descriptions in the witness accounts allowed us to present scaled illustrations for the two most common UAP shape categories: disks (domed, elongated, shortened) and triangles (isosceles, equilateral).

The largest shapes reported were diamond/rectangular and boomerang (median 300ft(91m)), and the smallest were spheres (median 20ft 96m)). Triangles (median 170ft (52m)) were consistently reported to hover, did not produce electromagnetic effects and were often noted to have an absence of sound. The combination of unusual kinematic range and absence of sound was found in 16 reports which specifically mentioned objects that hovered, traveled faster than Mach 1 and exhibited an absence of sound: disk (5), triangle (8), oval (1), sphere (1) and boomerang (1). The dataset of UAP characteristics presented here, based on 301 reliable witness reports, can be used to inform the design of the various UAP field instrumentation, detection algorithms, and propulsion hypotheses that are critical to the advancement of our understanding of UAP.

"Occupational Safety and Reporting Guidance: Reviewing UAP Safety Events." David Burstein, Shawn Pruchnicki and Iya Whiteley.  AIAA 2024-3736. Session: Advancing the Scientific Understanding of UAP to Improve Aviation Safety.

Abstract:

Background. With the release of the 2021 Preliminary Assessment on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), public interest in aerospace safety issues associated with UAP has increased. UAP are a potential safety of flight hazard, national security concerns, and source of public curiosity. UAP safety events are generally underreported, owing to challenges with detection and characterization, inadequate reporting mechanisms, and stigma. As a result, we have limited understanding of how UAP affect safe aerospace operations, as well as the ways in which aerospace personnel respond during and after UAP events.

As UAP reports increase, basic aviation safety principles can be used to review UAP events and make improvements for safer aerospace operations. In early 2024, the American Institute of Aeronautica and Astronautics (AIAA) UAP Integration & Outreach Committe (UAPIOC) drafted an opinion paper "Occupational Safety and reporting Guidance to Enhance Flight Safety, Reduce Stigma and Facilitate Scientific Understanding of UAP."

This guidance identified six areas worthy of unique consideration to advance knowledge of UAP: 1) Hazard Determination, 2) Aviation Team Responses to In-flight UAP reports, 3) Observation & Incident Reporting After Flight Operations, 4) Workplace Stigma and Safety Culture, 5) Crew Member Occupational Well-Being and General Health, 6) Centralizing National Scientific Date Collection.

UAP Safety Event Reviews To advance practical understanding of UAP safety risks, we will review a case example of an in-flight UAP observation and apply the above framework to identify human factors successes and opportunities related to this event. We will identify specific examples when flight safety or team-member well-being could be enhanced during and after UAP events.

Purpose: This work is intended to help facilitates the revie of human factors processes that promote effective responses and reporting by aviation personnel during UAP events. Our goal is to advance safety practices within the military and civilian aviation as it relates to UAP, and to advance the scientific study of UAP.

Methods: We analyzed one case example of a UAP event during aviation operations. We asked the individual involved with this UAP event to submit to us a written, narrative report of his experience based on: 1)UAP observations and crew member action s that took place during the event, 2) Experiences reporting the event, both in-flight and afterward; 3) Sense of safety culture and stigma during and after the event; and 4) sense of personal and occupational well-being after the event. We analyzed his narrative report with respect to the six key considerations from the AIAA UAPIOC's drafted opinion paper. Our aim was to draw specific conclusions with respect to 1) identifying areas where UAP reporting is hampered by stigma or concerns about individual consequences about reporting UAP; 2) reviewing opportunities to improve communication among team members during UAP events, and 3) identify apparent challenges among team members when responding to a UAP observation or incident, as well as challenges with respect to reporting the event for further analysis. 

Final Product. Our Final Products will be written case analysis as well as a 10–15-minute presentation that focuses aviation safety principles associated with UAP event. In each of these products we will briefly introduce the AIAA UAPIOCs framework as outlined in the drafted opinion Paper and provide an overview of how the narrative case report applies to our framework. Finally, we plan to discuss any conclusions we come to about potential success and opportunities to continue to improve aviation safety with respect to UAP. In our presentation, open discussion will be held during the session.

Panel

On 30 July, a one-hour duration panel discussion titled "Detection, Characterization and Evaluation of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)" was held. The panel members were Ryan Graves, Robert Powell, Michael Lembeck and Lou Mack.  

Update: 4 August 2024

Patrick Donovan advises that the AIAA UAP Integration and Outreach Committee also presented to the AIAA Aerospace Traffic Management Committee, in a well-received presentation.