According to dozens of documents obtained by the American Vice site, the now defunct program Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) the Pentagon has spent millions of dollars on strange experimental technologies. How strange? Quite a lot of. Cloaks of invisibility, antigravity devices, studies of wormholes, and even plans to tunnel the moon with nuclear explosives.
In nearly 1600 pages of reports, proposals and meeting minutes are some of the strangest activities of this secret Pentagon program that ran from 2007 to 2012 (but was only revealed to the public in 2017 when its former director stepped down. ).
Not just UFOs
In the year of "disclosure", the AATIP program became a synonym for UFOs for everyone, after former director Luis Elizondo leaked the well-known videos of unidentified aircraft capable of performing impossible maneuvers.
However, the new documents suggest that AATIP did not limit itself to investigating reported encounters with UFOs. The entire cache of 51 documents, obtained by Vice via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed four years ago, can be read here.
A bizarre program
The most fascinating part of these documents seems to be the one concerning the prospect of some "advanced technologies". In addition to those already mentioned, there are reports on gravitational wave communications, on the warp propulsion and on other topics that don't make you regret the X-Files investigation.
Many of the program reports emphasize the impracticability of implementing advanced technologies. In the reports on invisibility technologies, for example, we read that "perfect concealment devices are impossible" due to the lack of materials that adequately reflect light, but "can still hide objects from radar and motion sensors".
Other reports aren't afraid to come up with bold, if not scandalous, ideas for future technologies. In a study on "negative mass propulsion", for example, the researchers suggest using ultralight metals detected inside the moon. Materials defined as "100.000 times lighter than steel but with the same strength". How to get to collect them? Digging tunnels with thermonuclear explosives. Boom! (It is appropriate to say).
What about the projects?
At present, of course, the US has not dropped atomic bombs on the moon (at least there), and shows no immediate intention to do so. The upcoming Artemis missions NASA's aim is to bring people back to the moon for the first time in nearly 45 years, with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent human presence - I doubt this is compatible with nuclear explosions.
However, it is unclear whether these AATIP program documents eventually led to long-term investments in cutting-edge technologies. According to the New York Times, much of the program's work was funded by a private company called Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS). The company is managed by Robert Bigelow, a personal friend of the late Senator Harry Reid, who was responsible for creating AATIP. Not a bad conflict of interest, if you consider that BAASS has been awarded a $ 10 million contract for the first year of research alone.
Disclosure, what a passion
I really enjoy browsing through this paperwork. I am not an easily suggestible person and it is difficult to convince myself that there have been, or there are around, finds of little green men and the like. But I am very fascinated by fantasizing that it might be true.
This latest batch of documents on the AATIP program, however, comes just three weeks after the British tabloid The Sun has published more than 1.500 pages of documents relating to alleged UFO encounters cataloged by this same program.
Among the pages, some reports on the "biological" consequences of UFO sightings on humans. There's still material for Mulder and Scully, I mean.
