Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth (hearing transcript)

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And let me compliment Administrator Nelson, that there would
not have been a UAP Independent Study Team if it was not for his
leadership and courage.
We are talking about data and where we can get data from. As
I described, NASA has whole archives of data, much of which, I be-
lieve, will likely have information that will help inform UAP; we
need only look. And, again, in an era with AI and ML, we can rel-
atively quickly and easily go through it. So, I think it is something
that we should encourage NASA to do.
However, per Chairman Grothman’s comment about UAP focus-
ing on national security sites, I believe there is something, sir, that
you may have heard of called ‘‘sensor bias,’’ that because we have
got more cameras, more monitoring of national security, we do not
know how extensive UAP activity may be over civilian areas.
Now, this is to the second part of your question, where we are
not collecting the data. We are not collecting sufficient data from
pilots. We are not collecting sufficient data from civilian and com-
mercial activities. And this is, again, where ASRS, I think, could
substantially change that, get the data out there, and allow us to
do good science.
Mr. FROST. Yes. Thank you.
I mean, on the data, you know, I am a really big proponent of
transparency, but obviously there is always a little bit of balance
that we have to have in government on transparency as well. I
mean, last year, NASA appointed a Director of UAP Research and
Response, to the recommendation by the Independent Study Team.
In the final report, there’s a quote: ‘‘Despite numerous accounts
and visuals, the absence of consistent, detailed, and curated obser-
vations means we do not presently have the body of data needed
to make definite and scientific conclusions about UAP.’’
Can you just talk really quickly about that balance of security
and transparency?
Mr. GOLD. So, I can say, having served at NASA, it is the most
transparent organization I have ever been in. When we would have
conversations with executive leadership, things would leak out al-
most instantly. So, I can assure you, intentionally or not, NASA is
very transparent. I do not know if many of you have worked with
engineers or scientists; they love to talk.
So, I believe that NASA is a paradigm of transparency, but we
must have the ability and the data to be able to be transparent
with.
Mr. FROST. Uh-huh.
Mr. GOLD. And if we are not gathering that, if we are not looking
at it, then we cannot bring NASA into the game and get to that
good science that you need.
Mr. FROST. You know, it was about a year ago, I was touring a
facility with a pretty senior government official. We went by a cer-
tain hangar, and they said, ‘‘Yes, that is—you know, a company
leases that out. We do not really know what is going on in there.
We have no way of knowing what is going on in there.’’ And there
was a few of those, in fact, while we were driving around this facil-
ity.
To what extent do you think that some of the UAP out there
comes from off-the-books or unauthorized experimental aircraft?