Documents / Official release
This July 18, 1963 memorandum from Maxwell W. Hunter II of the National Aeronautics and Space Council staff, Executive Office of the President, went to Robert F. Packard of the State Department's Office of International Scientific Affairs. Titled "Thoughts on the Space Alien Race Question," it considers policy if an alien intelligence were discovered. It notes that flying saucer advocates exist but sides with scientists that contact is unlikely. It concludes that any alien race's level of space flight should be determined quickly, since that would drastically affect policy.
From the source: Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: 7/18/63, N/A. NARA Record Group 59, catalogue id 214434. This memorandum, dated July 18, 1963, from the Executive Office of the President, National Aeronautics and Space Council, relates to thoughts on the space alien race question. Included are details relating to plans if alien intelligence is discovered, expanding scientific knowledge, the possibility of life on Mars, and diplomatic policy.
I ISF ON LY - 3 - probably existed on our other planets. Some of the discussions about life on Mars at the turn of the century seem to indicate a strong urge to want to find intelligent life elsewhere. Today, the situation is completely reversed, and although intelligent life is considered quite probable among the stars, it is held to be quite unlikely within the solar system. We seem more eager to listen with Ozma than to look closely at Canali. One school of flying saucer advocates claims that the Martians have been mining our moon for natural resources for some time. At first thought, one would think they would rather mine earth. It is interesting to speculate, however, upon space flight from the point of view of a Martian. The escape speed of Mars is only 161 500 fps, and, of course, braking speed on our moon is less than 10, 000 fps. Thus, Martians look- ing at earth would tend to view it the same way Terrestrials look at Jupiter. Our moon might not be less work to get to, since atmospheric braking to earth is possible, but would be very much easier to return from, while the energy requirements to go to and return from the surface of the earth might well be so high as to discourage interest, at least initially,. Inter- estingly enough, even a normal high energy chemical rocket could make a trip from Mars to our moon at favorable times while carrying almost 10% of its gross weight in payload. Space flight starting from Mars, then, is a much easier prospect than starting from Terra. If a suitable refueling base had been painfully established on our moon, the operation could be done quite commendably with merely chemical energy. (The afore- mentioned high energy chemical rocket could carry at favorable times almost 50% payload back to Mars.) Of course, many flying saucer advo- cates claim that the discovery of both Martian moons within a week in the latter part of the Nineteenth Century indicates that they are large artificial space stations, otherwise they would have been found earlier. If we were to discover Martians on the moon, it would result in surprisingly little re- adjustment of our scientific thinking. The biggest question would be why they were there rather than among the Asteroids. In fact, if we were not as scientifically sure of ourselves as we are, three recent events would be hailed as broad hints of intelligent life on the moon. ( 1) The discovery of hot gasses eminating from the crater Alphonsus when the moon was supposedly dead. This would be considered evidence of civili- zation and, since Alphonsus is close to the visible edge, interpreted to mean that the other side of the moon was teaming with population which had begun Off ft.;1 ''E U~O~I LY_,,,
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 6 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.