Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“The Advance”52 pages
184 frequent. As Singer noted [201, "The specific properties of ball lightning, which present particular difficulty in experi- mental duplication, are formations of the sphere in air (at near-atmospheric pressure and at a distance from the source of energy) and its extensive motion. It is evident that ad- ditional clarification of both theoretical and experimental aspects of this phenomenon is needed." Often marsh gas exhibits bizarre observational data and a location near a marsh might be useful in the examination of such phenomena. Clearly, an overall reconcilement of these diverse and inter- disciplinary requirements must be accomplished during the site (or, perhaps, sites) selection process. In summary, then, four points are to be made: 1) That we have not now nor have we been able in the past to achieve a complete or even partially complete surveillance of space in the vicinity of the Earth, which would betray the presence of any anomalistic phenomena. 2) That so-called hard data on anomalistic observational phenomena do, in fact, exist; but that they are of poor quality due to the equipment employed in obtaining them. 3) That it follows from the scientific method that an experiment or experiments be devised to define better the anomalistic data. 4) That, in order to justify such an experiment or ex- periments, it is not necessary to presuppose the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life operating in the environs of the Earth or to make very dubious speculations 191, t101 either concerning "their" advanced scientific and engineer- ing capabilities or "their" psychological motivations and behavioral patterns. ROBERT M. L. BAKER, JR. The Senior Scientist of System Sciences Corporation, a subdivision of Computer Sciences Corporation, 650 N. Sepulveda Boulevard, El Segundo, California, 90245 and the Department of Engineering, UCLA November 21,1967 References [1] BAKER, ROBERT M. L., JR., Astrodynamics—Applications and Advanced Topics (Academic Press, New York, 1967), pp. 4 to 10 and 91 to 95. 121 CHEETAM, R. P., J. Astronaut. Sc., XIV, No. 5, (1967). [3] MOHR, F. B., Science, 151, pp. 634-636, (1966). [4] FEssEmcov, V. G., Physics and Astrononty of the Moon (Academic Press, New York, 1962), page 108. [5] LAMAR, D. L., AND BAKER, ROBERT M. L., JR., "Possible Residual Effects of Tunguska-type Explosions on Desert Pavements." Presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Odessa, Texas, October 21- 24, 1965. 161 BAKER, ROBERT M. L., JR., Science, 128, 1211 (1958). [7] BAKER, ROBERT M. L., JR., "Observational Evidence of Anomalistic Phenomena," J. Astronaut. Sci., XV, N.1, January-February, 1968. [8] BAKER, ROBERT M. L., JR. AND MAKEMSON, M. W., n Introduction to A strodynamics, Second Edition,(Academ- ic Press, New York, 1967), pp. 325-333. [9] MARKOWITZ, WILLIAM, Science, 157, pp. 1274-1279 (1967). 1101 Ross, R. J„ POWERS, W. T., VALLEE, J. F., Gums, T. R.P.,STEFFEY,P. C., GARCIA, R. A., AND COHEN,G., Science, Vol. 158, No. 3806, pp. 1265-12(15 (19(17). 1111 NATHAN, ROBERT, "Digital Video-Data Handling," JPL Technical Report No. 32-877, 1966. [12] HARTMANN, W. K., Nininger Meteorite Award Paper, Publication No. 3, by the Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, May, 1966. [13] SHOEMAKER, E. N. AND LOWERY, C. J., "Airwaves asso- ciated with large fireballs mid the frequency distribution of energy at large meteoroids." Presented at the 29th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Wash- ington D. C., November 3-5, 1966. [14] McCsosxv, It. E., "Orbits of Photographic Meteors," Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Special Report No. 252, October, 1967, page iv. [15] HARTMANN, W. K., (letter dated September 23, 1967). [16] NEAL, J. T., Office of Aerospace Research Report, AF CRL-65-266, April, 1965. [17] LAMAR, D., (in conversation on October 6, 1967). [18] WALKER, DR. SYNDEY, III (in conversation on October 15, 1967) and Psychiatric Signs and Symptoms due to Medical Problems (Charles C Thomas Publisher,Spring- field, Illinois, 1967). [19] JUNG, C. G., Flying Saucers, translated by R. F. C. Hull (Routledge and Kegan Paul, Long, 1959), page x. [20] SINGER, S., in Problems of A tntospheric and Space Electricity,edited by S. C. Coroniti (Elsevier Publishing Company, New York, 1963), page 463.
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.