UAP Independent Study Team Final Report

FINDING
NASA’s expertise should be
comprehensively leveraged
as part of a robust and systematic
data strategy within the whole-of-
government framework.
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known. Both, in turn, allow for systematic analyses of UAP events, and critically
will enable the elimination of false positives due to sensor artifacts. Making a
concerted effort to improve both aspects will be vital when gathering future data,
and here NASA’s expertise should be comprehensively leveraged as part of a
robust and systematic data strategy within the whole-of-government framework.
The panel also sees several advantages to augmenting potential data collec-
tion efforts using modern crowdsourcing techniques, including open-source
smartphone-based apps that simultaneously gather imaging data and other
smartphone sensor data from multiple citizen observers. NASA should therefore
explore the viability of developing or acquiring such a crowdsourcing system
as part of a future data strategy.
As stated above, NASA’s fleet of Earth-observing satellites must also play a
key role in collecting future data on environmental conditions coinciding with
UAP sightings. Despite the mismatch in spatial resolution between the present
generation of satellites and typical UAP events, by gathering and analyzing
future satellite data, we will undoubtedly gain insights into the typical environ-
mental factors associated with UAP. Future missions, such as the NOAA/NASA
Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) satellite system, will provide
even more robust data that will prove important in UAP analysis. NASA should
also leverage sensors that expand its observational reach, such as penetrating
deeper into the ocean or at the air/sea interfaces.
Next, collection efforts from radio and optical astronomy that are designed for
technosignature searches should be expanded from the Earth's atmosphere to
the whole solar system. Additionally, near-Earth objects (NEO) programs also
have significant data collections about phenomena close to Earth’s atmosphere,
which constitutes an untapped repository of data both for characterizing natural
phenomena and anomalies. NASA should consider integrating these elements
as part of a robust future-data strategy.
Finally, NASA’s very involvement in gathering future data will play an important
role in reducing stigma associated with UAP reporting, which very likely leads
to data attrition at present. NASA’s long-standing public trust, which is essential
for communicating findings about these phenomena to citizens, is crucial for
destigmatizing UAP reporting and scientific research. The scientific processes
used by NASA encourage critical thinking; NASA can model for the public how
to approach a topic, such as UAP, by applying transparent reporting and
rigorous analyses when acquiring future data.