The attached document cannot be authenticated at this time. The original, in my possession, has no letterhead, carries a TOP SECRET logo watermark throughout all pages but no attribution other than the Director of Exploration, Spaceship Chamaeleon. It is not known if the document represents fact, fiction or merely role-playing by some organization in an endeavour to practice any potential exploration survey.
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It emerged recently from an unidentified source who claimed it was found at a waste disposal site amongst garbage collected from NASA. It came into my possession from the scientist who received it by mail who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of it possibly affecting his career should it prove to be a hoax. As a retired colleague I now have no such worries.
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3/Astra is not a recognised title for any known celestial body in academic astronomy. One may therefore conclude either that it is codified to prevent identification or that it is a fiction.
3/Astra is not a recognised title for any known celestial body in academic astronomy. One may therefore conclude either that it is codified to prevent identification or that it is a fiction.
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The spaceship ‘Chamaeleon’ has not been identified. No known vehicle from NASA or any other space agency has carried that publicized identity or code name. NASA do not acknowledge any person having the title ‘Director of Exploration’. Requests to the NASA Public Communications and Inquiries Management Office attempting to identify Astra or Chamaeleon have not been answered.
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It is, however, only to be expected that the emergence of any genuine TOP SECRET document into the public arena would inevitable require what United States Americans refer to as ‘plausible deniability’. For the rest of us this simply means that, should the occasion demand it, USA politicians and officials at any level of government department or agency are prepared to lie until any statement is proven mendacious, at which time it is simply declared ‘inoperable’.
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The extent of NASA’s space explorations may not be fully publicly known and it is possible that there are or have been clandestine operations as is known to occur regularly in other USA agencies. Certainly the public are well aware of NASA’s scientific probes and explorations of some solar planets and their satellites (most notably to Mars and Venus in addition to the Voyager missions) though none as yet are known to have been visited by humankind other than the Apollo lunar missions in the latter part of last century.
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Alternatively, several planets have been identified in recent years orbiting stars other than our own Sun, some relatively close in astronomical terms, though travel to all non-solar planets is still thought to be beyond current technology within any one person’s lifetime. Even communication over such distances represents a problem since even the nearest star would take over four years to receive any electromagnetic signal from Earth plus the same time period again for any electromagnetic reply to arrive back on Earth in addition to any time spent by interstellar administrators prevaricating over whether, when or how to reply. Nevertheless sufficient time has now elapsed since suitable technology was developed, and a programme was initiated on Earth to listen for and transmit signals to other planets (refer www.seti.org†), for a reply to have been received from distances significantly further than that of our nearest celestial neighbours.
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On the other hand the document could be a discarded copy of a translated document retrieved from some other location in the universe, or perhaps inadvertently left behind by an alien visitor, and may reflect the impressions of space travellers not from Earth but from another planet, referring in turn to exploration of some other unidentified planet.
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Regardless of the planet in question or the authenticity of the document, it certainly highlights the possibilities and limitations of space travel, planet colonization, problems which one might encounter when visiting new environments in the universe, or lessons which might be learnt from imprudent practices of alien civilizations.
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No explanation has yet been offered by NASA, nor any confirmation or denial as to its authenticity, nor any attempt by them to identify their source, if any, or the planet to which it refers.
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In the absence of any response from NASA I now take the view that the TOP SECRET document must be fictional on the basis that if the document was authentic and top secret they would have responded. Doubt may remain in the reader’s mind. I attach the document above in the public interest, for wider review and for public consideration and comment.
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Comments may be addressed to: 3.astra@gmail.com
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David R. Oswald
Comments may be addressed to: 3.astra@gmail.com
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David R. Oswald
The person in receipt of the original document.
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[No acknowledgement of communications nor any response will necessarily be entered into. The author and operator of this site does, however, reserve the right to respond and the right to publish all or any part of any communication received from readers except in circumstances where a specific agreement to the contrary has been established.]
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† SETI – Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. See also http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/extraterrestrial_worldbook.html
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