UAP Panel Briefing 9/14/23

Mark McInerney NASA UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) Director

The media spun it as another UFO briefing, not true.

NASA UAP Pannel Press Briefing 9/14/23

Karen Fox NASA communications

Introductions and acknowledgements

Announced the 6-month findings report is out at: science.nasa.gov/uap

UPDATE 9/15/23 NASA Names Mark McInerney New UAP Director https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/update-nasa-shares-uap-independent-study-report-names-director

Four people on today’s panel introduced.

Bill Nelson

Nicola Fox

Dan Evans

David Spergel

Bill Nelson

Talked of exoplanets and stoney carbon/water planets (earth) capable of sustaining life. Scientists estimate over 1 trillion such planets exist.

Nelson spoke of our universe being 13.8 billion years old and older universes would take hundreds of thousands of light years to reach earth. Nelson believes in life elsewhere ET’s.

Nelson was asked about the recent alien mummy’s disclosure in Mexico. Nelson said he would encourage rigorous scientific study worldwide before making a judgement.

Nelson was asked about the recent Retired Maj. David Grusch’s testimony to congress. Nelson said no evidence was presented.

Nelson said a director has been appointed to NASA’s UAP Panel, and the name was being withheld at this time.

Nicola Fox

Niki spoke of the lack of credible evidence to confirm UFO Folklore data as being real

Niki spoke of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) being included as a tool with space observation equipment to understand UAP’s

Niki Spoke of AARO

Niki gave the link again to the UAP Pannel answer to the first set of questions from May 31, 2023.

Dan Evans

Dan spoke of a 10-year roadmap of how NASA can better help the research into UAP’s.

Dan spoke of getting a better understanding of the world around us by better understanding the UAPs and their safety concerns and increasing situation awareness of these events.

David Spergel

Spergel spoke of putting together a roadmap to better understand UAP’s.

Spergel spoke of not repeating AARO’s work

Spergel spoke of NASA’s current earth observation technology not being equipped to address UAP’s. He said the current technology could be used together with UAP reports to complement their findings but not as a whole picture. He says the observation techniques were never meant for UAP’s.

Spergel said the database has lots of missing data because of stigmatism about UFO and UFO reporting.

Spergel spoke of UFO folklore and no evidence

Spergel spoke of safety concerns UAP’s present to NASA and commercial pilots

Spergel spoke of inclusion of public data using crowd sourcing and maybe an app. For a broader spectrum of data.

Spergel spoke of AI and ML tools being powerful methodology tools

Spergel spoke of creating a UAP data set that’s both reliable and extensive.

Questions and Answers

James Fox Independent Media

Q. How can we make the determination of what something isn’t, when we don’t know what it is?

A. Nelson – We don’t know what UAP’s are but were going to find out

Q. If it is determined that a UAP is not from earth, what’s the plan from disclosure to the public?

A. Nelson – NASA is transparent.

NOTE: Fox can be seen standing behind other people at the microphone shaking his head yes.

Joey Roulette – Reuters

Q. Has someone been appointed to director of UAP Panel

A. Someone has been appointed and has been working as director of UAP Panel.

Q. What kind of investment is NASA planning to spend

A. Niki – Budget cannot be discussed.

Dan Rivers – British Broadcasters ITV News

Q. How do you plan to remove stigma

A. That’s the message NASA wants to express, remove stigma by not tolerating abuse

A. Nelson – We want to shift the conversation from sensationalism to science.

Q. 2014 “go-fast” incident involving pilots

A. Spergel – The study is done through “Match Filtering” and the study of UAP’s using a strong space science.

Nomya Iobal BBC News

Q. What are you doing about the stigma associated with UFO’s

A.

Q. AI is big Uap identification, did it concern you AI needs to be regulated and the result could hamper your work.

A. Nelson –  Yes AI needs boundaries and No the government boundaries will not hamper UAP research

Q. How do you destigmatize

A. Nelson –  How do you destigmatize a mindset that is entertained such as Indiana Jones and the search for a crystal skull

Phone Line: Marcia Dunn – Associated Press

Q. People are calling in about Area 51 and Roswell, how much was your panel harassed by this

A. Spergel – Cultural behavior on social media is the reason for harassment

Q. Is the reason you’re not naming the director of the UAP Panel the harassment by the lunatic fringe.

A. Dan – It went from harassment to threats, and science needs to be free from threats

Phone Line: Tom Clark – Sky News

Q. How much money is devoted to UAP research? Safety is a concern, but other agencies are already devoted to that.

A. Niki –  We don’t discuss budget openly.

Q. Shouldn’t NASA devote its money to making tangible research like telescopes or exoplanet discoveries.

A. NASA has the Nancy Grace telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory

Phone Line: Jeff Faust – Space News

Q. When NASA completes its independent study teams report and recommendations does it plan to publish a formal response to the recent recommendations and if so, when?

A. Dan – We will be announcing more in the future.

Sam Cabral BBC News

Q. The shift from sensationalism to science, has NASA been in touch with the Mexican authorities regarding the recent alien mummies.

A. Make them available to the world’s scientific community.

Brandi Vincent – Defense Scoop

Q. What’s the timeline NASA is pursuing with AARO now that the report is out

A. Niki –  Immediate action was to hire a UAP Director

Q. What mechanism is NASA and DOD using to share information and conglomerate securely.

A. Dan – Most of NASA’s information is unclassified.

Q. Lots of images from DOD and not the FAA or anyone else, Why

A. Spergel – FAA reports go to DOD

Jacob Jensen – Danish Newspaper Berlinski

Q. Gursch testimony to congress

A. Nelson – I don’t speak for other parts of the government

A. Nelson -where is the evidence

Q Gursch said he interviewed 40 employees at the pentagon

A. Nelson – Jack Friday “just the facts”

Phone Line: Gina Cesaei ABC News

Q. Question for Nelson, AI can be helpful how do you see that

A. Nelson – Why limit NASA in any interpretation of data

A. Spergel – Were in the discovery phase of AI data

Phone Line: Peggy Holliger – Financial Times

Q. How does the use of commercial assets and crowdsourcing square with the sensor harmonization, and who is going to pay for all this.

A. Spergel – crowd sourcing cell phone data and citizen science is a wealth of data.

Joe Coleo – News Nation

Q. Harassment of public officials is common, is that the reason to keep the director of NASA UAP Panel secret. Is keeping the name secret temporary or permanent it cuts against being open and transparent

A. Dan – The report was just released; the name of the director will be revealed in the future to ensure the scientific process and methods is free of harassment.

Q. You read from unclassified material

A. Nelson – I have

A. Dan – unclassified data is so, so it can be talked about openly and alter the discourse from sensationalism to science.