Crop Circles: Could they ALL be made by human action?

[catbirdsteed]

On a more mundane note...


http://www.air-attack.com/news/article/ ... ckets.html

Near space: balloons, satellites, and suborbital rockets

Published: Jul 25, 2005
Source: www.thespacereview.com



The Air Force is looking at using balloons in so-called "near space" to provide communications and reconnaissance services for tactical forces. Taylor Dinerman looks at the effectiveness of this approach versus using satellites and suborbital RLVs.

The enthusiasm of the Air Force’s leadership for “near space” vehicles is undiminished. They foresee that these craft will resemble inflatable aerostats or balloons and will dwell, for months at a time, at over 20,000 meters, where they will provide a variety of functions for US forces within a given theater of operations, such as Iraq. The roles they are considering include communications relays as well as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).

http://www.air-attack.com/news/article/ ... lasts.html

Airborne Laser successfully fired multiple long-duration blasts

Published: Feb 20, 2009
Source: Northrop Grumman



Northrop Grumman-Built Laser Demonstrates Long-Duration, Lethal Lasing Onboard Airborne Laser Aircraft

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., Feb. 19, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The high-energy laser built by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) successfully fired multiple long-duration blasts onboard the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) Airborne Laser (ABL) during intensive ground tests concluded Feb. 12.

Lasting up to three seconds each, the lethal-power firings were conducted to 'tune' the megawatt-class laser by adjusting and balancing the mixture of chemicals that fuel its engine for peak operating efficiency. These settings can now be used for future testing, including the planned shoot down of a ballistic missile later this year.

"The hallmarks of these latest firings are durability and repeatability," noted Dan Wildt, vice president of Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "The duration of each firing of the megawatt-class laser was limited only by ground equipment."

Long-duration operations of the Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) followed 'first light' of the high-energy laser through ABL's onboard beam control / fire control (BC/FC) system in the aircraft's hangar at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in November 2008. They were conducted by MDA, ABL prime contractor The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA), and Northrop Grumman.

"Our highly experienced ABL workforce has done an outstanding job of reaching this critical point in ground testing," noted Guy Renard, Northrop Grumman's ABL program manager. "These dedicated employees have made huge technical strides toward providing our country with speed-of-light capability to destroy all classes of ballistic missiles in their boost phase of flight."

For long-duration laser operations, the megawatt-class laser was fired into a calorimeter onboard the aircraft. The calorimeter is a test instrument that captures and measures beam power. Each long-duration test provided the necessary data used to quickly evaluate and 'tune' the megawatt-class laser for peak operation.

The tuned high-power laser will be fired through the on-board BC / FC system into a range simulator to complete ABL's weapon system ground testing phase in the next few weeks, clearing the ABL system to begin weapon system flight tests.

The ABL aircraft consists of a modified Boeing 747-400F whose back half holds the high-energy laser, designed and built by Northrop Grumman. Before being installed, the high-energy laser completed rigorous ground testing in a laboratory at Edwards AFB. The aircraft's front half contains the beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), and the battle management system, provided by Boeing.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.
--- ends ---

The spece weapon industry's PR dept. would have us believe that we- well, they- certainly are not capable of enacting any cropcircle or bluebeam grades of tech, but don't ya' think they were a little farther along than these press releases would have indicated at the time ?

[catbirdsteed]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/sbl.htm

Space Based Laser [SBL]

The potential of intercepting and destroying a missile over enemy territory, soon after launch, rather than over friendly territory makes the development of a boost phase intercept (BPI) capability very desirable. In concert with ground based theater missile defense (TMD) systems already under development, the U. S. continues to investigate BPI concepts for BMD systems.

The SBL program could develop the technology to provide the U. S. with an advanced BMD system for both theater and national missile defense. BMDO believes that an SBL system has the potential to make other contributions to U. S. security and world security as a whole. BMDO hopes that the fielding of a space based missile defense system would induce potential aggressors to abandon ballistic missile programs, as they would be rendered useless. Failing that, BMDO believes that the creation of such a universal defense system would provide the impetus for other nations to expand their security agreements with the United States, bringing them under a U. S. sponsored missile defense umbrella.

An SBL platform would achieve missile interception by focusing and maintaining a high powered laser on a target until it achieves catastrophic destruction. Energy for the sustained laser burst is generated by the chemical reaction of the hydrogen fluoride (HF) molecule. The HF molecules are created in an excited state from which the subsequent optical energy is drawn by an optical resonator surrounding the gain generator.

Lasers have been investigated for their usefulness in air defense since 1973, when the Mid Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) was first tested against tactical missiles and drone aircraft. Work on such systems continued through the 1980s, with the Airborne Laser Laboratory, which completed the first test laser intercepts above the earth. Initial work on laser based defense systems was overseen by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), but transferred to the newly created Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) in 1984. Work continues today under the auspices of the BMDO, the successor to the SDIO.

Over the past thre decades, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Air Force and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), formerly the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), have developed the technologies essential for a Space-Based Laser (SBL) system. The Alpha LAMP Integration (ALI) program performed integrated high energy ground testing of the laser and beam expander to demonstrate the critical system elements. The next step was an integrated space vehicle ground test with a space demonstration to conclusively prove the feasibility of deploying an operational SBL system.

Future plans included orbiting the SBL Readiness Demonstrator (SBLRD) in order to test all of the systems together in their intended working environment. The SBLRD satellite will be comprised of four major subsystems: the ATP system, which provides acquisition, tracking, targeting, stabilization, and assessment capabilities; the laser device, which provides for the optical power, and beam quality, as well as maintains nozzle efficiency; the optics and beam control systems, which enhance and focus the beam, augmenting the capabilities of the laser device; and the space systems, which provide a stable platform, storage of the reactants, and furnish electrical power (but do not power the laser).

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/habe.htm

High-Altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE)

The mission of the High-Altitude Balloon Experiment (HABE) is to acquire supporting data, validate enabling technologies, and resolve critical acquisition, tracking, and pointing (ATP) and fire control issues in support of future space-based precision pointing experiments. The use of high-altitude balloons offers a relatively low-cost, low-vibration test platform, a recoverable and reusable payload, worldwide launch capability, and a 'near- space' emulation of the future space systems operational scenarios. The HABE platform design is based on several previous spacecraft designs, and includes coarse gimbal pointing, infrared and visible passive tracking, active fine tracking, internal auto alignment and boresighting, and precision line-of-sight (LOS) stabilization functions.

The High Altitude Balloon Experiment demonstration of Acquisition, Tracking, and Pointing (HABE-ATP) is a system build around balloon-borne payload which is carried to a nominal 26-km altitude. The goal is laser tracking thrusting theater and strategic missiles, and then pointing a surrogate laser weapon beam, with performance levels and a timeline traceable to operational laser weapon system requirements. This goal leads to an experiment system design which combines hardware from many technology areas: an optical telescope and IR sensors; an advanced angular inertial reference; a flexible, multi-level of actuation digital control system; digital tracking processors which incorporate real-time image analysis and a pulsed, diode-pumped solid state tracking laser. The system components have been selected to meet the overall experiment goals of tracking unmodified boosters at 50-200 km.

The HABE system used a tandem balloon configuration which is characterized by gas confinement in a relatively small "tow balloon" at launch. Later, the payload section separates and drops 500 feet bellow the tow balloon which allows the deployment of the main balloon. For this mission, the tow balloon is approximately 70 ft diameter weighing 400 lbs. At liftoff, the balloon is filled with helium until the pull on the payload is nominally 12% higher than the weight of the payload and balloon. At 20knots wind, the expected side force on the tow balloon would be approximately 1,500 1bs.

Within a seven month period, Goodrich's Electro-Optical Systems designed, built, integrated, tested and delivered the 60 cm Phillips Laboratories balloon borne telescope. The telescope is the prime optical receiver for experiments to be conducted in target acquisition, tracking and pointing (ATP) for ballistic missile defense technology development. The telescope is designed to survive a 10g parachute landing and to refly a series of test flights with a minimum of maintenance. Flight altitude is 80,000 feet. It is a two-mirror Cassegrain design, operating in the 0.532 to 4.3 micron waveband with an FOV of 3.5 micro-radians. System performance (measured) is 0.073 ? RMS at 633 microns. The telescope operates over a range of +45° (from horizontal) to -30°. System weight is 200 lb.

The 60-cm diameter telescope is the primary optical receiver in the payload that is used to track targets and acquire optical data. It is located on the gimballed optics bench along with the coarse acquisition camera and the ranger scorer. The telescope images the target on to the infrared (IR) intermediate-tracking and fine-tracking cameras and also images the marker laser beam onto the target. A l-1/2-in, diameteralignment laser beam also traverses the telescope and is used to reduce jitter between all optics commonto the incident fine-tracking wave front and the exiting marker laser beam. The transmitted wave front requirement is driven by the required size of the marker laser on the target.

I don't think were gettin' any closer yet, but it's fun to watch.

[Fred Astaire]

I've always understood crop circles to be the product of man-made technology, but what is the purpose of them? Is it merely target practice, or is some kind of psy-op at work here?

Symbology is obviously important to the elites, so perhaps the circles are memes for the subconcious mind, much like corporate logos. What do they mean to say?

[brainpanhandler]

...

Although it may matter little, perhaps you have noticed that I can and do present evidence and anecdote that runs counter to my point. I have done this in most of the quixotic, contentious threads that (I?) have started. Perhaps it is pissing in the wind to present such counter arguments, perhaps it is indicative of my lack of solid perspective. Perhaps it is part of why I can give up easily in such a situation as this.

I assume you are at least partially addressing me. Yes, I have noticed that you take many sides of an issue and carefully qualify your observations and conjectures so as to maintain to all appearances an agnostic equipoise. The fact that I noticed this indicates that it matters to me. The fact that you wonder whether it matters (to me) indicates that you have not noticed the same propensity about me, which I don't take in the least personally. In fact, I have as much as stated in a number of places that I cultivate an ability to switch back and forth between different persona. What I mean by that though is something other than just intellectually flipping back and forth. It might require quite a bit of knowledge to do so, but I am talking about temporary transformations which are on a par with what a fine actor achieves. This alters perception and is an interesting experiment in it's own right. However, in the context of a board like this it can get confusing to others. I am sure there are members here that believe I am a raving lunatic and others that think I am a dour rationalist. They are both wrong, but I can't blame them for thinking those things 'cause I don't expect people to be examining the breadth of my little writings here. Although I am up over 1200 posts, which I find hard to believe.

the following three look like they would be hard to lay as such by hand and foot, but WTF do i know, i have not tried:








this last one is supposedly from an alleged hoax. It looks pretty outlandish and unlikely to have been created from stomping and such....

Dour rationalist:

Let's take these photos in order.

1) From what I can see of the first photo it appears to me that each trampled square could be made with four steps, each at 90 degrees to the previous. One would then step into the next square,for which there is a convenient gap to do so. And there are those ever so handy tractor tracks in the background.

2) What's with the little bird's nest of rocks? This pattern really does not look like it could have been created with boards and ropes, but I'll bet you anything it was created after the boards and ropes trick hit the media. Do you have a wider angle picture that shows more of these in a larger pattern?

3) It's difficult to tell from the photo, but this pattern appears to be a sort of basket weave design. I imagine this could be achieved with a two man team stomping in lines 90 degrees to each other and skipping a row or column every other board width. Another picture from overhead and a wider angle would be helpful.

4) Not in the least outlandish to imagine the board and rope technique producing this. There are at least a couple of possible explanations for the difference in the appearance of this photo and the photo that you posted on 3/5 at 6:42 that come to mind.

- No two crop circle makers are exactly the same weight and use exactly the same materials and use exactly the same technique.
- The photo from 6:42 appears to have been taken some time after the circle was created as evidenced by the grey color of the crop that was stomped and the new growth coming up.
- Different crop conditions at the time of circle creation. Water content, health, level of growth, temperature, atmospheric conditions...

[orz]

"You're right... no human being would stack books like this."

[Crow]

"You're right... no human being would stack books like this."

I just died laughing.