By Tim Binnall
NASA has announced the sixteen researchers and experts who will comprise the space agency's independent UFO study team. The intriguing project aims to serve as a proverbial launch pad for future studies on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) by determining how data collected by government, civilian, and commercial sources "can potentially be analyzed to shed light" on UFOs. Set to commence today, the group will work for the next nine months using publicly available information and will present their findings as well as "a roadmap for potential UAP data analysis" sometime in the spring of 2023.
While the individuals chosen by NASA to participate in the project may not be household names to the general public, they boast impressive credentials from their respective fields of expertise. Among the panelists are professors from prestigious universities, administrators from aerospace companies, and officials from the Federal Aviation Administration as well as an oceanographer and freelance journalist Nadia Drake. Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is undoubtedly the most well-known member of the group and C2C listeners may recognize team member David Grinspoon, who has made multiple appearances on the program in the past.
In announcing the group members, NASA official Daniel Evans declared that the space agency "has brought together some of the world's leading scientists, data and artificial intelligence practitioners, aerospace safety experts, all with a specific charge, which is to tell us how to apply the full focus of science and data to UAP." To that end, UFO enthusiasts would be wise to temper their expectations as this initial study group will only be offering their suggestions on the best way to look at the data rather than provide an answer as to what the phenomenon actually is. That said, considering the space agency's relative silence surrounding the topic for decades, it's a promising first step in what one hopes will be the right direction.