NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Independent Study Team Report/Overall Conclusions and Recommendations
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
We recommend that NASA play a prominent role in the whole-of-government effort to understand UAP by leveraging its extensive expertise to contribute to a comprehensive, evidence-based approach that is rooted in the scientific method. We specifically recommend that NASA utilize its existing and planned Earth-observing assets to probe the local environmental conditions associated with UAP that are initially detected by other means. In so doing, NASA can directly probe whether certain environmental factors are coincident with known UAP. We further recommend that NASA explore enhancing collaborations with the U.S. commercial remote-sensing industry, which offer powerful constellations of high-resolution Earth-observing satellites.
At present, the detection of UAP is often serendipitous, captured by sensors that were not designed or calibrated for this purpose, and which lack comprehensive metadata. Coupled with incomplete data archiving and curation, this means that the origin of numerous UAP remain uncertain. The importance of detecting UAP with multiple, well-calibrated sensors is thus paramount, and accordingly we recommend that NASA leverage its considerable expertise in this domain to potentially utilize multispectral or hyperspectral data as part of a rigorous data acquisition campaign.
In turn, the panel finds that sophisticated data analysis techniques, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, must be used in a comprehensive UAP detection campaign when coupled with systematic data gathering and robust curation. Here, we recommend that NASA's expertise in these key areas be contributed to the whole-of-government UAP effort.
The panel finds that public engagement in the effort to better understand UAP will be vital. NASA, by lending its name to UAP studies, is already helping to reduce stigma associated with reporting. Beyond this, we recommend that NASA explore the viability of developing or acquiring a crowdsourcing system, such as open-source smartphone-based apps, to gather imaging data and other smartphone sensor data from multiple citizen observers as part of a wider effort to more systematically gather public UAP reports.
Lastly, we recommend that the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) for commercial pilot UAP reporting be better leveraged, providing a critical database for the whole-of-government effort to understand UAP. The agency's long history of partnership with the FAA should also be capitalized to investigate how advanced, real-time analysis techniques could be applied to future generations of air traffic management (ATM) systems.
In conclusion, NASA is uniquely positioned to contribute to a robust and systematic approach to studying UAP, furthering its mission of advancing scientific knowledge, technical expertise, and exploration. When considering the above recommendations, and according to budget priorities, NASA should leverage its core capabilities and expertise to determine whether it should take a leading or supporting role in implementing a given recommendation. The positioning of NASA's role should further be situated within the context of the broader whole-of-government approach to understanding UAP.
Sunset over the Indian Ocean, photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member on the International Space Station.