The X Factor 12

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Annable:!d*or traig GlendayEdirorial:raham €oleman,

l-ejacl 8en Way[dior:Ray Leaning

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ACKiIOWLEDGEMEI'ITS

authors:eter Hough, FergusDay,Vhite, Karl Shuker,Simon Richmond.

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BoydiDangeruusbt77-85 tu*ramPalaceloffreJ cobii. ob{{t



c4 j;.l'-..: J,

,ffi ". .

Cullan - agreed to take part in a

seance, nd rverejoined b1'

McCallum's friend, rvhom rveshall

cal l 'Dennis ' .

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL

As the bo1,s at around the

makeshif t l tar at ternpt ing o

contact the dead, McCallum asked

the Oulja board: 'I f you are Satan,

what is it you want me to do?' With

growing uneaser he two 15-1'ear-

olds decided o end lhe session.

Br-rt efore they could make their

escape,McCallum received the

answerto his question.\A,rhateveresponse he got,

McCallum, suddenly brandishins a

knife, pinned Earridse to the bed.

Lytt!r"rs"lms"tf.gf$i Ioctwifi-Dililhortly before Christmas

1995, no l5-year-old

schoolboyswere lured to

rn the home of Londoner

DaviclMcCallum, a hear'y-metal

music fan, to 'rvatch ideos'.Th e

nr'o bol's were led to McCallum's

bedroom, rvhich lvas ittered with

Iron N{aidenand Metall ica records

ar.rcl ooks abor-rt he mass

mnrderer CharlesManson, and

were told by the 20-year-old

\'IcCalh,rm hat he and his friend

u'orshippecl the devil.

hr the centre of th e room stood

a candleli t altar draped in a blackclotl 'r ,and a Ouija board. Despite

f'eelingLlneasl',he hvo boys -

\'Iichael Earriclge and Stephen

I The Ouiio boord is often people's first E l..;t

honds-on experience of rhe occult. But =a

for mony, rhis is rhe first siep on o;

slippery slope lo depression, modness fi

ond even deorh (inser).

F,tn=

'You are not goins anpvhere unti l I- ,.,+:..t;

,

have done rn1,master's rvi l l . ' cr ied,, . . . . 'i ; , . ,. ' .1

hi s fr iend Dennis. McCallum then '---'

bc{arr r t 'pc:r tcdl l stahbing Earr idge

rvi th the 3,0cm combat krr i fe.

The frenzied attack, in which' 'i\ti

Earridge was stabbed eleven times..,...

endcd onlr uhcrr Derrr r iswhispered Stop norv.Dal id. You

can be calm. He's deacl.' Luckily,

Clullan escapedwith his life. The



t

i

wa swrapped in bedclothes

at a block of flats

-east London.

um was arrested and

{ Michael Eorridge wos the victim of mock-

riruol killing by Dovid McGollum (below),

who of?en used o Ouiio boord ond

cloimed to communicqte with ,the Devil,.

involving satanic rituals, and

scrawled on his television in marker

pen were the words 'Devil Man

killer. 666 Slayer. ron Maiden'. But

was his obsessionwith the Ouija

board responsible for turning theZ0-year-old nto a killer?

The Ouija - which takes t name

from the French 'oui ' an d

German ja', both meaning 'yes'-

usually consistsof a flat polished

OuijsA The Ouiio boord hos

olwoys been morkeled os o

gome ond, despite pnessure

fiom Christiqn gnoups, con

srill be bought in toyshops.

Mqnufoclurers, such qs Porker .

Gomes, cloim their boords can

be used by people fiom the

oge of eighr upwords (insetl.

wooden board with the letters

of the alphabet arranged along

the edge in a semi-circle. On to

this is placed a small, heart-

shaped board on castersor felt.

'Players' place a finger on this

pointer, which moves apparently

of its own accord - or on the

direction of the dead - and spells

out the answers o questions askedof the Ouiia.

Interestingly, the Ouija board

was never officially intended as a

tool to contact the dead. Although

the ancient Egyptianswere known

2tt t . lQ-

The words speh ouf byrhe Ouiio qre often

concerned with deoth

ond blood. There'sqmorbid curiosity... deoth

hqs some kind of lureGordonWright,Counselloror OccultVict ims

-

tB\,,

to have used a similar device to

contacl their ancestors a r ing

suspended on a piece of thread

was held over a board etched with

symbols,and the dead supposedlyspelled out their messages the

board aswe know it today was

invented as a 'parlour game'. It

ff#tffrmE

=:A

;;zp

lor the killing. Bur he was nol

charged with murder; claiming

qi that voices n his head made him

do it, he receiveda charge of

manslaughter,and wa ssenl to

j"Broadmoor. a high-securiry acil iry

the criminally insane.

wasobviously

by the macabre and the

- much of tlre music he

to contained lyrics

.q

o

I

Too



For

was the brainchild of William and

IsaacFuld of Baltimore, Maryland,

who went into production of the

boards n 1898.

With the advent of the rr,vo

world wars, the demand for Ouija

boards increased - owing to the

need for widows to contact their

husbands killed in combat - and

the Fuld brothers could barely

keep up with demand. Then, in

1966, the US games manufacturer

Parker Brothers bought the rights

to the board, and it has been

estimated that 25 million have

since been sold acrossAmerica

and Europe.

MIND OVER MATTER?

Significantly, the Ouija falls under

the category of paranormal

phenomena that can be easily

simulated. And even when not

faked, there may be other

explanations.James Randi, the

stage magician who is sceptical of

all claims of the paranormal, has

suggested hat natural and

involuntary muscle twitches knownas deomotor actions are

responsible for the movements of

the oointer across he board.

Ages

8 to Adult

However, to many researchers

and to those dabblers who have

experimented themselveswith the

Ouija - it seems doubtful that these

slight spasmswould cause a hand to

move over the Oulja board and spell

coherent sentences. lso, this

theory presupposes hat any

messageseceived through the

Ouija would come from the user's

srrhconscious. el there are

caseswhere the Ou'1ja as

possessionof whoever is tr

contact them.' .:

Farrant's casebook s

newspaper ut t ingsand ourn

reportsdetai l ing he misuseof

Ouija. 'These orces actually

\Ahen I've been involved in the

useof rhe Oui ia, t 's been done

properly, under controlled

conditions. You need to be

Hw drr rhe OUIJA* Smrd wrki\Jgherher,,u .rl l ' \0*c i l 'r Wr"'1

'hc( )l ll A h" r',i' rcl l ' -f i lrr

lu\ i a\k rt a {uc{i i ,n rn. l u' . rrt t . ' se< wh.rt rrN$cl l l )( v \ ' l i l \ i r lc ( )r ' , t l r-

*ill reveal ri lou,

Y,,u an. l t . ,ur Fni lnr' r \t r lr t , t -f , Nrrr ' . rJr- ,l rl n l r ' . rrJ . u rrl r r ' 'u r I r,c tn

l l , rrcJ l ' r l , r l t , ' r, r l tnn-' rgert rJrrl t ' r ' (\ rt ' l ), rr 'N l ' / , IR\rri {r ' ' rt . r{

iun. . t , r, , , .'. n

h rrl , 'n rlx ' rnrl r(r . rr h rrrl ' ' . rrr. l u arr t . th" rn, l t rr ' r

to movc and l*girr to rereal the rnrtrr llrroilgh its frre*atga sindr)w Will

i t c l l vou Y85.. . or NOl Wil i it { iv t vou a NUIlBER . or $f l l l " , tn

reoortedlv revealed i

known to any of the pa

brouglt rheir qucrticls to tlre l)UIJA hranl Andjudging from the nr r re\ ;e, r l ' s .cru&n rou- . rnJ rh. :

caseswhere the use of the

lnJn rn,r

lelt players raumatized nd

kr remove J!$l [nJ mdiihrr. l\ not mentally disturbed, there isthe 'game' than just muscle

GATEWAY TO HELL?

It may be only a game, but to

the Ouija is considered a

dangerous ool when used n

wrong hands. David Farrant,

of the British Psvchic and

Society. iews he Ouija as a

gateway to powerful]

forces. lf you tap into these .,ientities using the Ouija wi

knowing what you are doing,

can l i teral ly come to l i fe anr

s3:E

.Y

(J

:

I

q

o



l ,u^r .o intorheoccul ( . ud

" Farranl 'sobserrat ions eem o

I be borne out bv over hall a

. .

with supernolurol lhemes such

Friday rhe l3thand, more recently,

Play 3, hove been blomed for

deoth ond the occult, ond

disturbed ond unstoble

over the edge.

century of [ata] cases.One oF rhe

reportedclaimsof possession

the Ouija comes fiom

15-year-oldMattie

shot and ki l led her larher.

rme' of Ouija with her

€R the 'spirits' spelled out to

Mattie that she should kill her

father to allow her mother to

marry'a cowboy'.

SPELTING DISASTER

In a more recent case, et another

15-year-old,Colin Roberts, was

found hanged from a tree in thegrounds of a Belfast church after

the Devil allegedly spoke to him

. through the Ouija. The last thing

"t

he told his friends before killing

i himself was hat he had made a

! pu., with the Devil and 'had a partyj to go to'. This episodecame ust=33

*-I fe l t os rhough

I 'dchonged ond begon toheqr voices te l l ing me fo

ki l l my porents. l ' l lnever dobble in the

occult qgqin.

AnonymouseenogerfterOuijoSession

*\

, ,

one month after goatswere found

slain in a nearby Catholic church

on rhe night of a full moon.

But are these casesevidence that

the Ouija opens the floodgates for

marauding entities to access he

living world, as some claim? In the

caseof Mattie Tr.rrley, more

obvious explanation for her

actions is that her mother moved

the pointer herself and spelled the

instructions to Mattie to kill her

father. With her husband dead, the

mother was ree to marry her'cowboy'lover.

Howeveq in the caseof Colin

Roberts. l l reportspaint a picrure

of an intelligent, pragmaticteenagerwho was n no way

schi , , phrenic or suFfer ingrom

any other mental illness. So could

Roberts have really used the Ouija

board to contact the Devil?

Father Dominic Walker, a

psychologistand former advisor on

exorcism to the Bishop of

Southwark, claims to have dealt

with over a thousand people whose

liveshave beenaffected by theparanormal. I don't believe ha t

Ouija boards contact spirits,'

Father Dominic told TheX Fnctor,



'br.rt do believe that they contact

material in our minds, which is

why they're so dangerous.'

Many other psychologistsand

psychiatristsagree that dabbling in

the occul t can be damaging o

anyone who is potentially unstable

mentalll'. 'I'r'e spoken to many

adults and children who have

attempted suicide or have

mutilated themselves,'states

Cordon Wright, a counsellor for

occult victims. 'They have

clescribednot an impulsive act but

something they feel almost drawn

to like a masnet. It becomes

obsessional: omething they almost

have to do. And this has been

linked to the occult. '

L'r his sround-breakins book,DartgerousObsession.s,riter and

researcherAndrew Boyd also

qnestions he paranormal power of

the Ouija. By conducting one of the

largest survevs on the role of the

occult in socief,', Bovd has

concluded that'sorne individtrals

who step into the occult, l'ith its ill-

defined, confirsing and often

contradictorv concepts of realitl,',

mav lose themselves rvithin a

sllperlratural shaclon'lancl of mvth,

magic arrd morbiclinl Thev mav r,r,ell

be u,orking to activelv undermine

their or,n psvcholoeical well-beins.'

INSANITY CTAUSE

On the whole, it can be arguecl

that the lessstablemembers of the

community are those affected

most bv their clabblins in the

occult. Dr (leoffrey Scobie, a

psvchologist fiom the University ofGlasgorv, ums up the debate:

'highly suggestible eople, about

ten per cent of the population, are

putt ins thenrseives t r isk from .

their psvcholosicalpowers.' Bu t

does he lu lc orr l rhe possibi l i ry

that a 'spir i t rvor ld ' could be

responsible for the dangers?

'I don't preclude that as a

possibiligv,' e claimed. 'Peoplewho

are already srchological lyn the

border are those r'r,ho end to

become r,'ictims. or such people,

dabbling rvith Ouija boards can

become an acldiction.'

For marr l people. he obsession

with the occult h:rs gone beyond

playing r,r,ith Ouija. Incleed, t has

become a rvayof life or a profession

- a religion every bit asvalid as .

Christianity or Islam -

for the particip:rnts.:

Itr lhr ttctt issirr. IHE PARANORI4-ALt'tttminn uhrtl hrtppens t,hcn nbhlersn

lh r , tt ' r r l l l r r r t t n .\ntnnistn,blnrh magzc

atrd tl tc sctiotts lQrh ttr ls'

s*rur*r



prCHEMICATS EING

iD TO OUR DRINKING

SINISTER

Evrosncr

STSTHATWE AREMEDICATEDECRETTY

DRUGSTHATMODIFY

OUR BEHAVIOUR

f it was suggested o you that, with-

out your knowledge, you were being

regularly medicated with a sub-

I stance more poisonous than lead.

could lead to brittle bones, cancer

rd a catalogue f other i l lnesses.nd is a

tral ingredient in mind-al ter ingdrugs.

would probabl l be more than a l i l le

armed. Yet th is is what some qual i f ied

tors and heal th advisors re al leging s

happening o mi l l ions ol people n the U K

and around the wor ld. The of fending sub-

stance?Fluoride in our drinking water.

.Most of us know fluoride as the 1950s

i:.discovery hat was to save eeth from decay.

wasadded to most UK toothpastes n970s, upposedlyo reduceunpleasanr

Idhood visits o the dentist. Yet there is a

sinisterside to fluoride's history.

TH DECAY

have shown that hal fthe amounr offluoride currenrlv added to UK drink-

Er'idence suggests that fluoride ca n

., . haiden the surface enamel of teeth, but

-the chemical is also highly toxic, and has

-been l inked to a large number of physical

and mental ai lmenrs. Publ ished studies

ing water (hexaf luorosi l ic ic acid) can

.u.lr. g.,-r"t icdamage.

:



| | | l f d | |udGMoolenbursh, one of the most

UUg vocal anti-fluoride campaigners

Since World War II , no thorough

research has gone into the potential ly

lethal effects of fluoride. However, a num-

ber of scient ists, includins Dr Hans

gence.They corrsidered luor idatedwater

the ideal meansof control l inS{t i1a.non

ulat ions once their corrnl r ies had been

invaded by Germarr forces. Ant ic ipar

victory in the war. the German chem

ma n ufacturers I . G. Farben, based

Franklur t , became responsible or m

producing f luor ide for the death car

and other possible uture uses.

GtOBAt MIND CONTROT

At the end of \Aor ld \Aar l [ , the US sent

Charles Eliot Perkins, a research worker in:.

chemistry, pathology and physiology, to...

study the mind-control technology of I. G.

Farberr . Perkins drew several shocking

n, ffi$##

in the Netherlarrds, are deeply

concerned that marry countr . ies

in the West are in effect enforc-

O4 ing a clangerous and sinister

$ mass-medication scheme first

developed in Nazi Germany.

During the darkest days of

World \A/ar II, hundreds of thou-

sands of innocent people were

exterminated in German and

Russian concentrat ion camDS.

Death from disease,starvation and

extreme brutality was an everydayocclrrrence, and this was regularly

compounded by the use of drugs

and chemicals.Nazi scientists, ee n

to maintain a climate of fear, had

found an easy method of controlling

the behar our of camp inmates.

BRAIN DRAIN

Repeated doses of very small amounts of

fluoride were discovered to affect the

brain, slorvly poisoning and narcotizins

people, making them submissive.Eager to

exploit the effects <-rf he drug, both

Cerman and Russian camp commanders

added fluoride to water supplies.

The effects of fluoridated rvater greatly

imoressed German and Russian intel l i-

331$

The reol purpose behindwoter f luor idot ion is to

reduce the resistqnce of fhe

mqsses to dominqtion qnd

control qnd loss of liberfyChqrles l iotPerkins, hemicol ngineer

a\, ,

conclusions from his investigations in

Ge manl, ' . He reporteci that'when

the.'*Nazis, under Hitler, decided to go

Poland... the Cerman Ceneral Staff

the RussianGeneral Staf f exchangedsci-

entific and military ideas, plans

sonnel and the scheme of mass cor

through water

I

-oaioo.E



a-***i* " * *'

;;&:fl* '

medication was seized upon by Russran

Communists because it fitted ideally into

their plans to communize the world...'

.. ..., Perkins did not clirectly mplicate Nlied

inteltigence in his investigation of Russian

goUat mind control, but a closer investiga-

t ion of I . G. Farben and iheir i r rdustr ia l

relat ions hrowsup some srrspiciousrr ter-

national conr)ecrt-lns.. ..

.WESTERN BACKING

) Young survivors

of the Auschwitz

concentrolion comp

owoif their releose os

Allied forces liberote

lhe Nozi's prisoners.

The Germons ond the

Russions doctored'

rheir deorh comps'

woter supplies with

fluoride, which ocfed

qs q sedolive ond kept

the prisoners possive.

Despite rhis l egocy,

fluoridoted woter is still

promoled in counlries

oround the world todoy

(below). Fluoride is olso

used os on qcfive

ingredient in some of

lhe most powerful

tronquillizers (inser).

kuown that a number of influen-tial figures in US commerce and

industry inr,ested a sr-rbstantial

amount of t ime and monev in L G.

Farben projects before and after

the rvar. Among them was the

Nlellon fanrilv

The \"Iellon family, fbunders of

the \ ' Ie11on nstitute, established

i tsel f i r r l9 l3 as an organizat ion

independent lv sponsor ing ad-

\rancesn scienceancl ndustry.Th e

institute \\'as also to 'discover' that

fluoricle was an 'amazing tooth-

decavpreventative'.

FINANCIAT GAIN

Coincidentally., the Mellon family also

founded the Aluminum Company of

American (ALCOA). Fluoride is the highl,v

toxic byproduct of aluminium manufac-

ture (as well as of manv other industrial

processes),and ALCOA were frequentl,v-

and successfullv sued {br poisoning cat-tle, crops and rvaterr'va;,s. af'e disposal

proved expensive, so r,r'hat ould be done

to eliminate these costsand, perhaps, even

Rockefeller amil l .

: Millions of US dollars \,vere nvestecl n

theseconcerns n the 1930s,and this rela-

r":::'"I. G. Farben expanded massively n the

1920sas i t mersed rvi th the \A 'al lStreet

concerns ol the l ikes ol Henry Ford's

motor company, f. P. Morgan's General

Motors and Stanclard Oil, o'u,ned bv the

claimed bv researcher rrd arr thor Ian E.

Stephens that speci f ic instr t rc l ions rere

given to bombing mission commanders,

possibly from the higher levels of the US

government, to avoid these buildings. But

for what reason?; :Since the US economic depression of

the late 1920s, organizations sr.rchas the

Rockefel ler Foundatiorr and the Forcl fam-

i ly were publ ic l l encorrraging orrg- terrn

in population control. I t is also

o

_.9

o

o

o

' tionship continued throughout \{orld \1rar

II . Coincidentallv, t is interestins to note

. that no I. G. Farben factories or plants

rwerebombed, sabotagecl r even damagecl

by the Allies during the war. It has been

nrornrnttf? wat

rfil(of,frD:tcr

krNr *y&(or

mi|or|r



-"!...#@*a*"

dental saviour.

To the alarm of' many scientists who

stronglv disputed the allesed health bene-

fits, the American Dental Association

launched a campaign to promote fluoride.

Errdorscrncrr t r t l re I r r i rcd Srares ubl ic

Health Serr,ice (USPHS) strengthened

public confi<lencc in the new 'rvonder

drug', and b,v he mid 1940sa handftrl of

rnajor I S si ter I rad hcgrrn f luor idat ing

their ' \ \ 'a leI suppl i t ,s. Propagandists

obtained errdols( n( r r Is ' rom ir rst i tut ions

n'ho acceptcd th e health claims without

question, rnd th e sreenlisht wa sgiven for

r nal ion\r ide lr ror i r l l t iorr anrpai€rr .

MEDICAT DOUBTS

Frorn thc late 1950s, thc USPHS chan-

nelled mil l ions of'US taxpavers'dollars to

other corlntr ics to promote f luoridation,

and manr. n:rt ions - including th e UK -

leapt orr t . rhe lr l rndrvagorr . r r t most

European conntries rejectecl fluoridation

out of hand, and others that tr ied it soon

stopped because clf adverse health effects

at t r lgcrrcral r rel ect r t 'nt 'ss.

The cornmon ltcl icf is that treatment

r'r,ith luoricle is cf'fcctive or a lifetime, yet

d"

t,';';,';,,;

:.:::.,1

o

p

=o

p

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5

op

ooo

tunr in a profit lrom the $,astematerial?

ALCOA and other fluoricle-producins

industr ies funded research rvhicl ' t

appeared to inclicate hat small quantir ies

of the chemical \{ere no t harmful to

humans. Eventuall l ' , research suggested

that f luoride reduced tooth cavit ies.

Promoters concentrated on rvhat thev sar,v

as health benefits,completelf ienoriug; he

knolr-r adverse cumulative efl'ects of this

highl,v oxic substance.

SETECTIVE RESEARCH

Scientists orking for the American Dental

Association ADA) on behalf of Alcoa con-

tirrued promoting f luoride, despite its

abr-rsebv the Germans aud Russians.

Although dozensof scientists nd pressureorganizationsdisputed the claims of the

pro-fluoride lobbl', public opinion quickl_v

embracecl the alleged qualities of the nen,

BNIAbac

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payout



research shows that any protect ion disap-

pears before the person enters their 20s.

In lact, a number ol medical ancl dental

say here is no evidence hat f luo-

trenefits teeth at all

lhe acule embarrassment of the US

al Institr .r te of Dental Research

R), independent analysisof a 1988

report on dental data of 39.107US

n showed that there wasvirtually no'

difference in the number of tooth cavities

: in children from fluoriclated and non-fluo-

ridated areas., , : .i. . Sowhat purposedoes luoridatedwater

.I

se.ve? ts high toxicity is widely recognized,

..". a recent declassif ied documents

-,: ireleased n the US confirm that the mil i-

uru kn.* of f luor ide's adlerse ef fectson

re brain asear lyas 1944.

Diazepam (Valium)

produces a new,

stronger tranquillizeqRohypnol. Both are

manufactured by

Roche Products,

another subsidiary of

I . G. Farben, along

with other similar drugs. The porverful flu-

oridated tranquillizer Stelazine is rtidelv

used n retirement homes and mer-rtalnsti-

tutions around the world.

As more information about later fluori-

dation is revealed, he more the public'sanxiety appears to increase. Proponents

quote hundreds of studies proving fluo-

r ide's effectiveness in negating tooth

decay,but the union of professional scien-

t ists at the US Environmental Protection

Agency point to deliberate cover-ups of

grave risks to human populations and the

denigration - and even sacking ofethical

scientists ho dare to speakup.

TROUBTED WATERS

To most dentists. f lr-roridation s a 'won-

der drug' , counter-act ing poor oral

hygiene arrd dietary problems. To others,

it is an insicl ious and cynical method of

modif i ing our behaviour and a means of

allon' ing industry to profit from a dan-

gerous naste product. Many lay people

regard f luoridation as enforcecl mass-

medicat ion. The del iberate denial of

r isks by health off icials has led others to

regard f luoridation as a form of social

control. They point to the history of f luo-r idation and its clocumented l inks with

what is perhaps one of th e most evil

regimes of this centurlr.

!-9

dd

3

€!€

o

. . .AI tABtE ON PRESCRIPTION

into other uses of fluoride is

ng. Since World \A 'ar I . t ranqui l l iz-

A According ro fluoride

reseorcher lon E.

Stephens,Prime

Minister Thotcher

(inser) ripled rhe

woter-fluoridqtion

budget in Northern

lrelond during the

mid-8Os. Stephens

speculoted fhor this

wos nol motivoted by

concern for dentol

heolth, buf on ottempt

fo pocify poliricoloctivisfs in the oreo.

ers, ranging from the mild sedativespre-

scr ibed or depressiono the potent mind-

al ter ing drugs, have become a mulr i -mi l -

-"lion dollar industry.

Over 60 tranqui l l izerson the market



icture the scene: a giant UFO hovers

over the desert. Laser beams extend

from under the craft and manoeuvre

ro huge stone slabs into position as

astonished nomads look on. Later, when

the craft has left, three huge pyramidsremain in the sand. And for generations,

the confused and annazed tribes-people

recount the events in their legends and

their sacred texts describing the alien craft

as fiery messages rom the gods, and their

pilots as angels n golden chariots.

According to some, this scene could

reallv have been enacted some 5,000 years

ago at Giza, the site of the great ppamid in

Egypt, and at different times elsewhere in

the world - at Stonehenge in England, onEaster Island and in South America.

Preciselywhy an advanced civilization would

help the indigenous people to build these

vast structures is a mystery, but theo-

ries for their use range from cosmic

transmitters to gateways o the stars.

Some enthusiasts of the ancient astro-

naut theory even go so far as o suggest hat

the human race itself was seeded by alienvisitors. These visitors, t is claimed, arrived

on the planet hundreds of thousands of

years ago and gave evolution a nudge - as

depicted in the opening scenesof Arthur

C. Clarke's novel 2001:A SpaceOdyssq.

ALIEN ANCESTORS

These ideas are not new. The concept of

advanced civilizations from the stars nflu-

encing human progress has been around

since at least Victorian times when, mem-bers of the Theosophy Society, an occult

group, imagined an alternative history for

the human race. But the concept first made

A The imcAd

'flying'god

Aztec

qnd the

Columbion

represenlolionsl

oncient

nol - os we

led to believe -

].

,:,,:::t



oc

global headlines in the 1970swith

the work of the Swissauthor, Erichvon Diniken. Von Diniken has writ-

ten a series of highly successful

books, beginning wi*t Chariotsof the

Gods?n 1969, n which he presented

evidence for alien visitations in

ancient times.

UNIFORM IMAGES

Although much of von Dd"niken's

work has since been discredited,

some UFOlogists believe that at the

core of his findings is a nugget of

truth - that advanced beings ndeed

visited earth and left their mark

here at the dawn of civiliza-

tion. But, what is the evidence?At the centre of von Diniken's

theory and the ideas of all enthusi-

astsof the ancient-astronauts heory

is the remarkable consistencyof the

images and icons of ancient peo-

ples. There is also a uniformity to

their legends and the characteristics

of their gods that - believers nsist -

could not be put down to chance.

They point to the similarity of

accounts from sourcesas diverse as

the ancient Eglptians, the Maya and

the ancient Chinese, all of whom

had no contact with each other.



v * ;

One of the best descrip-

t ions o1'u,hat some enthusiasts

belier,e to be alien visitors is to be

found in the ancient Indian text,

the Maltahhara,tct.

ANCIENT TEXTS

At ser,eralpoints in the text, the

authors describe $'hat are calied

I'irnrunas, a rvord meaning 'fl,ving

machines'. n the text, the Virmanas

are sometimes described as flf ng

vehicles r"rsedor military pllrposeszrnd are often piloted b1' Indian

gods. One of these is called th e

.lqttetn reepon arrd i t appears n

on e particularh' strikirrepassage:

A blazing mi.ssile ossessedf the radi-

anceof smokelessfre utasdischarged.

thick gloom suddenly encomltassedhe

hosts. All poinLs of the compctss ere

stLdden\ enuelopedn darkness.Euil

bearing uinds began to blou. Cl,ouds

rearerl into the higlrcr ait; shozuering

blood, The uerl elements eemed :on-

fused. The sttn appeared o spin round.

The utorld,scorched 1 the heat of that

uteapon, eemedo be n afeuer.

At first glance, this could easil','be

interpreted as a nuclear \,\'eapon

explodine, r 'r . l .r ich, ecause ne har.e

onlv recentlr, knoivn about such

\\eapor)s. has lcr l err t l r t rs iastso c() l r -

clr.rde tlrat the Virmartr,tsmust be of

extraterreslrial origin.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE

Hower,er, this passaee - Iike so

much of the lore behind ancient-

astronaut heories is entirelv open

to interpretation. It is alsopossible

that this accoullt could have origi-

nallv describeda natural phenome-

non such as a rolcanic errrpt ion.

and the tale has been adulterated

br numel ous re irr terpreta l iorrs.

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But, claim the enthusiasts, there is

plenty of other evidence.

According to some supporters of

the ancient-astronaut theory, primi-

t ive ma n seems to have been

obsessed with space-suited figures.

Drawings of what look like astro-

nauts are to be found in cave

dwellings in the Americas, Europe,

Africa, the Far East and Australia.

To support this evidence,

claimants have researchedwhat they

believe to be ancient landing sitesfor UFOs. The best known example

is the Plain of Nazca n Peru, which

is only fully identifiable as an overall



strllcture fiom aerial photographs.Orthoclox archaeologists insist

that the Nazca markings are Inca

roads,but this is harcl to reconcile

u,ith the fact thzrt these roads leacl

norvhe e. Thesc markings also

include some \rer)' odd configura-

tions - nothins like roads - lvhich

the more determined enthusi:rsts

have strguesteclcould be 'parking

ba1's' or aircraft or space ,ehicles.

Th e bissest problem rvith the

concepl of ' a l ierr s i l l r l iorr . rrr t crr l

or modern, is the conundrun-i of

horv aliens could tra",el vast inter-

stellar dist:rnces o ge t here. Er,en

aaa

supporters of the al ien visitationt i rcor l ' accept t i rat the lrcaresl

home for another c i r , i l izat ion rnrrst

be at least 4.2 l ight vears arv:r r ' the

l learest st l l r to otr r Srr r i ) .

SCIENTIFIC PUZZLE

Strch vzrst l istancesmean thi r t , even

if a cir - i l izatiort cl iscovelecl a na\, of

trar,elling :rt close to the speecl of

light, it r'r,or.rld take them or,er B

-vears

br a round trip - harclly prac-

ticai fcrr a casuzrl visit. One sllgges-

tion is that adr,ancecl bcinss have

developed wavs to bend the lalvs of

phvsics that pr-rt an upper speed

a"

l imi t on interrstel lal t rar-el .A rnor-eplobable theorv is that an

ach':incecl civilization - trar,elling rel-

:rtivell slon'lr' - passed this rvav thou-

si rncls o{ \ 'ears ago el l rol l te to

colonising other rvorlds. Perhaps if

aliens did r,isit the Pharaohs or the

N,Ia1,a,hev hopped off their mother

ship fo r a short time and left

:""ffi:i*:ll,-"'W&*

[n. th,enext lssue, UFO FILE irLuestigates

one of lhe most recen,t LIFO craslt

retrieuttls al \larghina, Brazil.

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EXAMINESTEGENDS F

WEREWOLVESND

TYCANTHROPY ND AsK!

ARE THEYMYTH, MAGIC

OR MEDICALCONDITIOII?

nly a ferv moie minutes and he

would be home. safe behind c lo;ed

doors. Only a few more *in.,t.t -

W but it was already too late. Above, a

layeroI c lotrds r i f ted apar l - exposing. r r

all its m4jesty, he silent silver-hued moon.

As he yelled.in terror, his voice began to

change, transforming into the spine-chill-

ing howl of some primitive beast. But that

was not all. His howling mouth was itself a

changing, effortlessly stretching into a

long muzzle, fiIled with sharp rvhite teeth,

and surmounted by a "broacl nose with

brist l ingwhiskers.

He was still runhing, but he wasnow on

all fours.and ashe ran his body grew more

powerful, bursting, hr&rgh his clothes. He

was now entirely iovered in dense brorvn

fur. from his f lattened head clorryno rhe tip

of the long, hairy tail. His transformation

into a wolf wascomplete. .

CHANGE FOR THE WORSE

Bodily transformation of a human inro a

wolf (or any other animal) is, of course,aphysical impossibit i ty.Yet belief in were-

wolvei was wid'bspread throughout

medieval Europe, with werewolf legends



tuand lore emanating from Scandinavia,

France, Germany.,Sicily. central an d

eastern Europe, the Balkans and

Greece. .$nd long before',,flolumbus

reached the New \Aiorld, thJ-kqlive

American peoples feared their 'oivff-

rverewolf quivalents.

t The belief

in werewolves -

humqns possessing

the occult obility to

lronsform lhemselves

into wolves - slrelches

bock fhousonds of

yeors, ond still exerfs

o powerful hold over

our imoginotions, qs

lhe successof films

surh os An American

Werewolf in London

(inset)ottesfs.

It seemsmost likely that the werewolf

concept originated in the custom of pre-

histor ic human hunters wrapping them-

selves n wolf ski.4s-in he belief that they

n'ould be irnbued with the hunting

prowess f th is formidable predator.The

tradition persisted, albeit in an atrbphied

version, in later \{erel{olf legends, which

tel l oF horr ' hrrmanscould become rvere-

\volves f they wore a magic belt or cloak

made Iiom'wolf sk irr .

CRY FOR THE MOON

Another werewolfi tradition, its transfor-

mation at fu l l moon. probablyor ig inated

in prehistoric times too. \Arhen humans

began d6mesticatingwild wolf-like dogs to

hunt with them,"gheywould have undoubt-

edly observed heir dog! ' del ight in howl-

ing ar 1!remoon during hunt ing forays.

Thi8ughout mankind's socia ldevelop-

ment, the moon, hunting, and wolveshave

become entrvinedwithin increasinglycom-plex nrr thoiogies. n manr' lesends, he

moor-rgoddess ,r'as lso a huntress (as vith

o

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o

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T

a



'il'lit? l

:rd

##

V Severe ctrses of ckin

comploints. such os

impetigo, in oddition

ro hoiry feofures,

could hove been

behind some of the

mony cosesof

werewolves reportdd

in rhe Middle Aoes.] 'i

the Roman Diana, he GreekArtemis.andthe Babylonian Ishtar), whose. hunting

' dogs were often men who had been magi

cally changed by her into wolves, so lead-

ing to the birth of the werewolf concept.

WEREWOTF DETUSION#!4***

A major influence ifl the werewolf con-

cept's evolution and .often wrongly

ass'fimed to be synonymous with were-

wolfum is lycanthropy (translating as 'the

wolf-man con{ition'). Yet whereas 'gen-

uine' were*oFu., are confined to "the

realms of folklore; lycanthropy is a real,

abnormai psychological condition, and

was recognized as long ago as the 2nd

throats in anLnconffiollable frenzy.

Jhe histor ical chronicles bulge with

we*wolf reports. which reachJ their

peak in the Middle Ages. This is vividly

demonstrated by the wnazing fact that inFrance alone, between 1520 and 1630, an

ipcredible 30,000 toup-garyu werewolf) tri-

als occurred. In reality, however, lycan-

thropy and other mental illnesses result-

i"g in cannibalism and.serial murder were

the true villains, Sponsored bry gnorance

dnd superstit ion. : l

BTOODY HISTORY

century AD by the

scholar Marcellus

Sidetes.

A person so.

affli.cted (termed a

lycanthrope) suf-

fers from the delu-

sion that he ip a

wolf or that cari'

turn himself into

one. Depending

upon tne s-everrty

of the case, lycan-

thropes wil l r ip

Apart raw , {neatwith their teeth,

howl and shriek at

the'full moon, and

attack other, peo-ple with ravaging

bloodlust, tearing

at their vict ims'

Take, for example, the case of a teenage

shepherd calledJean Grenier, from south;

ern France's Bordeaux region. During hi$

tr ial in 1603. Grenier boasted that. after

assuming he guiseoFawolf, he had slaugh-

tered and devoured over 50 children,'and

claimed to=have acquired his shapesh'i{1ing

power froin a rnysterious dark stranger thaq

he had met deep in the forestsa few years

earlier. The ,stranger, identified in many

accountsof this caseas th e Devil, suppos-

edly gaveGrenier a salveand a woif skin -

and when. at dusk. Grenier rubbed his

body wi.th the salve and placed the skinover himself, he became a wolf.

Detailed questioning during his trial,

however, s,howed that Jean Grenier was



A €hildren born with rhick fociol hoir, like

two-yeor-old Abyss de Jesus,were once soid

lo suffer from 'humon werewolf syndrome'.

than being burnt at the stake. the fate of

count less other lycan hropes.

One of the .n1ost tragic cases of lycan-

thropy occurred in'* ' th e vi l lage of

Eccfesfual l , taf fordshire. In Apr i l 1975. 17-.jft

year-ol t l apprent ice joiner. Andrew

Prinold, stabbed himself through the heart

lvith a knife, terrified that he was startingto transform ir-rtoa rverewolf.

MARK OF THE BEAST

The abundance of werewolf reoorts in

medieral"Europe no doubt stemmed from

the vast number of features by

which, according to folklore, a

person could be unmasked as a

werewolf. Tell-tale traits to look

out for when star ing nto the face

of a suspectedwerewolf in human

form included srnall pointed

ears. rotruding teeth.and broad

eyebrows that joined on- the

bridge of the nose.Shakinga sus-

pect'shand offered a good oppdrr

tunity to check for

more clues,such as

hairy palms, long

curved fingernails

tinged with red, and

an unusually long

third finger.But how did one

becLrme a werewolf

in the f irst place?

* .:

€I

,o

a

A Even in modern

times, belief in the

obility of humons lo

chonge themselves

into wolves persists,esperiolly in

srrongholds of

werewolf folklore.

evidently half-witted, givdn to inventing all

manner of wild stories and afterwards

bel ieving hem to be true. After consul t i r rg

with medical specialists, he judge decided

that Grenier was*not a werewolf but alycanthrope. Accordingly, he ordered that

Grenier should be given over to the care of

the monks at a Franciscan monastery in

Bordeaux for the rest of his days rather

o

o

3

A

s6:

'Ifuwolfstrikm fear

nfoMimtn* .qt*d



'Ancientlegends provided f vu.*r, o, por-

sibi l i t ies. Quite apart from deliberate

activities such aswearing magical cloaks of

wolf skir ior part ic ipar ing n magical i ru-

als. there were many ways n which the

unwary could fal l v icr im to rhis mal ign

metamorphd'sis.

Anyone drinking water from puddles

formed in wolves' tracks, or from streams

frecirlented by wolves, would surely

become a werewolf;'So, too, might a per.

son hungry enough to eat the flesh or

brains o[ a wolf. or even the f lesh of a

sheepkil led by a wolf. t

No doubr medieval Europeans rook

heart f rom the claim thal werewolves

could be kept at bay by the presence of a

spr ig of wolfsbaneover or the door of a

house.Also, hesecreatureswere bel ievedto be-mortal, and could be ki l led if shot

with a blessed ul ler . '

) There.was o time

when Yu Zhenhuon

would hqve been

deemed on infont.

werewolf by the more

fonoticol members of

society- Even bobies

born feet first, or those

with pointed conine.*,'.

leelh, ron rhe risk of '

being stigmotized cs

werewolves.

rabiesJinked origin,,becausea

rabid wolf would certainlyfroth at the mouth, and any-

one bitten by.such a beast dur-

irg th e medically-backward

Middle Ages would most l ikely

contract this l iorr if ic i l lness

anq evenrual ly display the

samesymil toms.

f t ls aiso possible that, lr t

medieval times, peasantseating

ry e contaminated with ergot

fungus ma1'have suffered LSD-like hallucinations that thev rvere actually

changing into ryoh'es r other animals.

GTAMOROUS CREATURE

Once,'the n'ererr 'olfr-as hideous.diaboli-

cal creatnre of dread. Todar', thanks to

irnagescreareclbv Hol l r r r 'ooci , t has i ts

place in popri lar culture. Like th e movie

r-ampire.tire rr'ererrolfof the wide screen s

ir-rcreasinglr 'sl ick, suave and sexually-

charsed - bnr hou,,and tvhy?

,$h'r this technological age, the fears ancf

larrcies f the r r r rsophisr icatedasthaveno

place. Exposed as unrealist ic.and ofren

do\rr igh Iudicrous.werewol leger dshave

been rend.e*'edsafe - still a little scary,$gr-,

haps,but nothing more. We now recognil'e..

that the true, shapeshiftingwerewolf existed

only in folklore - we are nevergoing to be

assaultedby a licentiovs loup-gatou

Fiom ni$htmarish monster of the past

to errdur ing megastar f the present.and

probably the f lurure. he lore o[ rhe wolfhas undergone a transformat ionas dra-

r.

o

o.E

RABID WOTF

In modern times, a number of medical

explanat ions n addir ion to lycanthropy

have been offered for bel ieF in were-

wolves.Tw o supposedcharacterist icsof a

werewolf are i ts loaming moulh and i rs

abi l i ry o turn anyone t bi tes nro a were-

wolf. This scenario is indicative o{ a

,/

matic as any accompl ished bv the r**

r,rerewolfn bygone ras. Hf



ffiffiffi

MANY UFOTOGISTS CRITICIZE

GOVERNMENTSFOR COVERING

UP THE .REALITY, oF ALIEN

LIFE. BUT THE REVEIATIONS oF

THE MOD'S NICK POPN HAVE

LED TO A REASSESSMENT F

THIS POSITION.

re for senior officers to involvement in the poliryinitiative enabling women to fly as pilots in the RoyalAir Force. But it was his work between lggl and 1994that made Pope such a controversial figure. Duringthat time, at the Ministry's Secretariat (Air Staff) 2aoffice, based in the MoD,s London headquarters inWhitehall, he was responsible for investigating UFOsightings. His task was to evaluate whether or notthere was any evidence of a threat to the UnitedKingdom, and his conclusions - that some UFOswere indeed extraterrestrial in origin - were startlingfrom one in an official capacity, and attracted a lot

of media attention.Pope still works for the MoD, where he holds the

rank of Higher Executive Officer, the equivalent of aMajor in the British Army. But he has kept his tieswith the UFO community, \ riting two books about his

ince joining the Ministry of Defence (MoD)at the age of lg, Nick Pope has filled a numberof positions, from preparing briefing material

MoD findings and appearingat dozens of UFOconferences worldwide.Some of his MoD colleaguescall him'Spooky', while

Nick Pope's esrselling

book, Open Skies,ClosedMinds,rellsthe story of

hisofficiol eseorchnto

rhe UFOs henomeno.

many UFO researchers see him as a brave individual.Along the way, Pope has picked up his fair share ofadmirers - who see him

as a real-life Fox Mulder.spilling the beans on Britain's X Files - and critics,who view him as a minor government stooge withlittle of real importance to say.

fn a rare quiet moment during a UFO conferencein tlre north of England, The X Factor caught up withPope and asked him how he got the job as the UFOinvestigator at the Ministry:

€,€= e I'd worked in some interesting obs sinceI joined the MoD in 1985,and I'm postecl o adifferent job every few years. wasdue to be movedin 1991 and was asked to be the Department,sresident expert on UFOs. I didn't even know therervassuch a post.

Whof wqs your opinion qbout UFOsbeforeyou stqrted investigoring sightings officiolly?\{hen I started the job, I didn't know much about theUFO phenomenon and had no strong views on thesubject.My first question waswhy the Ministryconcerned itself with this subject at all. It turned outto be wrapped up with issuesof national security.

Whor were fhe MoD concerned qbout?All UFO reports are looked at to seewhether there'sany evidence of threat to the defence of the United



Kingdom. \Arhen started looking back through the

files, there seemed to be an absenceof investigation,

and a reliance on sending out standard letters when a

report of a UFO arose.To me, this seemed strange -

how could anyone say hat UFOs were not a threat if

they didn't know what the objectswere? I decided to

take a closer look.

Whqt struck you most obouf your new iob?The first thing that surprised me was how many

reports we received.On average,

there were between 200 and 300

everyyear.and this s in a si tuar ion

where most people won't report a

sighting at all, either through fear

of ridicule or simply because hey

don't know who to contact. The

reported sightings are undoubtedly

the tip of a huge iceberg. Thosewho did report a UFO would

## rs

Fylingdales n Yorkshire, who could tell me about

satelliteactivity and any spacedebris re-entering the

earth's atmosphere. I could also impound radar tapes,

check weather balloon launches and try to correlate

sightingswith airship flight plans.

How mqny UFO reporfs did you fhink couldbe sqfisfqcrorily exploined?\Arhen nvestigatedthoroughly, about 90 per cent of

sightingswere explained as misidentifications of

known objectsand phenomena.

But this left a hard core of cases

u,hich defied any conventional

explanation. The official position

is 'Object Unexplained, Case

Closed'. That is to say,we simply

don't know

But you werent confenl loleove it ot thot...

t-Inidentifiedflyin g objectsarepotentially he most

important issuecurrently

facing thehuman race

!r\FFnormally contact the police or a military

establishmentor a civil airport. These reports

eventuallymade their way to the MoD.

How did you investigofe o sighring?\Alhen a UFO sighting came to light, it was easy or me

to carry out detailed investigationsbecauseof my

official position. I would check with civil and military

air traffic controllers to seewhether there were

any aircraft in the area at the time. The Royal

Observatory at Greenwich would see f there wasany

astronomical explanation for sightings* meteors and

fireballs have explained a number of

reports. I liaised with the Ballistic

Missile Early Warning Centre at RAF

No. I was unhappv at ollr lack of successn these

cases, o I launched a rarlge of initiatives to improve

the chance of finding some al-lsrvers. he main task

was making the public a\\'are hat there rvassomeone

at the MoD who n-anred o hear about their sightings.

I also plotted sightings on a map and looked for

patterns. There were no real surprises here -

sightingswere concentrated around cities,where

there are more people to seeUFOs. I also forged

good working relationships with civilian UFO research

organizations,such as BUFORA fBritish UFO

ResearchAssociation] and Quest International, so we

could compare data.

How did your experiencesqffect your outlook on UFOs?I'd begun the ob with an open

mind, but by 1993 I believed that

some UFOs were extraterrestrial

craft. No single casechanged my

mind, but rather the cumulative

effect ofall the evidence Iencountered: he witnesses,he

photographs, the videos, the radar

evidence.There were some UFO

sightings that included structured

craft displaying a technolosv - in

terms of manoeuvrabiliq, and

speed- that went way beyond the

cutting edge of even our best

prototype aircraft. \Arhat was the

craft that Belgian Air Force tried to

intercept in 1990? A/hatwas hecraft that passedover an RAF base

one night in 1993, firing beams of

light? It all acldedup.



.*Hf!*:.|JSt,,,i.:.lJ:.nCCD

vn{rp;ainedr igi ts ll Jd n 31

ls it unusuol for witnesses from the miliroryto come forword?Yes, he fear of professional ridicule seems o be amajor deterrent. But many RAF pilots have admittedto me that they've seen things in the sky that they'reat a loss o explain. And their qualities as trainedobserversmake them impressivewitnesseswhen theydo encounter something unexplained

Whtrr is the most convincing individuol cqseyou hove eyer dncounlered?This occurred in Rendlesham Forest - in the heartof the Suffolk countryside - in 1980,near the RAFbasesat Woodbridge and Benrwaters.When militarypolice from the US Air Force went to investigatelights in the forest, they sawpulsating lights movingthrough the trees.

On closer examination, the witnesses awatriangular, metallic object in a clearing in the forest.

It was about 3 metres wide and 2 metres tall, and,when they approached it , it took off into the sky.TheDeputy BaseCommander, Lieutenant Colonel CharlesHalt, filed a report entitled Llnexplained,ights in

January 1981,but the official investigation thatfollowed decided there was no threat to nationalsecurityand so the casewasclosed.

Were you inyolyed in reseqrch for this cqse?Not at the time, but I reopened the investigation.TheDefence Radiological Protection Service confirmed tome

that the levelsof background radiation measuredat the landing site by the team of soldierswere rentimes higher than normal. I now truly believe it tohave been an alien landing.

K7 'i, d,deref .

How did your superiors qt fhe Minisrry reqctto your widely-publicized views?My viewsweren't popular with them. I waspostedelsewhere n the summer of 1994,but I've continuedmy researchprivately.As for the Ministry, I'm toldthat many of my initiatives have been reversed,andthat the Department have, despite the overwhelming

evidence,effectivelyclosed the investigations.However, I still believe, like Fox Mulder, that the truthis out there.

Whor mokes you rhink you were top of theUFO qdder? Who's to sqy your superiorsdidn't know whqt wqs redlly going on?If anything was being covered up, ir was only theirignorance, their lack of knowledge.

Were they hoppy rhor you published q bookqbout your fime ct the Minisfry?Some of them were horrified, but most of nrycolleaguessupported me. I believe that if militaryfigures are allowed to write books about the Gulf Warthen I can write a book about my experiences.

Are you still involved in UFO reseqrch?Yes, 'm still asked for my viewson a wide range ofUFO-related questions.I'm often invited to speakatUFO conferences,and I'm working with a number ofpeople who claim to have been abducted by aliens.

Whqr is your conclusionqbouf qbductions?I think this is the mosr fascinating part of the UFOmystery. After years of official and private research,I've concluded that abductions are indeed real.

SS

ffiffiff



SPACE,

n Februa ry 1996,Russia's

Proton rocket blasted apart

in the final stage of its

W jollrney into space. t wasadisaster or the Russianspace

programme, but it rvasnotjust th e

rocket scientistswho hung their

heads n dismay at this latest space

calamity. At least200 large metal

fragments from the exploded

Proton were no\'v n orbit around

earth - all increasing the danger of

rockets and satellitesbeing

destroyedby space.junk.

sPACE COTLTSTON

All spacecraft suffer impacts rvith

orbital debris. be it man-made

or natural. But the clire

consequences f such a coll ision

were forcefullv brought home

when the Space Shuttle Columbia

landed at the Kennedy Space

Centre n Florida in November

1995.Drrr ing ts l6-daymission rr

space, omething had collided

with the shuttle car.rsing crater2 cm acrossand 6 mm deep.

A l -ewmil l imetresdeepercould

have been fatal for the seven

Columbia crer,vmember-s.

Later analysis evealed that

) TheorbirerColumbio eturns o

eorth n 1995 oodedwifh reseorch

somples.A mognifiedphotogroph

(inset) hows he domogecousedby

tiny orbitol debris.The mpoctoflorger lemsof spoce unk poseso

ierrible risk ro hugelyexpensive nd

fime-consumingpoceproiects.



:=

th e shutt le had been hit by a pieceof electronic circuit board from arocket or satellite that had

exploded in space.Travelling

through spaceat 5 kilometres persecond, t was extremely fortunatethat the projectile did not causean

ai r leak or an explosion bypuncturing the shuttle.

GROWING DANGER

Spacemissionshave become socommon that the world hardlynoticeswhen rockets aunch ortouch down these days.Every yeaqaround 100 new satellitesare sentinto spaceand NASA runs eiehtSpaceShutr lemissions. n rop of

rhis. here s a growing number ofprivate spaceventures to launch

satellites,such as the Iridium

project for mobile telephone

communications.

Even so, space light is far frornroul ine. Apart f rom hal ing tonegotiate their rockets andsatellitespast natural obstacles

such as meteorites and asteroids,scient ists avebeen awaresincethe early

1970sof an increasinglyunpredictable massof man-made

debris, oo.

Spaceunk comes' f romanumber of sources.Some of it hasbeen deliberately dumpecl inspace, ike special casing designed

LE

-'m qfroid rhot fufureqslronoufs wil l hove fo

fly through orbiringminefields

A*hur C Clorke, uthor nd spoce xoert

ffini;

account nobody really knows howmuch man-macleunk is hurt l ingabout n space. he actualnumberof objecrs s ikely o be in therJ rJ r r^ \ r/ ru uc l l l t l l c

mil l ions,and this can only increaseasspaceexplorarion and sat-ell i teIaunches ont inue.

Internat ionalconcern about

spaceunk is srrongenough forseveralhigh tevel nir iat ives o beunder way. Efforts are being madeto harmonize researchactivities ij

between the UK, France, Germany '

and Italy, and there was a second

Europeanconference n theproblem at Darmstadt in Germanvin March 1997. ',,,,,1'

In February 1g96, he WhiteHouse produced a report on space

, ;

, ,

to prevent damage to sensitive

instruments during take-off andbodily waste rom pasrspacemissions.Other.junk results romexplosions n space.Some of these

are accidental, such as the protonrocket. Other explosionsareinter-rtional,such aswhen rocketstages iom a satellite launch are

) This mini-croter

wos one of mony

found on fhe

surfoce of the Solor

Moximum Mission

Sorellire (SMMS),

which returned to

eorth in Apr i l 1984.

The holes were

coused by hyper-

velocity impocts

with loose flokes

of poinr.

jett isoneclor u'hen countr ies

deliberatelr.destroy their old spysatellites.as the Russianshave

been knorvn to. Like anything else,spacehardl'are alsowears awayand bleaksdorrr rover t ime.

Sor.ne pacedebris s so small_

dust. n fact - that it can usuallybetackledbv protectiveshielding.Bu tsuch rneasrires re no t enough ontheir oln, especiallv hen seriousdamage can be done bv a flake ofpaint travelling at six times thespeedof sound.

MAN.MADE JUNK

While large chunks of debris canbe spotted quite easily,once thesmaller particles are taken into



debris, outlining options to cut

down on spacejunk. The report

suggests, mong other measures,

better rockel design to lessen he

creat ionof junk. and shi f t ingold

;,'-,, pacecraft nto 'graveyard' orbits

:t j ;t;f harm's way. But, although

33 rER.other thqn fhe cqscqde

reqcfion hoppening

wirhin lhe next 20 to 50I

Yedrst we could exPecfit perhops to occur in

lhe next I O to 2O yeors^.tl^,1 ^...rcnoro -rowrner. orrnshDefence

ReseorchAgency

ryauf il*om. redesigning will limit the

chances f spacecraf t eslrucl ion.

the experts ecognize hat the

possibility of disastercannot be

removed entirely. The report

concludes that 'the overall debris

populat lonwl l l lncrease.

PROJECT ORION

) Wolf CreekCroler,n Auslrolio,wos

formed housonds f yeorsogo wheno meteorile roshed.Shooting tors

(inset) re o sign hot spocedebrishos

enlered he eorth'solmosphere.

radar and laser beams.

Once a dangerouspiece of

debris has been located bv raclar,

ground based asers vould be fired

at the target, with the aim of

altering the junk's course, f not

destroying it altogether. The laser

is specially designed to take

account of the distortion to the

beam caused by passing hroush

earth's atmosphere nto space.

'We alreadyhaveequipment

that would allow us to clear al l

At NASA's Marshal Space Flight

Centre in Huntsville, Alabama,

DrJonathen Campel l s heading

ProjectOr ion. l ts aim is to r id the.

r TUJLLL Vl rvrl . ILD d

heavens l dangerorrs pacedebris

;li;rt:ttfe;*L the use of sophisticated



:0o

s)

I

o

i!

UK. Griffiths also points out

Project Orion-rype lasersare also

potential an -satelliteweapons,

thus rais ing he quest ionof

internat ional secur i ty.

DOWN TO EARTH

Apart from worrying about

collisions with debris in space, ,.

scientistsare also mindful of the

consequences f such objects

lal l ing to earth.According o

NicholasJohnson, chief scientist of

the Kaman SciencesCorp, there

have been over 15,000 re-entries

into earth's atmosphere since the

start of the spaceage, all of which ,were sizeable,man-made objects.

In March 1996.a lai led Chinesespy satellite, the size of a small car: .

and weighing two tonnes, caused '. ,

worldwide panic as t headed back

to earth. Scientistscalculated thai,..:

the satellite would hit the ground' '

at 650 km/h, leaving a crater

V The Hoystock rodor ot Tyngsboro,

Mossochusetts,SA,hos been usedby

NASAsince 99O to trock spoce

debris.t

conpinpoinr

obiectss

smollos 5 mm ocross, OOO m owoy. ,i .

debris... below an altitude of 800

kilometres,' saysDr Campell. This

would help protect many satellites

and manned spacestations which

orbit at 500 km. The systemcould

also be adapted to destroy

hazardous meteorites. The only

problem is that it has yet to be

tested, so nobody knows for sure if

it rvill work as well in practice as on

paper. And it won't be able to cope

with large objects, such as an

asteroidor rogue space lat ion.

'In the short-term, the only

economic method of dealing with

spacedebris is prevention,' saysAndrew Griffiths, a researcherwith

the Department of Space Sciences

at the University of Kent in the

,



30 metres wide and destroying

everything within 100 metres.

On this occasion the satellite

splasheddown harmlessly n the

mid.-SouthAtlantic Ocean.

Similarly when the Skylabspace

station crashed back to earth in

1979 it landed in remote western

Australia, causing no fatalities.

Indeed, the only death caused

so far by falling spacedebris was

that of a cow in Cuba in 1962.

The debris was rom a prototype

of the American Saturn V rocket.

and the Cubans gave the cow a

full state uneral as a victim of

imperialist aggression.

ASTEROID ATTACKThe potential for destruction

causedby the larger meteor i tes

and asteroidscolliding with earth,

though, is no laughing matter.

At least 200 craters on earth have

been caused by asteroid impacts.

It is believed that the dinosaurs'

rule on earth was brought to ar-r

abrupt end 65 million yearsaso,

when a 160km-wideasteroid,

travelling at 33,000 km/h, crashed

off the coast of Mexico. And. in

1908,when an object estimated

to be ust 30 metres acrossstruck

Tunguska in Siberia, it laid waste

V Among preventotive methods qre

pclches which con repoir holes in Spoce

Stotions,ond o 'bumper' or outer sheet

(inset)syslem which protecfs spocecroft.

to an a rea nlore thaD 5( l knt :1cross,

In 1998, -\SA plansro iaunchthe Intentational SpaceStation.

It rvill take fbur years o br-rildand

will be in space or around ten

years, so engineers kno\,v hat it will

have to be tough enough to stand

up to a barrage of spacedebris.

To deal with this thev have

developed a 'meteor bumper' -

a metal sheet placed a ferv

centimetres ro m the station'shull

to act as a shield. Testsso far have

o

o

z6

5J

.!

,i

j

shown the bumper to stand np

rvel l to impact.

Ir r Norembcr ' | 909. .cient ists

bel ieve that earth rr ' i l l be struck by

a shor,verof over- 10,000 r .neteors.

Th e space stat io l t can shif t i ts

posit ion so as to preselt t as small a

surface area to the oncoming

storm as possible, but it cannot be

protectecl contpietelr'.

I t h:rs bercn calculated that

there is zi one in ten chance of the

space statiolr being punctured by

deblis chrr ing i ts l0-vear l i fet irne.

Trr act . scrrne cicnt is ls are coming

around to thinking that the best.ft,av to tackle such asteroid threats

is to stasea nuclear

explosion n space.

r

The X Factor 12

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Transcript of The X Factor 12