by Len Kasten
THE RUSSIAN INITIATIVE
The initial Russian experiments in CELSS in the 1950s by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, now recognized as the great innovator in this field, culminated in the first sealed-environment project involving a human in 1961. In the Bios-1 experiment in a facility in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Yvgenii Shepelev breathed oxygen created by a type of algae called chlorella, a unicellular organism, which also absorbed the exhaled carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. The Russians eventually discovered that they needed eight square meters of chlorella to support one human. By 1968, they were also recycling the water and gases to cultivate the chlorella, and the overall efficiency of the system reached 85 percent (i.e., only 15 percent of the nutrients were supplied from outside the sealed facility). Next, an agricultural component was added. Wheat and vegetables were grown and recycled, permitting longer habitation periods.
This work progressed up to the top-secret Bios-3 experiment in Krasnoyarsk under the direction of Josef Gitelson in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This project was kept under tight wraps, and according to Allen, nobody in the United States had any inkling of what was going on. In Bios-3, two- and three-person teams were sealed for periods of up to six months, and the crops produced up to 50 percent of the nutritional requirements of the crew. However, the plants could not clear all the gaseous emissions, and eventually a thermo-catalytic filter was needed. Waste products were not recycled.
The Krasnoyarsk facility was built somewhat like Biosophere 2. About one-quarter of the structure housed the crew and food-processing and equipment-repair materials, and the rest of the facility produced the agricultural products, but there were no biomes. Artificial sunlight was used to foster the photosynthesis, since, unlike in the Arizona desert, the days are short in Siberia and the sunlight is not very intense.
Twenty years later, in 1986, in the early, heady days of glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev, the original Russian scientists involved in the Bios experiments were very cooperative when Allen asked them to help with the design of Biosphere 2. Allen and his DTL team were welcomed at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow by Shepelev and Oleg Gazenko, the director of the institute, known for having selected and trained the dog Laika to fly on Sputnik 2. This institute was originally formed to study the effects of space on cosmonauts. Gitelson arrived the next day and shared the secrets of Bios-3 with Allen’s team in the form of a previously unavailable documentary film. Gitelson went on to become a key consultant in the design of Biosphere 2 and to help accelerate the planning. In 1987, Allen’s team and Gitelson’s team met and compared notes at the First International Meeting in Closed Life Systems, sponsored by SBV and the Royal Society of London. And in 1989, a second conference was held at Krasnoyarsk, cosponsored by Gitelson. Scientists from the European Space Agency attended that meeting. It was there that the term “biospherics” was unanimously adopted to describe their work.
NASA GETS IN THE ACT
Coincidentally, NASA’s known involvement with CELSS apparently began in 1986, evidently also benefiting from the new openness of the Russian scientists and the information exchanged at the international conference. In that year, they commenced the Breadboard Project, which focused on growing crops in sealed, controlled environments and increasing crop productivity. They grew wheat, soybeans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, strawberries, rice, peanuts, radishes, and other foods in a large steel facility called a biomass production chamber. They also had laboratories for converting wastes into plant nutrients, plant fertilizer, carbon dioxide, and water. The Breadboard Project operated at the same time as Biosphere 2 and continues today.
In 1989, two years before Mission 1, NASA built a facility called BioHome. This consisted of living quarters about the size of a trailer, connected to a waste-recycling facility. The wastewater from the human crew was used to irrigate a complex of semiaquatic plant life that was known to kill microorganisms at the root level. These plants were then harvested and made into compost, which in turn was used to fertilize edible plants, notably tomatoes, sorghum, corn, potatoes, cucumbers, and squash. The edible plants then provided food for the crew. The aquatic plants proved to be highly effective in removing organic chemicals and pathogenic bacteria and viruses, thereby neutralizing the raw sewage. The processed water from the sewage was then subjected to ultraviolet light to clean it further, and it was then usable for toilets and plant watering (so-called gray water). It was also found that the aquatic plants purified the air of many noxious organic substances, such as formaldehyde, benzene, and toluene, as well as undesirable gases. The drinking water for the crew was derived from condensation of the water vapors emitted by the plants, which was purified by ultraviolet light. The BioHome project also continues today.
It is interesting to note that this waste-recycling project preceded Mission 1, and it is very tempting to conclude that NASA may have made its measurements and results available to Allen, which might account for the successful waste recycling processes in Biosphere 2, something that the Russians had not been able to accomplish. It is also known that between 1995 and 1998 (after the crash of Biosphere 2; see next paragraph), NASA was involved in at least four experiments with humans sealed in CELSS facilities for periods of about two months each.
As we review all of the above material, it begins to appear that both the Russians and NASA poured their research results into Biosphere 2 and that it was probably intended to become the ultimate, permanent, international CELSS facility, to be used in training astronauts for assignment to Mars and other planets. This conclusion is supported by the fact that SBV claimed at the outset that Biosphere 2 would be useful for one hundred years. But it all went wrong in mid-1994, six months into Mission 2, when a management conflict arose between Bass and the Allen team over the financial management and the scientific validity of the project, and Bass decided to oust the DTL group. There were strong feelings on both sides, and Abigail Alling, one of the original eight bionauts, was so angry that she sabotaged the project. She surreptitiously broke the air seal, which effectively ruined the entire facility for continued research. At that point, apparently, NASA picked up the ball and ran with it, and Biosphere 2 turned into an Earth-oriented ecology research facility and a tourist attraction.
THE SMOKING GUN
It is very surprising that so much money has been spent and so much research effort has been expended for a goal that seems to be distant and that may be unreachable. How or when are we going to have a base on Mars anytime soon when the few robotic missions that have so far succeeded in hitting the planet have just scratched some dirt and looked at a few rocks? In 2004, President George W. Bush announced a new initiative for a manned mission to Mars as far off as 2025 to 2030. There certainly were no space events in the mid-1980s that would have justified launching these projects. And why were the Russians doing this research in the 1950s, when they hadn’t even put a man in orbit yet? Where did all this wild optimism come from?
A highly controversial researcher has an answer to these thorny questions, although others have made the same claim. Vladimir Terziski, a Bulgarian-born engineer and physicist, says that there has been a primitive joint U.S.-Russian base on Mars since 1962! It seems incredible that such a secret could have been maintained for forty years, especially all through the Cold War. Yet, if it is true, it would tend to explain the Russian interest in CELSS at an early date and their cooperation with the Biosphere 2 project. And it is believable that we may have had the technology to establish such a base in view of all the black projects going on since Roswell. After all, Wernher von Braun wrote a book called The Mars Project in 1953, giving all the scientific data necessary for a successful Mars landing. If such a base had been in existence for more than twenty years, then by 1986 it is likely that the U.S. and Russia jointly would have been seeking ways to make it more self-sufficient, in which case Biosphere 2 makes perfect sense. It is even barely possible that Biosphere 3 already exists on Mars! CELSS is a smoking gun. I leave it to the reader to follow up w
ith his or her own research.
18
The Roswell Miracle Metal
Today, items such as lasers, integrated circuitry, fiber-optics networks, accelerated particle-beam devices, and even the Kevlar material in bullet-proof vests are all commonplace. Yet the seeds for the development of all of them were found in the crash of the alien craft at Roswell.
COLONEL PHILIP J. CORSO, THE DAY AFTER ROSWELL
The Battelle Memorial Institute is not well known to the general public. That is fine with the Department of Defense, which would prefer that the work done there remain “below the radar” as much as possible. Yet this sprawling complex outside of Columbus, Ohio, adjacent to the Ohio State University campus, along with the six huge associated national laboratories that it manages, is the center of the most sensitive and important research and development projects on the planet. Founded in 1929 under the terms of the will of Ohio industrialist Gordon Battelle, it originally focused on research and development projects in metals to support the burgeoning iron and steel industries in the 1930s.
According to its website (www.battelle.org), “Battelle now owns more than two million square feet of laboratories in several locations that perform cutting edge research in national security; environment, energy, and transportation; and health and life sciences” and serves “more than 800 federal, state, and local government agencies; some of the largest corporations in the world; and private sector customers and partners through offices in more than 100 national and international locations.” Battelle also manages or comanages the Brookhaven, Idaho, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, as well as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. In 2006, Battelle was selected to manage the new National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC). In all, Battelle oversees twenty thousand staff members and conducts $3.9 billion in annual research and development. Many of its highly classified research facilities are involved in development projects linked to the military.
Battelle’s military connection is no secret and is openly proclaimed on its website, which says, “With more than 50 years’ experience in military chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear defense programs, Battelle is a leader in using science and technology to detect hazards and protect people and facilities against weapons of mass destruction. Battelle’s expertise covers all aspects of anti-terrorism defenses—from threat and vulnerability assessments, to testing of security systems, equipment, vaccines, and medical and community response . . .”
Battelle’s close ties to the military began during World War II. Because of the institute’s expertise in metallurgy, it was called on to develop refined uranium for the Manhattan Project and was instrumental in the making of the atomic bomb. As a consequence of this, it became one of the leading nuclear research facilities in the world, which resulted in a leadership position in nuclear propulsion. This led to the development of the first nuclear submarine, the Nautilus, in 1948. In the early 1950s, Battelle built the world’s first privately owned nuclear research facility on a ten-acre tract of land near Columbus. It included a reactor, a critical assembly capability, and hot cells. Battelle’s innovative history is legendary. It developed xerography, originated more than two thousand U.S. patents, and has received numerous awards and citations.
THE WRIGHT-PATTERSON CONNECTION
Given the institute’s deep expertise in metals and its wartime military affiliation, it should come as no surprise that when an alien spacecraft crashed in the New Mexico desert near Roswell in 1947, leaving metal-like fragments scattered all over the sheep ranch of Mac Brazel, the Army Air Force would turn to Battelle to analyze the debris—especially since Battelle knew how to keep secrets, as was amply demonstrated by its airtight participation in the Manhattan Project. In fact, it would actually be expected.
And so, the revelation by veteran UFO researcher and writer Anthony Bragalia that this is exactly what happened makes perfect sense. It makes even more sense since there is now overwhelming evidence that the recovered parts of the spacecraft were immediately flown to Wright-Patterson Air Base in Dayton, Ohio, which is just down the road (about one hundred miles) from Columbus. In fact, it seems very likely that the Army Air Force had originally located its Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson entirely because of this proximity to Battelle.
Bragalia writes about a document that was retrieved under the Freedom of Information Act that clearly implicates Battelle in the analysis of the metallic pieces that were found at the Roswell crash site and the subsequent project to duplicate the so-called memory metal that astounded everyone who handled it at Roswell. Bragalia’s research is documented on his blogsite, http://ufocon.blogspot.com, in a document titled “The UFO Iconoclast(s)” and is incorporated into the revised and expanded edition of the book by Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the Government’s Biggest Cover-Up.
The Freedom of Information Act request was submitted by Billy Cox, a reporter for the Herald Tribune in Sarasota, Florida. In August 2009, after a wait of ten weeks, the Battelle document finally arrived and was shared with Bragalia. It is titled “Second Progress Report Covering the Period September 1 to October 21, 1949 on Research and Development on Titanium Alloys Contract No. 33 (038)-3736.” The authors are Battelle analysts C. W. Simmons, C. T. Greenidge, C. M. Craighead, “and others.” The report was produced for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (by 1949 the Army Air Force had become the Air Force). Bragalia learned that the document had previously been restricted to viewing only by authorized Department of Defense personnel. The Freedom of Information Act release had to be approved even then, sixty years later, by the Secretary of the Air Force! About 30 percent of the original 119 pages were missing. The receipt of this document by Cox and Bragalia was the final chapter in a long investigation. They had previously found references to such a report in various footnotes in studies sponsored by the military on shape-memory alloys. In searching for this “missing” document, the paper trail led to Battelle. Initially, historians at both Battelle and Wright-Patterson claimed they couldn’t find it. But, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act request, it was ultimately located in the archives of the Defense Technical Information Center at the Department of Defense.
IT FLOATED DOWN LIKE KLEENEX
Many people handled the strange metallic-appearing debris that was scattered over Brazel’s ranch after the crash of the spacecraft. They were all astonished at the bizarre qualities of the small samples they managed to get their hands on. The following witness reports about the debris were taken from the website http://roswellproof.com/debris2_memory_foil.html.
Major Jesse Marcel said, “[There were] many bits of metallic foil, that looked like, but was not, aluminum, for no matter how often one crumpled it, it regained its original shape again. Besides that, they were indestructible, even with a sledgehammer.” Mac Brazel’s son, William Brazel Jr., said, “The odd thing about this foil was that you could wrinkle it and lay it back down and it immediately resumed its original shape. It was quite pliable, yet you couldn’t crease or bend it like ordinary metal. It was almost more like a plastic of some sort except that it was definitely metallic in nature. I don’t know what it was, but I do know that Dad once said that the Army had told him that they had definitely established it wasn’t anything made by us.”
Roswell researcher Don Burleson said, “Brazel set the object up at the base of a pinyon tree and suggested that they fire at it—which they did—with 30.06 deer rifles from a distance of about thirty feet, an easy target for experienced deer hunters. Mr. Croft (Phillip Croft, hunting companion of Mac Brazel) said that when the foil was hit, it spun a considerable distance up in the air and came floating down ‘like Kleenex.’ Upon examining the material, the men found that it showed no effects from having been hit—not even a dent, and certainly no tears or punctures.”
The Battelle “Second Progress Report” to Wright-Patterson is basically a review of Battelle�
�s effort to develop just such a metal as was reported by the Roswell witnesses. Although there is no direct reference to the Roswell crash in the report, there are so many personnel links and clues to ongoing UFO research at Battelle that there can be very little doubt that the document was a report on a contract with the Army Air Force to attempt to duplicate the metal found at Roswell.