DARPA Bizarrely Asks Twitter For Secret Urban Underground Facility
DARPA is an agency within the US Defense Department that works on advanced technology for the military. On August 28, it put out feelers to Twitter users, hoping to obtain information about a series of urban underground tunnels for “research & experimentation.”
This strange request started a landslide of sorts, with some respondents posting memes from horror and sci-fi movies, like Us and Terminator. TIME magazine reported, when someone snarkily tweeted that DARPA could be looking to hide demogorgons (from the series Stranger Things), DARPA shot back their own brand of sarcasm, writing, “Please. Demogorgons are such a Department of Energy thing.”
The fact that the Defense Department is looking for underground tunnels in the USA has stirred interest in secret tunnels, underground government activities, DARPA secret projects, and other goings-on — clandestine or otherwise.
One of DARPA’s tweets stated, “The ideal space would be a human-made underground environment spanning several city blocks w/ complex layout & multiple stories, including atriums, tunnels & stairwells. Spaces that are currently closed off from pedestrians or can be temporarily used for testing are of interest.”
Underground search and defense arouses suspicion
On the heels of this summer’s recent groundswell of interest in invading Area 51, where government secret activities have been going on for decades, as well as the recent admission that the Navy has been tracking UFOs (“UAPs,” to use the government’s new term), DARPA’s call for urban underground tunnels has been met with suspicion, to say the least.
And DARPA’s explanation has only made things more mysterious: “DARPA is interested in understanding the state-of-the-art in innovative technologies that may enable future solutions to rapidly map, navigate, and search unknown complex subterranean environments to locate objects of interest. To support these technologies, DARPA is looking to find locations that researchers can utilize to experiment and enhance their innovative approaches.”
Business Insider reported that DARPA’s request is related to the Pentagon’s growing attention on underground warfare in large urban spaces, having spent at least half a billion dollars on the activity since 2017.
So what exactly is going on underground that makes the Department of Defense so concerned about it protecting with military force and technology? It’s nearly impossible to know — that’s the secret part. DARPA spokesperson Jared Adams said, “Complex urban underground infrastructure can present significant challenges for situational awareness in time-sensitive scenarios, such as active combat operations or disaster response.” But this still tells the public very little.
Subterranean Challenge competes underground
It seems that underground “research” and competitions have been going on for a while, and according to DARPA, this is why they’re looking for below-ground space — as a venue for the Subterranean Challenge.
National Defense Magazine reported that the Subterranean Challenge, or the SubT Challenge, invites teams of researchers from around the world to compete and find technological solutions for underground operations. It’s a multi-phase competition to utilize robotics technologies that can scan, map and explore, underground environments in the forms of tunnels, urban underground spaces, and caves. The challenges underground include little or no light, places where GPS won’t work and uncertain terrain.
Tim Chung SubT program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said, “The SubT Challenge aims to minimize the level of human involvement required so that personnel won’t have to be part of the first wave of forces entering a potentially hazardous subterranean environment in the future.”
Why Underground DARPA, and why now?
Underground warfare definitely sounds like the stuff of sci-fi. Military Times, the kind of publication that is certain to be up on this sort of activity, explains that underground warfare is going on right now, whether most people are aware of it or not.
Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are notorious for their complex subterranean facilities and are able to deploy thousands of troops, tanks, missiles, and even launch planes from underground runways.
It does seem strange for the Department of Defense, considering its power, assets, and clout, to be placing a call for underground tunnels… on Twitter. But then again, just about all of DARPA’s clandestine activities are pretty bizarre.
Black Knight 13,000-Year-Old Satellite Mystery Decoded?
Space debris or a 13,000-year-old satellite? A mysterious object, dubbed the Black Knight, orbits the Earth, puzzling scientists of the past and present. Some, like inventor and scientist Nicola Tesla, claim to have received radio signals from the orbiting figure. Astronaut Gordon Cooper was adamant that, in 1963, he saw it from his own spacecraft. The documented history of the existence of the Black Knight continues to mystify scientists.
Nicola Tesla and the Black Knight
Although Nicola Tesla’s inventions changed the way people live today, back in 1899 his peers viewed him as eccentric and somewhat of a mad scientist. When he built a laboratory and a 210-foot tower in Colorado Springs in order to experiment with electricity and record electromagnetic disturbances, his colleagues did not take him seriously. When he reported that he had received signals from extraterrestrials, the newspapers of the day mocked him.
Despite the ridicule of his peers, Tesla was excited about the signals he received, and came to fervently believe that he “had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another. A purpose was behind these electrical signals.” Researchers now believe the signals Tesla received likely came from the Black Knight.
Modern History of the Black Knight
Although there were some reports in the 1930s of astronomers around the world receiving strange radio signals, in 1954, the St. Louis Dispatch ran an article titled, “Artificial Satellites Are Circling Earth, Writer on ‘Saucers’ says.” The referenced writer was Donald E. Keyhoe who wrote about unidentified satellites orbiting the Earth. He claimed the government knew about them and was trying to discover their source.
Keyhoe later wrote a book, “Aliens in Space: The Real Story of Unidentified Flying Objects,” where he documented his knowledge of UFOs including what he knew about the Black Knight. Gaia’s Deep Space series discusses some of his work.
Scientists and astronomers reported seeing the satellite as it orbited the Earth. In 1953, a professor at the University of New Mexico saw a “blip of unknown origin.” In 1957, Dr. Luis Corralos, with the Communications Ministry in Venezuela, was taking pictures of the Russian satellite, Sputnik II, as it passed over Caracas. The Black Knight showed up in his photographs. This was the first known actual picture of the object.
In 1960, an American satellite showed the object following Sputnik 1, which was still orbiting the Earth. The UFO was in a polar orbit. At that time, neither the U.S. nor the Russians were capable of putting a satellite in that type of orbit. The object also appeared to be much larger and heavier than anything either country could launch.
In the 1960s, TIME magazine, as well as other news publications, reported on the Black Knight and referred to it as possibly having an extraterrestrial origin. Some North American Ham operators had detected signals coming from the object. Some even reported receiving coded messages. On September 3, 1960, the Black Knight showed up on radar for the first time. People on the ground viewing it with the naked eye could see it for about two weeks. The government reportedly established a committee to investigate the object, but no report was ever made public.
In 1963, Astronaut Gordon Cooper was orbiting the Earth when he said he saw a “glowing green light” ahead of his space capsule. At the same time, a tracking station in Australia, over which the spacecraft was orbiting at the time, reported seeing the object on radar. The evening news reported on Cooper’s sighting, and for the first time, the object was referred to as the Black Knight Satellite. The name stuck, but Cooper’s report did not.
NASA soon debunked Cooper’s UFO sighting, claiming there had been a malfunction in the space capsule which caused gases to emit what appeared glowing light. The result, said NASA, was that Cooper had a hallucination and did not see a UFO. Cooper later confirmed that he had definitely seen a UFO on his 1963 space orbit and that NASA had prohibited him from discussing it. Until his death in 2004, Cooper claimed that he did not have a hallucination in the spacecraft, but saw a UFO. He was very vocal during his lifetime about his belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life and his frustration that the U.S. government continued to cover up evidence of alien contacts.
In 1998, astronauts on the space shuttle Endeavor, on their way to the International Space Station (ISS), took photographs of the object. NASA again disagreed with the astronauts and claimed what they saw and photographed was not a UFO, but instead, just space debris, most likely a thermal blanket.
Black Knight Communications with Human Beings
Influential people and highly respected authors, movie producers, and directors and members of secret societies have claimed to receive communications from alien beings including signals from the Black Knight. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the Star Trek television series and movies, is almost a household name. In 1973 to 1974 he was reportedly associated with a secret society called “The Council of Nine.” The Nine, in brief, were a group of prominent people who believed that the channeled messages received by their leaders were actually messages sent by extraterrestrials. Roddenberry allegedly based his Star Trek episodes on what he learned from the Nine, including the giveaway title he chose for a post Star Trek series called, “Deep Space Nine.” Many believed the source of the channeled messages was the Black Knight.
Author Philip K. Dick claimed to have communications with alien beings. The way he described his first encounter with the being in February 1974 is consistent with some of the captured coded messages from the Black Knight. Dick’s VALIS trilogy was, according to those who knew him or researched him, really a fictionalized autobiography and not science fiction. It pulled from his communications with an alien entity, which were likely from the Black Knight.
Is the Black Knight still with us?
Two separate people in different parts of the country who were each photographing the Blue Moon on July 31, 2015, captured what they believe is the Black Knight. The object was once again passing by the ISS. Is the Black Knight an ancient alien vessel? Could it be a satellite from somewhere in deep space that is trying to communicate with humans on earth? Or, is simply a piece of space debris left behind by spacecraft made by Earthlings? You decide.
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Don’t miss Deep Space on Gaia for more on the long and hidden history of Earth’s secret space program.
