Original subtitles

Narrator: Flying disks

make impossible maneuvers.

MAN: Oh!

MICHIO KAKU: Gravitational forces

inside these objects

would crush any living individual.

NARRATOR: Triangular craft

‐appear out of thin air. ‐(alarm blares)

He actually was a hundred feet away from that flying triangle

and could see through it and the stars above.

NARRATOR: Enormous cylindrical objects

fill the sky.

RICHARD DOLAN: It had the radar return equivalent

to ten aircraft carriers,

except this was up in the air.

NARRATOR: UFO witnesses

have reported objects of all shapes and sizes.

Could they offer important clues

about other intelligent life in our galaxy?

NICK POPE: Might there be links

between the shapes of UFOs

and the different types of entities

that are sometimes reported?

GEORGE NOORY: It's very conceivable they're coming

from different planetary systems

throughout the universe.

NARRATOR: There is a doorway

in the universe.

Beyond it is the promise of truth.

It demands we question everything

we have ever been taught.

The evidence is all around us.

The future is right before our eyes.

We are not alone.

We have never been alone.

At dawn on April 14, 1561,

the citizens of this Bavarian city

at the center of Europe awake to a commotion in the sky

unlike anything they have ever experienced before.

People went outside,

and they saw what they described as a celestial battle.

The witnesses observed seeing hundreds

of these strange‐shaped objects.

What were these strange shapes that they were describing?

NARRATOR: The aerial scene,

illustrated in this contemporary woodcut,

is described in the accompanying text

as a very frightful spectacle.

Strange objects seemed to launch projectiles

as onlookers below watch in amazement.

This was actually witnessed

by thousands of people.

Had it been a meteor shower

or something like this, then the reports

would have been, "Okay, this happened before

because we've seen this before."

But that was new.

HENRY: The witnesses

wouldn't have had a conception

of some kind of a mechanical spacecraft,

but that seems to be exactly what they were describing.

And this has to be

one of the greatest mass sightings

of a UFO phenomena in all of recorded history.

NARRATOR: Incredibly,

a very similar incident was reported

in Basel, Switzerland five years later

and was illustrated in a woodcut

that still exists to this day.

Is it possible

that these two events witnessed by thousands

represent the first mass UFO sightings on record?

TSOUKALOS: The UFO phenomenon is not modern.

It goes back as far as we can remember,

because we have accounts of lights and craft

not only in modern times

but also in ancient times.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists find it remarkable

that the depictions of these 16th century sightings

include every shape of craft that has been reported

by UFO witnesses in modern times.

But it also poses an important question.

If these are, in fact,

representations of alien vehicles,

what could explain all the different shapes?

BIRNES: So, it well might be that different types

of UFOs are tasked for different purposes.

There are scout ships.

There are ships that only orbit.

There are mother ships.

They're all tasked for different purposes.

NOORY: If you look at our planet today,

almost every country has some kind of flying machine

that is different from what we have.

I think the same thing is the case with extraterrestrials.

Let's assume there's ten different E. T. races

within our Milky Way galaxy.

Each one could have a different shape to its craft

because that's just the way they created it.

And I think that's very conceivable when we see

cigar‐shaped UFOs, triangular‐shaped UFOs,

round UFOs.

They're coming from different planetary systems

throughout the universe.

NARRATOR: Could the various shapes that have been witnessed in the sky

for hundreds of years

all represent extraterrestrial crafts,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest?

And if so, with a more advanced technological

frame of reference, might modern humans be able to gain insight

about who, or what, is visiting Earth

by examining these shapes?

Are there conclusions that you can make about

the different shapes of UFOs that are reported?

Might there be links even between the shapes of UFOs

and the different types of entities

that are sometimes reported?

NARRATOR: In modern times, the most commonly reported UFO shape

is the iconic "flying saucer."

The term was coined in 1947

after pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted a number

of flying objects near Mount Rainier in Washington,

traveling at incredible speeds.

He described them as skipping through the air

"like a saucer," he said.

And this is really where the term "a flying saucer" arrives

in English language, is from Kenneth Arnold's description.

NARRATOR: With more saucer‐shaped objects reported around the globe,

the United States government began to investigate reports

of UFO activity.

It wasn't just the United States that was interested

in potential UFOs in the mid‐century.

Canada, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom

and Brazil all had various programs to determine

whether or not it was a threat for humans.

NARRATOR: Could it be that reports of flying saucers

caught the attention of world governments because they have

a shape unlike any man‐made aircraft?

Ufologists suggest that these sightings triggered

a competition by world powers to manufacture their own craft

based on this exotic design.

A design that many presumed must have some unknown

but inherent advantage for flight.

There's no question that, historically,

governments have attempted to recreate the shape

of UFO craft that have been seen, spotted or crashed.

NARRATOR: In the 1950s, the Pentagon funded a prototype

for a disc‐shaped craft.

This once‐classified project yielded

a nearly three‐ton flying saucer:

the VZ‐9 Avrocar.

TEITEL: The Avrocar was one attempt

to develop a flying saucer.

And it was a VTOL design. A vertical takeoff and landing.

It was designed by a Canadian company, Avro,

for the U. S. military.

The U. S. Air Force wanted it to be a supersonic interceptor

and fighter,

and the U. S. Army wanted it to be something stealthy

that could hover above the ground in silence

and detect radar.

Avro engineers thought that this big circular wing might be

the design that could meet both requirements.

NARRATOR: In 1959,

after years of top secret development,

this flying saucer prototype was finally put to the test.

ANNOUNCER: In preparation for the final contractual demonstration,

a representative course was selected

where the vehicle could demonstrate its capability

while remaining in view of the observers.

TEITEL: It turned out that the cushion of air under that wing

became extremely unstable just a few feet off the ground.

There was one model built, and some wind tunnel tests done,

but ultimately it was deemed completely

aerodynamically unstable.

NARRATOR: While the Avrocar failed,

in 2019, Romanian engineer Razvan Sabie

and aerodynamicist Iosif Taposu unveiled their answer

to the flying saucer problem.

The "All Directional Flying Saucer," or ADIFO,

demonstrates precision maneuverability,

and outperforms all previously known flying saucers

constructed by humans.

TEITEL: The ADIFO design looks really interesting.

It looks like a highly maneuverable

flying saucer design.

But it's small, and it's a drone.

It would be interesting to see how the engineering works

with a full‐size design,

because engineering is very difficult,

and usually doesn't scale up very cleanly.

NARRATOR: This saucer utilizes four ducted fans

like a quad copter drone,

and it is also equipped with jets for added thrust,

and lateral nozzles that provide side‐to‐side mobility

and rotation.

The saucer only currently exists as a miniature prototype,

but its creators plan to pursue a full‐sized, manned version

capable of hypersonic speed.

If successful, will we have finally achieved the same

technology as extraterrestrial space travelers?

Or could recent events reveal

that they are still light‐years ahead of us?

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists have speculated that one reason

extraterrestrials might have designed disc‐shaped craft

is so that they can instantly change direction,

and at tremendous speeds.

CHILDRESS: We can learn a lot from modern UFO reports.

These disc‐shaped craft are able to make sudden turns,

turning at‐at high speeds in any direction.

DOLAN: When you're thinking in terms of aerodynamics,

shape should matter a great deal.

But what if aerodynamics is not really relevant?

What if these objects are able to employ a different kind

of a science that makes aerodynamics irrelevant?

CHILDRESS: One of the concepts here

is that these circular or disc‐shaped craft

are using antigravity for propulsion.

They're not rockets.

They're antigravity.

They're generating their own gravitational field,

which would likely be

a spherical field around the craft.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that reports of disc‐shaped objects

changing direction at incredible speeds,

some of which have even been captured on video,

are alien craft with antigravity technology?

While there is no hard evidence

that antigravity aircraft do exist,

there has been much speculation

as to how such craft might function.

One theory is that they could be,

in part, driven by centrifugal force,

the force that is felt by a rotating or spinning object.

The shape of these craft is consistent

with these different models of rotation

around a central axis

involving something with high mass

and high energy.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists point out

that such spinning wheel‐like machines

bear an eerie resemblance to one of the most famous

and enigmatic stories from the Hebrew Bible,

the story of Ezekiel's wheel.

TSOUKALOS: When you have these ideas

that are currently proposed

of these gigantic wheels in the sky

that spin on their own axis

in order to create artificial gravity,

I might as well be reading Ezekiel.

It's very similar.

NARRATOR: In the Bible's Book of Ezekiel,

the prophet describes a fiery chariot

drawn by four living creatures.

Each creature is flanked by a metallic object,

a wheel within a wheel,

that Ezekiel observes as it descends,

making a tremendous amount of noise.

In his 1968 book, Chariots of the Gods?,

ancient astronaut theory pioneer Erich von Daniken

proposed that what was actually being described in Ezekiel

was a spaceship.

NASA engineer Josef Blumrich

was determined to debunk this controversial theory.

But after painstaking research,

the author was shocked to find himself agreeing

with Erich Von Daniken.

In 1974,

he published his own book supporting Erich's theory,

entitled The Spaceships of Ezekiel.

TSOUKALOS: Blumrich reads Ezekiel,

and he has an epiphany.

Because what is he describing?

He's describing a wheel up in space.

Blumrich says,

"By gosh, Erich is right."

And so he conceived what Ezekiel may have described

in that ancient biblical text.

TAYLOR: Ezekiel describes

that the outside of the wheel doesn't spin.

The inside of the wheel spins.

So he's‐he's telling us that's the engines.

None of this necessarily has to be magic.

This could all be technology.

HENRY: Perhaps what the wheel actually signifies

is the secret of the gods,

the secret of their extraterrestrial spacecraft

and how humans might be able to reverse engineer that wheel

and ultimately make their own craft.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that a story from the Bible's Old Testament

describes the propulsion system

of an extraterrestrial spacecraft?

While Ezekiel's description of wheels within wheels

may represent a primitive interpretation

of highly advanced technology,

one man claims to have firsthand knowledge

that antigravity craft do exist:

Area 51 whistleblower Bob Lazar.

Investigative journalist George Knapp was the first

to interview him in 1989

about the notorious military base

that has long been rumored to be hiding alien technology.

He told this incredible story, that he'd been working

at this facility called S4, south of Groom Lake.

That they had a hangar hidden in the desert to make it look

like it was actually a part of the desert terrain,

and inside those hangers were, uh, nine flying saucers.

So Bob Lazar was tasked at area S4, a subsite of Area 51,

to reverse engineer the power and propulsion

of what we know as a flying saucer.

All of the nine craft that Lazar was able to see with his eyes

were said to have worked on the same gravity system.

Bob Lazar said the craft would turn belly‐first

and the gravity wave amplifiers would all point to the place

in time‐space where you want it to go.

We're talking about a gravity‐propelled craft.

We're talking about something that‐‐

y‐you don't have any effect of the inertia or‐or momentum.

It's just instantaneously voom‐voom‐voom!

One place, then the next.

BOB LAZAR: Element 115 was

what we would call the fuel that provided the power

for the reactor to work.

Element 115 affects gravity.

Element 115 produces its own gravitational energy.

The resulting gravity wave creates a distortion

in front of it, allowing the craft to slide forward.

And that's how it proceeds.

NARRATOR: Could Bob Lazar's extraordinary claims

about the flying saucers he allegedly worked on at S4,

along with video evidence of UFOs,

reveal that there are alien aircraft in our skies

equipped with antigravity technology?

KAKU: Antigravity is not possible with the known laws of physics.

So when I talk to my physicist friends about flying saucers

and stuff like that, I get the giggle factor.

They start to giggle, their eyes roll up into the heavens,

because, you see, I think they make a mistake.

They assume that the aliens are maybe

100 years more advanced than us, in which case, yeah,

it is impossible for a civilization 100 years from us

to reach us from the stars.

But what if, what if they are a million years ahead of us?

New laws of physics are gonna open up

once you have a civilization

that is a million years more advanced than us.

And a million years is nothing but a blink of an eye

compared to the age of the universe.

NARRATOR: Many UFO researchers believe the flying saucer

is designed to take advantage

of an antigravity propulsion system,

and is the optimal shape

for maneuvering quickly in any direction.

But what could explain the numerous other types

of unidentified craft that have been reported?

Perhaps further clues can be found by examining a UFO shape

that more closely resembles man‐made aircraft:

the flying triangle.

NARRATOR: At 6:55 p. m., local police receive a report

of a massive V‐shaped object

traveling southeast across the night sky.

Over the next three hours,

the craft is witnessed by thousands of people

as it journeys down through Arizona and into Sonora, Mexico.

With most of the reports coming from Phoenix,

as well as photographs and video footage,

the incident becomes known as the Phoenix Lights.

DOLAN: The entire city of Phoenix was able to see

this half a mile‐long display of lights over the city

in a very, very distinctive pattern.

It was a triangular‐ish shaped object seen very reliably

by quite a large number of witnesses.

BIRNES: Who's our best witness

to that, the best one?

Governor Fife Symington of Arizona.

FIFE SYMINGTON: As a pilot and a former Air Force officer,

uh, I can definitively say that this craft did not resemble

any man‐made object that I'd ever seen.

BIRNES: He says, "Yeah, I really did see the UFO," and he describes it.

He actually was, maybe, 100 feet away from that flying triangle,

and could see through it and the stars above.

DOLAN: Governor Symington was a qualified pilot,

and in the Air Force Reserve as well.

I think he knew what he was seeing.

NARRATOR: The governor of Arizona described

a strange triangular UFO that appeared translucent,

camouflaging itself amidst the star field above.

This incredible mass UFO sighting

made the front page of USA Today.

And then three years later, it happened again.

At 4:00 a. m.,

three large triangular objects are seen by multiple witnesses,

including police officers,

flying silently in the night sky.

I looked up in the sky and observed

this huge arrow‐shaped, triangular‐shaped object.

NARRATOR: They are observed for at least two hours

and over more than one town.

SCHRATT: This is known as the famous

Southern Illinois Flying Triangle.

We have about four different police officers.

What they describe seeing

are three distinct arrowhead‐shaped craft.

Officer Craig Stevens‐‐

he was directly below one of these triangles.

And he said

that it was trying to cloak

or camouflage itself against the night sky,

and was projecting the star field above it

on the bottom surface,

allowing it to effectively blend in with its background.

NARRATOR: The ability

of triangular‐shaped objects to hide in plain sight

reminds many observers of modern stealth technology.

Developed by the U. S. military

in the 1970s and '80s,

stealth technology allows triangular‐shaped aircraft

to appear invisible to radar,

sonar and other detection methods.

MICHAEL DENNIN: To make something invisible to radar,

all you have to do is make sure

that the radar doesn't reflect back to the receiver.

So, you send out a radio signal, you bounce it off the plane,

you get the signal back, and now you detect it by radar.

This all comes down to mostly the shape of the planes,

though it's a little bit the material, too,

but it's predominantly the shape.

You want it shaped in a way

so that the radar either scatters in random directions

or literally just bounces off in a completely opposite way.

NARRATOR: Could the masking technology

attributed to the Illinois flying triangle

and to the craft observed during the Phoenix Lights incident

be a highly advanced version of this same principle?

Some kind of alien stealth?

MICHAEL SALLA: Stealth technology has been developed

to hide some of these spacecraft

to simulate an environment behind the craft.

So this can be done in a way to make a craft disappear.

NARRATOR: Ancient astronaut theorists suggest

that the triangular shape employed

by the Phoenix and Illinois craft,

and now by the U. S. military,

has populated the skies since ancient times.

As proof, they point to evidence

of triangular E. T. surveillance craft in the ancient world,

in the form of a symbol often called the "all‐seeing eye."

BRUCE FENTON: The triangle with an eye in the center

is commonly used as a depiction of God, particularly

in ancient Egypt, but we also see this

in the Catholic faith, Masonic circles.

We see it on the U. S. dollar bill,

and indeed, you know, in some of the ancient artwork.

Now, could it be because the craft,

which we have reported in the skies‐‐

they look like a triangle with a light in the center,

rather like an eye looking down on us?

NARRATOR: Some believe that the eerie similarity

between triangle‐shaped UFOs and the U. S. military's

stealth aircraft is no mere coincidence.

Stealth technology traces its roots back to

a single series of papers written by a Soviet physicist.

This Soviet physicist realized

radar doesn't see the way that the human eye sees.

And so, if you change the shape or composition of an object,

that'll affect how it shows up on radar.

American engineers, when they learned about this,

went back and started experimenting with

how to apply that to an aircraft.

And a lot of their test work was done at Area 51 and Groom Lake,

which, of course, has just made it a mecca

for conspiracy theorists.

And then, later, people started to wonder if there were actually

alien technologies there.

NARRATOR: Area 51?

The U. S. Air Force installation in Nevada,

long suspected to be hiding alien technology?

Is it possible that the conspiracy theorists are right,

and that the stealth bomber is the result of

reverse engineering extraterrestrial craft?

A lot of people say this is actually something

we've developed,

back engineered from extraterrestrial technology.

This is absolutely quantum leap technology.

NOORY: I think there's no question that

we have reverse engineered,

or have looked at the shapes of these craft,

and have tried to create it for ourselves.

Look at some of the new stealth jets

that are coming out right now.

They're amazingly close to what we saw 20 years ago

from UFO reports.

NARRATOR: UFOs shaped like triangles and saucers,

reported in the skies for centuries,

can potentially teach mankind a lot about the alien entities

who may be piloting them.

But are these craft the actual mother ships

that carried alien visitors across the vast distances

of interstellar space?

Or are they simply smaller probes designed to enter

and navigate the Earth's unique atmosphere?

And if so, did these probes arrive here on board

much larger vessels‐‐

vessels with entirely different shapes,

and with sizes that would stagger the human imagination?

NARRATOR: Two Chilean pilots are conducting a training mission

at 35,000 feet when they detect something highly unexpected:

a massive cigar‐shaped object.

They encountered visually and on their airborne radar

an absolutely enormous object in the sky.

And in fact, two separate ground‐based radars

tracked this object.

We are told that it had the radar return

equivalent to ten aircraft carriers.

Except this wasn't floating on the water,

this was up in the air.

NARRATOR: One aircraft carrier alone is a massive vessel that stretches

to about 1,000 feet in length,

and towers 30 stories above the water.

Some can hold upwards of 75 aircraft,

and can accommodate over 4,000 personnel.

DOLAN: I don't know what could be as large as ten aircraft carriers

up in the sky, but this was quite immense.

As the pilots approached this object‐‐

and you have to imagine they had to be somewhat terrified‐‐

one of them described it as a very elongated object

swathed in smoke.

As they got to a certain distance,

this thing instantly accelerated and was just gone.

NARRATOR: Based on the descriptions of the two pilots,

many researchers believe this to be

the largest UFO ever reported.

And, in fact, many of the larger UFOs on record

have a similarly cylindrical shape.

The cylindrical craft is a typical UFO shape,

one that we see a lot of.

And, in fact, the very first photo of a UFO is of a huge

cylindrical craft over Mount Washington in New Hampshire,

taken in 1870, right at the very beginning of photography.

NARRATOR: On March 25, 1989,

an infrared image was taken by an unmanned

Soviet Martian probe called Phobos 2

that was beamed back to Earth.

It captured a massive 15‐mile long, cylinder‐shaped UFO

approaching one of the two small moons of Mars.

Mysteriously, moments after the photo was taken,

the Soviet probe disappeared.

PAUL STONEHILL: JPL was in the know.

They kept watching, I think, every second of the mission.

They knew when the probe disappeared

and then was destroyed.

So I think there is something on that moonlet

that is capable of destroying spacecraft from Earth,

and they know it.

NARRATOR Officially, the loss of the Phobos 2 probe

was blamed on a malfunction of the onboard computer,

but no explanation was ever provided for the enormous

cylindrical object that was captured by its camera.

Could it be that the cylindrical craft was in fact a mother ship

from a distant star system?

In 2017, another massive cigar‐shaped object was spotted

traveling towards Earth.

And this time, astronomers made international headlines

when they announced that this strange intruder had, indeed,

arrived from a distant star‐‐

the first interstellar object ever proven to have entered

Earth's solar system.

In October of 2017, there was the very strange object...

...very cylindrical and long called Oumuamua,

which was, I believe, sent to our solar system.

POPE: We've had some space stories

which have been pretty eye‐opening, like Oumuamua,

where we've had open speculation about how this thing might be

an interstellar spacecraft.

NARRATOR: Is it possible that massive cigar‐shaped objects

like Oumuamua, the image captured by the Phobos 2 probe,

and the UFO witnessed by pilots in Chile represent alien craft?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and believe that these craft serve a specific purpose,

one that can be found by examining sacred Hindu texts

that date back thousands of years.

DEEPAK SHIMKHADA: In Hindu texts, such as

the Ramayana or the Mahabharata,

a vimana is primarily a flying ship that God use

to travel back and forth between spaces...

in heaven, from one planet to another planet,

from one universe to another universe,

and also come to Earth.

CHILDRESS: The vimana texts describe at least five different types

of vimanas that have different shapes.

Some vimanas are tubular, cylindrical craft

that can carry large amounts of people in them.

All these Vedic texts speak of a time

when three cities were orbiting Earth.

And from these cities, smaller vehicles were used

in order to reach the realm of the Earth.

Even extraterrestrials

with their advanced technology

would have to arrive with a larger mother ship

orbiting the Earth. And from that mother ship,

smaller vehicles will enter the Earth's atmosphere,

going back and forth.

And this is why we have these stories of vehicles

with which to reach the larger palaces up in the sky.

Personally, I also think that whatever it is seen today

with the modern UFO phenomenon, the big craft is out there.

The so‐called cigar shape could be the larger vehicles,

which were orbiting the Earth.

NARRATOR: Could it be that reports of cigar‐shaped UFOs

are really sightings of alien mother ships?

Are these the interstellar barges

that transport both extraterrestrials

and their fleet of aircraft across vast distances of space?

Ancient astronaut theorists say yes,

and suggest that by more closely examining

the behavior of these variously shaped UFOs,

we may learn something about the beings that pilot them,

or if they are even piloted at all.

(chatter in foreign language)

NARRATOR: An unidentified glowing object descends from the darkness

and hovers above the Temple Mount,

a holy site revered in Judaism, Christianity

and Islam for thousands of years.

(excited chatter in foreign language)

The 2011 UFO sighting over the Temple Mount

is absolutely fascinating.

You see this light slowly descend.

RABBI ARIEL BAR TZADOK: That happened in Jerusalem

on a Friday night on a Sabbath.

We have too many witnesses from too many sources

that can prove that this actually happened.

And this is what happened.

There was a light that appeared over the Temple Mount.

And it was just there. A glowing globe.

And it was picked up on film by multiple different people

from multiple different forms.

‐And suddenly... ‐MAN: Oh! God!

...it accelerates vertically upwards at immense speed,

and you can hear some of the passersby gasping

‐in shock and amazement. ‐MAN: Oh!

If this is genuine, it's of extreme significance.

NARRATOR: The Jerusalem UFO exhibited astounding acceleration

and maneuverability, but it's hardly alone.

MAN: Whoa!

NARRATOR: On September 18, 2013,

in Wittenberge, Germany,

a witness records an unidentified

triangular object that is also capable

of accelerating at impossible speed.

And in December 2017, infrared footage goes public

showing a Tic Tac‐shaped object off the coast of California

that radio operators track at 3,600 miles an hour.

The fastest man‐made aircraft, the Lockheed SR‐71 Blackbird,

tops out at just over 2,000 miles an hour.

DOLAN: When you're looking at all of the different UFO reports

over the many years, with all of the shapes

and types of performance that are noted‐‐

flying saucer‐shaped objects,

spherical‐shaped objects,

cigar‐shaped objects‐‐

all of these have shown incredible ability

to accelerate. All of them.

NARRATOR: For UFO researchers,

the most compelling accounts are those in which the object

maneuvers in such a way that it not only exceeds

the abilities of any man‐made aircraft,

but would actually kill a human pilot.

DENNIN: So when you think about things moving

and having very high accelerations in g‐forces,

we know that most things based on organic matter

that are living are going to be unlikely

to survive those forces.

TEITEL: There's only so many g‐forces the human body can take

before you run into a lot of medical problems.

So with some of these fast‐moving objects‐‐

people have seen move in ways that would kill a pilot.

NARRATOR: Are extraterrestrial crafts

flown by incredibly resilient beings

capable of withstanding forces

that would otherwise kill a human pilot?

There was this DIA report, Defense Intelligence Agency,

about these different types of alien creatures,

one of which is fascinating. It's called transmorphic.

And what that means is,

these creatures aren't corporeal the way we are.

They're energy beings, they're light beings.

NARRATOR: Some believe these objects that fly at bone‐crushing speeds

could be piloted by beings that are not bound

to a rigid physical form.

But others suggest a more likely explanation

is that the craft don't have pilots inside them at all.

KAKU: These are hypersonic devices.

They can also zigzag, and the amount of zigzagging

is so great that the gravitational forces

inside these objects as they jerk through space and time

would crush any living individual.

In my opinion, whatever these objects are,

they're guided either by remote control

or by an autonomous cybernetic system.

FENTON: Now when we look at the cutting edge

of science today,

we realize that space exploration

probably won't be carried out by living people,

but instead by robot craft,

and this is already happening.

You know, our explorations of Mars and of the solar system

involve robot craft, not human beings.

Could it be that an advanced extraterrestrial civilization

would have gone down the same route

and sent living AI craft to explore our planet?

NARRATOR: If aircraft of all shapes and sizes

have been sent to Earth from alien mother ships,

as ancient astronaut theorists suggest,

could they be robotic drones that are remotely controlled

from far above the planet?

Or is it even possible that the craft possess

highly advanced artificial intelligence,

and fly autonomously?

And if there are no pilots to accommodate,

could this suggest that these crafts are capable

of more than we ever imagined?

NARRATOR: A robotics team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

announces a new prototype robotic system

that will one day be able to explore

the most inaccessible areas of distant worlds.

Mini‐robots that can combine and transform

to roll, fly, float,

and swim in any environment.

NASA is calling them "Shapeshifters."

NASA is looking at shape‐shifting robots

to explore other moons and planets.

Like Saturn's moon, Titan.

It's looking at having a shape‐shifting robot

as part of a probe that could adapt

to the different environment on Titan's surface.

Flying through the air, exploring the ground,

and even going into the methane and ethane seas.

The individual components are kind of

self‐contained mini‐robots

that work together as a collective

and create new and interesting shapes,

depending on what you need to go through.

It's been noted with a number of UFOs that have been observed,

sometimes they change shape.

At one point, they look like a triangle

and then they look like a disc.

NARRATOR: Another technology that NASA is developing

for deep space travel is self‐replicating robots:

artificially intelligent machines

that are able to use the resources found

on celestial bodies to create more of themselves,

colonize planets,

and even evolve into more sophisticated machines.

This has led some to speculate

that the UFOs witnessed in our skies

are not dependent on external control at all.

KAKU: If you're an alien civilization

looking at the galaxy with a hundred billion stars,

you may not want to send Captain Kirk hopping one by one.

You'd send self‐replicating robots.

They would land on the planet,

make hundreds of carbon copies of themselves

that would launch off and colonize other moons.

From one robot, you would get a hundred, then a thousand,

then a million, billion.

While we are certainly dealing with technological craft

in certain instances,

it's also true that we are finding evidence

for conscious entities that are spacecraft.

NARRATOR: From an ancient Egyptian symbol

to a 16th century Swiss illustration,

and modern‐day footage captured by military aircraft,

is there overwhelming evidence that UFOs

and extraterrestrial craft not only exist,

but they have been present on planet Earth

for thousands of years?

Flying discs with exotic propulsion systems,

stealth aircraft that can appear and disappear at will,

and massive mother ships carrying space travelers

from light‐years away.

As new technologies allow us to capture more and more

unidentified flying objects,

perhaps we will soon discover

that their numbers are far greater

than we ever imagined,

and it is not that they are in our airspace,

but that we are in theirs.

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