How to crack weird space cases

Another case cracked
Smith’s interest was piqued, and he began digging into the case. On Sept. 29, 2003, he posted his own findings.

“I ordered all possible 16mm film and reviewed them all to locate the above image and to see if any explanation (lens flare, reflection, etc.) could be the cause of the image,” he reported. He also searched all NASA online references about the Apollo missions and the Apollo spacecraft mechanical systems, seeking potential correlations between the image and candidate hardware.

“Of interest is the more or less horizontal line or bar sticking out part of the UFO,” Smith pointed out, noting a feature that was visible in the high-quality film he had received — a feature unnoticed by all previous analysts. He then pored over the web pages for any disk-shaped structures mounted on long booms — and found one.

“The most likely cause of the UFO object is the EVA floodlight,” he said. The pole-mounted lamp was set up to illuminate shadowy areas on the Apollo spacecraft, during an unusual spacewalk aimed at retrieving film from a mapping camera. The spacewalk occurred a day after the picture was taken.

NASA A sharper image of the Apollo 16 "flying saucer," produced from the original flight film, reveals a pole sticking out from the disk — which is actually a floodlight that was set up for a spacewalk.

NASA weighs in
Meanwhile, a parallel line of inquiry was being set in motion by Donald Ratsch, a Maryland truck driver and UFO enthusiast. Ratsch was apparently unaware of Smith's conclusions, and on Oct. 27, 2003, he sent a letter to his congressman asking that NASA be required to explain the images.

About six months later, he received his reply: NASA had looked at the original flight film, and concluded that the image showed ... the EVA floodlight.

NASA A NASA diagram from the Apollo era shows how the EVA floodlight was mounted on the spacecraft.

Gregory Byrne, a NASA imaging expert at Johnson Space Center in Houston, explained to MSNBC.com that the review was conducted “only because it was requested of us by NASA HQ in response to a congressional inquiry.”

“I had no choice in the matter,” Byrne said, “and reluctantly had to pull image analysis resources away from shuttle return-to-flight to work Apollo 16.  It actually turned out to be an interesting diversion from the tedium, and almost like stepping back in time.”

NASA posted Byrne’s results on its Web site on April 19, 2004 — including an overdeveloped image that showed clear traces of the underilluminated structural elements behind the dish. There was no doubt that Byrne and Smith had independently reached the same conclusion.

Byrne didn't comment on how his results matched up with Smith's, but he clearly has no intention of going into competition with the amateur investigator: “We don't plan to make a habit of UFO analysis,” Byrne said.

Have Internet, will solve UFO cases
Smith does not feel competitive about solving strange space cases. “I don't really care if I get credit of not for the whole thing, as long as the truth gets out there,” he explained.

“I wouldn't make me the subject of the article,” he insisted, preferring that the search tools and data available via the Internet were portrayed as the real stars of his investigations.

Smith believes that Internet resources have provided a solution to yet another famous UFO case: the "Mexican UFO Fleet" encounter of March 5, 2004. Smith did a video analysis using Landsat and DMSP data, found other images of the apparent source of the mystery lights, and concluded that the UFOs were actually burn-off flares from oil platforms off the Mexican coast. He laid out the evidence last July in Skeptic magazine.

Is Smith an incorrigible UFO debunker, interested only in shooting down unusual sightings? Far from it, Smith insists: “I keep looking at this stuff only because I hope that I can someday find something real.” But thanks the Internet and his own dogged, insightful investigative techniques, that day hasn’t yet come.

NBC News space analyst James Oberg is a lifelong enthusiast and "sympathetic skeptic" regarding UFO phenomena, and has investigated and solved many pseudo-UFO sightings. He first publicized the Apollo 16 saucer image but was unable to reach the correct explanation that Smith found.

MORE FROM SPACE

Space Section Front

Trio brings holiday cheer to space station Rover makes discovery while spinning wheels Cosmic Log: The year in space   2009's best images from space How much real science is in ‘Avatar’? Mystery swirls around ‘dark stars’ Cassini image confirms liquid on Saturn moon Long-defunct Mars rover wheel spins Crew blasts off for Christmas space mission Earth's upper atmosphere cooling dramatically Space Section Front   Add Space headlines to your news reader: