An extraterrestrial pilot, hoping to land a spacecraft on the planet Earth, would have to be quite stealthy. The various orbit zones around Earth are watched very closely by a number of nations and agencies. The reasons for that monitoring are varied. Some groups keep track of asteroids and other natural objects that have the potential of getting close to the Earth. Others plot man-made space debris, down to minute sizes, left in orbit around the Earth. And still others are keeping an eye on satellites and satellite movement. Those concerns are primarily military in nature. Satellites do important work for humans these days: GPS, communications, weather monitoring, spy surveillance and missile monitoring. The importance of space to the U.S. military was highlighted in a recent 60 Minutes report. It showed the degree to which military powers in several nations, including the U.S., China and Russia, are involved in a military space race of sorts. While active weapons are still banned from space, as part of a 1967 UN treaty, the 60 Minutes piece showed the extent to which the U.S. military is working to protect U.S. satellites and plan for a retaliatory strike against opposing satellites and platforms in space.
It’s safe to assume that if extraterrestrials decide to
visit Earth some day, that they will have quite advanced technology. The very
fact that they could send a craft to Earth would make them more technologically
advanced than us. It would also be easy to assume that their technology would
allow extraterrestrials to sneak through our Earth orbit monitoring systems.
But it would be quite the feat. The signature of a spacecraft engine would be
something noticeable to amateur astronomers, NASA and other groups, well before
it ever reached Earth orbit. In far Earth orbit, a visiting spacecraft would
have many agencies, in several different nations, watching its progress
closely.
One of those agencies would be U.S. Air Force SpaceCommand. They recently came out in a
public statement declaring a new mission to use satellites in geosynchronous
orbit to monitor other satellites. They call the mission the Space Surveillance
Network. It’s a bold statement, most likely designed to send a message to China
and Russia. The 60 Minutes story pointed out that China recently sent a missile
into space to destroy one of its own satellites in a test. This is something
Americans have done, as well.
How much of a threat this monitoring would be to alien
visitors would depend on the technological prowess of the extraterrestrials.
While it is true that any extraterrestrial civilization capable of traveling to
our solar system would have a technological advantage over us, it is pure
speculation to say that alien technology would have the ability to overcome
human space monitoring and missile deployment. Human technology would be most
likely be very different than alien technology. If the aliens had just arrived
in our solar system, that could be problematic. It could take years of study
for visiting extraterrestrials to understand the complexity of human systems.
After all, human systems were designed from the human perspective, using human
senses. It’s quite possible that alien perspective, and senses, would be much
different than ours.
Aliens without stealth technology would be advised to phone
ahead, so to speak. They would want to communicate their intentions in a way
that humans could easily pick-up and decipher. This would at least assure that
all space-monitoring agencies were aware of a visit and would be less likely to
have a hostile reaction. The biggest risk in a surprise visit could be
confusion. If the United States was to perceive that an alien craft was a
threat to U.S. satellites, and that the spacecraft in question was deployed by
China, there could be retribution. Conflict in space could lead to conflict on
the ground.
It all comes down to human vulnerabilities. We have much of
our technology based on satellite assistance. We feel quite vulnerable in space.
It is an area in which visiting extraterrestrials would have to use great
caution. Humans are a jumpy lot and despite smiling faces here on Earth among
our politicians, in space, decades old hostilities remain quite fresh.
What do you think? Give your opinion in a comment here or
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