Slashdot Mirror
Area 51 Satellite Images
JCallery writes: "CNN has a story about recent photographs of Area 51 that were shot by a satellite launched by a private company (Aerial Images Inc.) and the Russian Space Agency. They are of great quality, showing everything from buses and hangars to an aircraft covered with a tarp. See the images for yourself!" (UFO conspiracy buffs may also want to check this BBC story sent in by Rafael.)
There is no substance whatsoever to the absurd rumor that Area 51 and its operations were abandoned and were relocated elsewhere, such as to the Green River missile complex in Utah. This rumor originated in a poorly-researched article that first appeared in the June 1997 issue of Popular Mechanics. No doubt the article was greatly "appreciated" by Nellis Air Force Base, particularly by those at the "remote operating base" at Groom Lake, Nevada. The folks at Nellis AFB probably rolled on floor laughing over the article, which was riddled with factual errors. The Popular Mechanics piece also must have brought much delight to then-Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall. It can only be hoped that this type of misinformed article did not successfully curtail the public's interest in and rightful scrutiny of Area 51, particularly in regards to those issues relative to the alleged infractions of environmental statutes at the site. The article, written by Jim Wilson, science editor of Popular Mechanics, inferred that the Air Force had abandoned top-secret testing at its once most secret test site. Then Wilson came to the hasty conclusion that "we know why and we know where they moved to (i.e., Utah)." Nothing is farther from the truth than this overly generalized inference. Jim Wilson, despite his probable sincerity and good intentions, obviously missed the big picture. To begin with, he obviously took a wrong turn on "Groom Lake dirt road" and went to a location that had very little to do with Area 51. It was obvious from the photo that what he did was go south on the "Mail Box dirt road" from Highway 375, crossed the "Groom Lake dirt road" and went south until he encountered an old, poorly maintained wind fence. Wilson apparently believed that he had arrived at the back gate of Area 51, when in reality he had arrived at the northeastern boundary of Range 61. Based on what he saw there, Wilson decided that nothing was happening at Area 51, rashly stating that "the 'cammo dudes' are no longer patrolling the perimeter of Area 51" and further stating that "what we found was a securely locked wind fence that appears to have been undisturbed for months." Wilson commented that even though he had arrived at the back door to Area 51, there was "no guard post". Yet there never was a guard post at that location, ever! He also stated in the article that the "warning signs flanking the gate aren't very threatening either." Perhaps he didn't realize that there never existed any "threatening" warning signs at that location except for a sign that says "NO TRESPASSING: Nellis Bombing Range." The location Wilson was at is not Area 51 -- it is merely the northeastern boundary of Range 61. From this, Wilson drew the stunning conclusion that Area 51 has been shut down! I suggest next time that he go to the right location, towards the real Guard Shack area (west all the way on Groom Lake Road) where he may really encounter the "cammo dudes," white Jeep Cherokees and perhaps a Blackhawk chopper or two to welcome him, if he dare stray into the Guard Shack area. He would also see "threatening" warning signs along the dirt road that clearly state: "LETHAL FORCE WILL BE USED." In fact, according to several reliable sources, the intensity of the activity at Groom Lake has not decreased at all. There may be more going on now at Groom Lake than ever before. In October of 1997, I observed the Groom Lake facility from high atop Tikaboo Peak and verified with my own eyes that the facility is definitely still in operation there. A couple of new water tanks seem to have been added recently behind the big hangar area. Also, upon comparison with a high-resolution panoramic photo that I acquired (allegedly taken several months after the closure of both the Freedom Ridge and White Sides), I have no doubt that there is new construction underway, particularly along the southwest slope next to Groom Lake. (I had observed the Groom Lake facility a number of times before from both the White Sides hill and the Freedom Ridge before those hills became off-limits to the public). Also, at 7:30 on the night before I climbed Tikaboo Peak in October 1997, I happened to be standing with my companions at the exact spot where Jim Wilson had stood at the northeastern boundary of Range 61. As we were looking in the direction of Groom Lake, we were startled by a sudden illumination of the sky towards Groom Lake and witnessed three or four reddish balls of light that appeared and then disappeared momentarily, after which the sky over that area returned to total darkness. I am unable to speculate what those reddish balls of light were -- they were definitely different from the military aircraft flares that I had seen many times near Area 51 -- but this unexplained aerial activity continued intermittently, occurring about three times during the next twenty minutes or so. Without question, there was activity of some kind that night at Groom Lake, in stark contrast to Wilson's misinformed allegation that nothing is going on at Area 51 and that nothing was going on when he was standing at the northeastern boundary of Range 61, looking towards the Groom Mountains. Wilson probably just dropped by during a slow week. And regardless, we must bear in mind that Area 51's most sensitive programs are allegedly conducted below ground level. Primarily because of the Popular Mechanics article, the whole world seems to have gotten the impression that there is nothing going on at Area 51, and that everything had moved to the Green River Missile Launch "complex" in Utah. One of the erroneous facts that Wilson mentioned in his article was that there was an "officially named Area 6413" in Utah. There is no "officially name Area 6413" in Utah. What he obviously meant to say was Restricted Air Space 6413 in Utah. However, it is my understanding that to this date, anyone who wants to visit can get a good, close look at the Green River Missile Launch "complex" -- unlike Area 51, where the military continues its attempts to annex more land in order to push back the "NO TRESPASSING" boundary. For that reason, I highly doubt that there is anything top-secret going on at RAS 6413. The new "non-lethal" weapons programs at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah interest me much more than the Green River Missile Launch complex. We should keep a closer watch on these "non-lethal" programs as well as the new "bacteriological warfare programs" going on at Dugway, instead of wasting time chasing windmills at the Green River complex. It is worth noting that Wilson's Popular Mechanics stands in drastic contrast with the more substantial article that coincidentally appeared one month prior, in the May 1997 issue of Popular Science. The article makes several mentions of Area 51, the inference being that there was still plenty going on at Groom Lake. According to reports from the Monitoring Times and other publications, some of the ongoing programs at Area 51 include a new series of B-2 bomber by Northrop/Grumman at S-2, possible newer versions of Darkstar (Tier 3 -- UAV) by Lockheed at S-4 and Tier 2+ and Tier 3+ UAVs at S-9 by Teledyne Ryan Aero. Furthermore, following the Popular Mechanics article in June 1997, I was informed that some new components of new, small-scale VOTL produced by Lockheed had just been transferred to Groom from Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. There is no doubt that new generations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs -- remote controlled surveillance platforms, some of which may be oval shaped, etc.) are being tested at Groom Lake. New "skins" for a new generation of stealth programs are being tested as well, as noted by the May 1997 issue of Popular Science. A new generation of "electrochromic panels" are probably being tested at the facility as well. A move towards "daytime" stealth capability (such as through the use of special sensors for transmission of image reflections of the background environment on the lower as well as upper bodies of the aircraft) may also be in the works at Area 51. I would not be surprised at all if they were working on even more exotic weapons programs, such as limited tri-dimensional holographic image maximization that could be integrated with the "electrochromic panels" and used not merely to reflect background environment on the aircraft to bring about "transparency effect," but to bring about some distorted image size of the aircraft as well. All this, in addition to several new black, triangular aircraft (such as the alleged TR-3A Black Manta) that they may be working on, underscores the point that while there may indeed be some new programs going on in Utah and elsewhere, the allegations that Area 51 "moved" to Utah are totally unfounded. by Norio Hayakawa ParaScope Correspondent GroomWatch@aol.com
If you remember back when Microsoft first unleashed TerraServer on the world, they made a big thing about how it was the largest online database (subject to a considerable amount of debate, see this old Slashdot article), and how well-suited NT was to handle it. Shortly after the site went live and melted down, MS upgraded the system to handle the hammering it got from the initial Slashdot effect. Either the /. effect has gotten worse, MS took some hardware away, or NT bit rot has set in.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
First off, there's some difference between http://www.terraserver.com/ and http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ -- The general look and feel of the sites, as well as significant chunks of their functionality (and no, I don't know which was there "first"). I believe the two sites share the same dataset in many cases, whether by nature of those data being available to both parties or by way of cooperation between the two.
Results of a traceroute and destination ip's are different as well. Not to mention the fact that the http://www.terraserver.com/ site isn't responding all that well, while the http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ site is.
http://www.terraserver.com/ doesn't like people using their images. They've invested a bit of money into getting the pics up there, and they are interested in keeping a closer hold on things. Last time I visited their site, there was a bit of java (iirc, it desired full permissions as well) that prevented many things such as printing and saving of the images. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ does things a little nicer in that most of their imagery is a series of images fused together in a table.
So, http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ is responding, but no guarantees as to the existence of the data in question.
While you're waiting for terraserver to start responding again, perhaps you're wondering what the weather's like out at beautiful Groom Lake today, you can check http://www.accuweather.com/a dcbin/alien_index?nav=home for the full 5-day forecast.
Well of course there isn't anything secret to be seen....
:)
:)
The US will know the flight paths of the satellites and will therefore know when it's safe to wheel out their latest test 'planes or whatever. Most of the big governments monitor the flights of satellites by radar as a matter of course these days. They restrict 'planes because they can fly over at any time (although I'm sure the Area 51 radar would pick them up....
There are, of course, no little green men as there never were any UFO landings and if there had been, we've all seen the X-files.... they are little grey men
heh
Troc
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
Isn't Terraserver running on Microsoft "technology"? Wasn't it (falsely) advertised by them as the biggest database on the Web? (falsely, as IBM's patent server was bigger anyway).
/. effect? Or a vast conspiracy?
This government thing is HUGE...it goes all the way to the president!!!
Well, that confirms it.
There is no "Area 51".
Sure, to the un-indoctrinated, it MAY appear that Terraserver is slashdotted, but those of us 'in the know' know better.
Be afraid. Be VERY afraid...
(no, wait, wrong movie)
Secretary: "Hey Jabber, there's an Agent Smith here to see you.."
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
The Terraserver website doesn't respond. Slashdotted already? FBI raid? Attacks by UFOs?
Down here in Tucson, we have a wonderful little thing called "The Graveyard". The local Air Force base (Davis-Monthan AFB) carries out a strange task....Portions of the base are used as a gigantic graveyard for decomissioned aircraft, and other aircraft destroyed due to arms-control treaties.
There is a gigantic guillotine-like device which basically chops up aircraft out there -- bombers, fighter planes, etc. What happens is, periodically, some planes are chopped up, and then left out in the desert for a few days so that Russian spy satellites can photograph it. The Russians are basically doing the same thing on their end..chopping up planes and leaving them out in the open so our spy satellites can confirm that they are keeping up their end of the bargain.
There are places you can drive outside of Tucson, public roads that run near the perimeter of the graveyard -- 747's with their heads cut off as far as the eye can see, literally hundreds of mothballed F-14s and F-15 Strike Eagles, lots of bizzare stuff. Its all cordoned off with barbwire and periodically patrolled by military police with teams of guard dogs.
You can have a look at a portion of the aircraft graveyard right here.
The truth is always much, much stranger than fiction.
Bowie J. Poag
Project Founder, PROPAGANDA For Linux (http://metalab.unc.edu/propaganda)
Bowie J. Poag
For those who may not know, this is a brilliant parody of the geekish 307 Ale by Tom Smith, the world's fastest Filker. Filk can be described as parody songs in the same sense that coding can be descibed as hitting keys. It's a subculture often found in the wee hours at SF conventions.
Here's the original lyrics, and I recommend his album wholeheartedly to any /.er:
307 Ale, by Tom Smith
There's many drinks you'll drink, me lads, on every world that's new.
There's Saurian Brandy, Cranapple Schnapps, and a good old Tullamore Don't.
There's Busch and Beck and Bud and Bock and others dark and pale,
But I think you'll find the finest kind is Three-Oh-Seven Ale.
(chorus)
Three-Oh-Seven Ale, me lads, Three-Oh-Seven Ale,
The finest drink that any bar has ever had for sale,
It'll lay your whole damn world to waste, it'll make you fit and hale,
There's nothing that you'll ever taste like Three-Oh-Seven Ale, me lads,
Three-Oh-Seven Ale.
It started out at M.I.T. one lazy summer day,
When a couple of the frat-boy techies started in to play,
They'd caught up on their schedule with a couple hours to kill,
So they fitted up the cyclotron and made themselves a still.
(chorus)
They added choice ingredients to brew a little brew,
But they didn't know the wires were crossed in Chamber Number Two.
A tiny bit of space got folded, things were looking queer --
They turned the spout and then came out the world's first Hyper-Beer.
(chorus)
It bubbled and it burbled and it glowed a fizzly green,
And what it did to test equipment, frankly, was obscene.
It took awhile to find a vial it wouldn't burst to flame,
Then they measured out its potency, and that's how it was named.
(slower)
There's many drinks you'll drink, me lads, but this one beats them all:
One hundred fifty-three and one-half percent alcohol,
A beer, brewed in a tesseract, that'll shoot you through the roof --
And if you don't believe me, I've got lots and lots of proof.
(final chorus)
Three-Oh-Seven Ale, me lads, Three-Oh-Seven Ale,
The finest drink that any bar has ever had for sale,
It'll lay your whole damn world to waste, it'll make you fit and hale,
It sticks to your mouth like library paste,
With a stronger kick than toxic waste,
There's nothing that you'll ever taste
Like Three-Oh-Seven Ale!
-- Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Has nobody noticed that terraserver is owned and operated by Microsoft?
Sounds to me that this is a case of "Show our business practices to the world and we'll show yours!"
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
I know someone works for the company that hosts terraserver, and they're currently filtering out all requests to the area 51 images. Why? Probably the slashdot effect. Along with the image requests, the box managed to greatly increase in portscan activity when the article was posted on slashdot, and from what I understand, there's only one guy who has to handle all this increase in traffic and security.
I wonder if increased port-scanning is a problem with most slashdotted sites. It seems to me an undesireable side-effect of being linked to on slashdot.
Just think, if the page is /.ed, then perhaps the nation's supply of black helicopters is also... Only so many people to spy on... (I think I hear one now.)
Area 51 is still used for test flights, but as I understand it, all of the really interesting stuff (in terms of the latest and greatest prototype planes) is now elsewhere (including Denver, where high-altitude tests take place).
;-)
But, still. As a former sysadmin for IKS (a gimp-like programmers library from the late 80s) I can still appreciate good sattelite images. I still chuckle at the story someone told of showing off the project's demo where a de-classified image of a plane was enhanced to the point that you could make out the numbers on the wing. They were showing this at a trade show, and some air-force type comes by and his jaw hits the floor. Apparently he was the one who de-classified the image
Soon thereafter they went back to using some playmate from the 70s....
It doesn't, terraserver.com is owned by Aerial Images. Who provided some of the stuff for terraserver.microsoft.com they aren't the same however.
---The proceeding comments were not paid for by the following advertisers.
Sorry, can't mirror it unless someone wants to pay for each image.. seeing the 2 meter shots was very interesting I must say, but nothing more than a base (come on people, what exactly were we expecting here anyway? Operating on Aliens in the wide open space? Flying UFO's around?) The US knew the Russian satellite was there, suprised they didn't do something stupid like draw a big 'X' in the ground.. oh wait.. they did..
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This stuff has been bouncing all night, long before /. posted it. try the "CNN effect" or the "Dan Rather" effect, or the "Yahoo effect".
Actually, I believe it's the "Microsoft NT effect"
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Microsoft has nothing to do with these pics, they happen to host some older free stuff of Aerial Images, but not the current ones, and don't have any say so or knowledge of what is on www.terraserver.com
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meatloop:~>host area51.gov
area51.gov does not exist (Authoritative answer)
God Fucking Damnit
I remember hearing somewhere that this facility was no longer being used for the nefarious purposes (fun stuff like the F117, test flights of stolen MiGs, new radar systems, alien cryogenic storage) that earned the place its reputation.
There were even rumors that it was shut down because the level of radiation there was too intense.
The functions of the Groom Lake facility were supposedly moved to secret bases in places like Utah and Colorado.
Anybody heard anything? Or am I just watching the Discovery Channel waaaaaaaaay to much?
"I'm an old-fashioned type of guy. I worship the Sun and Moon as gods. And fear them."
Here are a few older satellite images of area 51.
http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/satellite.jpg http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/satellite1.jpg http://www.nauticom.net/users/ata/satellite2.jpg
If its too good to be true its probly GPL
Full Reuters story
--
The shareholder is always right.
I know it's been said before, but the thing about aliens is, well, they're alien. The thing with such predictions like the Drake equation is that they are biased to towards Earth-type life ie. planet based. If on the other hand you can assume that life is possible in any number of alternative configurations, with the only real criterion being a minimum level of complexity, then you allow for life to exist in all kinds of bizarre forms.
I can't remember the name, but one of the short stories in Stephen Baxter's book Vacuum Diagrams is about a life form that arises out of mathematical logic trees creating using quantum effects - truly strange and well worth a read if you're into hard SF.
However, with the demise of Area 51, the BIG question is --- what will become of the Ale-i Inn? (I know I'm getting the name wrong.)
Here are some of my oberservations (gleened from my inability to actually view the images thanks to the Slashdot effect):
1. Objects in the images are closer to the ground than the satellite.
2. Some top secret projects are actually conducted indoors.
3. The remaining top secret projects actually are *cleverly* hidden in plain sight (or is that 'plane site'.)
There you have it. Conspiracy perpetuated.
--
Some people have a way with words, and some people, um, thingy.
Yeah, I heard CNN was going to have an interview with the Smoking Man next about why the Terraserver is not responding....
www.apo49.org/area51/area.jpg
In the past, the Groom Lake area has been used to test all the Lockheed Skunk Works aircraft. The U-2, the SR-71, and various stealth aircraft were first flown there. The Skunk Works is still active, so presumably they're building something interesting.
It looks like the Slashdot Geek Compound to me. I always thought CowboyNeal looked a little like an alien (and not a Cuban alien).
kwsNI
Funny, doesn't show up on terraserver.microsoft.com. Maybe terraserver.microsoft.com != terraserver.com.
8 &Y=5157&Z=11&W=2
I just get what looks like an image of a political map with the words "Groom Lake Test Site"
http:// terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=12&T=2&X=75
Henry Fnord
doesn't seem to be working, hmm.. the NSA is getting quicker..
The Unfettered Mind: Takuan Sôhô - ISBN: 0-87011-851-X
My contact details
henry [ w i r e t r a p . n e t ]
Scully: Not really Mulder. This sort of thing has been known to happen before.
Mulder: Exactly. You remember the Ken Starr report when it was released to the Internet? No one could get at it. I believe this was a test-run, an experiment if you will, incase anything did get released on the internet that would jepordize the conspircy!
Scully: Oh really Mulder. It's a known fact that sites brought to sudden popularity by mainstream media are suddenly besieged by hits from people that are...
Mulder: It's called "The Slashdot Effect"..
Scully: Yeah.. Whatever.. But, you can't seriously belive this is some sort of coverup?
Mulder: Does it not seem odd that not moments after going online noone can access the site? Doesn't it also seem strange that terraserver.com and terraserver.microsoft.com are so closely related? A company sponsored by the richest company in the world doesn't have the means to keep it's servers online? There are countries that can have networks that can transmit at 20 terrabits per second, and companies have tested fiber optics that can relay trillions of bits of data over 100s of kilometers in a second and with all of this technology no one can get to one simple web page?! Why do you think that is?!
Scully: Because millons of teenagers spend all day online downloading porn, MP3s and pirated software.. ?
Mulder: No.. It's much more than anyone has ever suspected. A massive consipracy involving the American goverment and major companies around the world have devised a system of manipulating datastreams to completly jam information on the internet that may uncover the truth!
Scully: And who's behind it? Huh? Bill Gates?
Mulder: Of course! That's it! Why else would the a man with billions of dollars still not be able to get a decent haircut? Wait here Scully! I've got to go!
Scully: Mulder! Mulder, wait! Where are you going Mulder.....???
http://www.fas.org/irp/overhead/groom.htm This site apparently is doing a side by side comparison of the photos of area 51 from the USGS, Aerial Images and soon IKONOS. I got the link from ZDNET: http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2551 676,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01
ASCII tastes bad dude.
Binary it is then.
Yes its true. We have all found out Area 51 is acutally not housing UFO's. They are hiding. you ready? they are hiding tarps These tarps are wanted by serveral different countries and they US is simply helping out. They acutalyl have the knowlegde of serveral thousand other tarps of the same species. These tarps may the link to out past and to our future.God save the tarps.
Aha. Notice how we see absolutely nothing suspicious in these images. Not one iota of evidence for aliens, top secret underground research labs, nothing.
See how much EFFORT they will expend to cover up the truth SO WELL that there is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE! Proof!
Ahem. Sorry. We now return you to your normal programming.
Sean Remove zebras from e-mail address to reply.