Clandestine Space Programs
Your secret friendly neighborhood alien fighters.
Humanity hasn't visited the Moon since NASA pulled the plug on the Apollo program in 1972. Planning return trips to the Moon, for US Government officials, has turned into the equivalent of making and keeping New Year’s resolutions. The prospect of setting foot on the Moon again seems to lie farther into the future than the distance between the Earth and the lunar body itself.
Or maybe Moon landings never stopped — if you believe Solar Warden is real.
Solar Warden refers to a clandestine space program allegedly run by a multinational organization. This program is said to exist to defend Earth from alien incursions. Conspiracy theorists claim that the Solar Warden program operates a secret fleet of advanced spacecraft designed and built using reverse-engineered alien technology.
If you think this all sounds like a tale pulled straight out of a science fiction novel, you’re not wrong. Still, proponents of Solar Warden and other similar theories claim secret space programs are operating right under our collective noses.
From Cold War to Star Wars
The idea of a secret space program traces its roots back to the Cold War era and the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) — nicknamed “Star Wars” — proposed by US President Ronald Reagan in 1983. Reagan wanted to create a ground and space-based missile defense system.
Proponents of secret space program theories say Reagan’s SDI was a smokescreen for an expanded military presence throughout the solar system.
Secret space program tales all present multiple common claims:
Hidden bases housing military and intelligence officials are located on Mars and various moons. (You know, like the Moon base in Independance Day: Resurgence.)
The United States — and other leading nations on Earth — have brokered treaties and made economic agreements with advanced alien civilizations.
Reverse-engineered alien technological designs are supplying secret space fleets with tons of futuristic technology ranging from artificial gravity generators to warp drives. (You know, like the Tau’ri ships in late seasons of Stargate SG-1)
Many people are recruited to enlist in these secret space programs and then, after their tour of duty ends, are returned to Earth at an earlier point in time before their service through age regression and/or time travel.
No credible evidence exists to verify any of these outlandish claims. Even if they were somehow true, the astronomical costs associated with running a secret space program would mean it couldn’t stay hidden from public knowledge for very long.
Secret Costs of Secret Space Programs
A cost analysis done in 2016 on an imperial star destroyer from Star Wars found that the parts of a single star destroyer would cost $636 billion (USD) to build on Earth and an additional $44.4 trillion to launch into space and assemble there.
Can you imagine how many tax dollars would be required for the United States to raise enough funds just to build one advanced spacecraft? The costs to manufacture an entire fleet would multiply exponentially.
Without developing cost-effective technology to mine and transport building materials from nearby asteroids, there’s no possible way to finance mass construction of advanced spacecraft. Our current level of technology and all of Earth’s resources aren’t enough to do the job.
Advanced space fleets and hidden bases will just have to stay limited to the realm of science fiction for now.
(FYI: a hidden base on an alien moon and a fleet of alien spacecraft are both featured prominently in Among Hidden Stars, the third novel in my Alien People Chronicles trilogy. Check it out. You’ll love it.)
Have an urban legend, conspiracy theory, or piece of folklore you would like to see me explore in a future Folklore Friday article? Let me know in the comments below.
Conspiracy theories come and go. Nothing changes except a new group of believers. With an ever more anti-science anti-fact bent to our government, no doubt we’ll see even more outlandish claims. I’ll continue to enjoy the science fiction versions and let others choose to believe otherwise.
That’s one conspiracy I didn’t know anything about. I guess SLS is just an expensive smokescreen to make the government seem too inept to operate a solar system-wide space force?