It was a misty weather in Washington D.C. when I entered the Library of Congress on that day. It was fitting because as I later found out some of our national history had intentionally been kept in secret from the general public. My son always asks me what I do when I work here at the library. But what could I say about a boring day-to-day research job for US Senators and Congressman digging up contracts and agreements no one has ever heard about or really does care - well, unless he himself wants to be an important Senator or Congressman, right? But I love this detective work of putting the pieces together so I took one of our 10.000 piece puzzles and told my son what I do... .
The interesting part is at times when the final picture reveals a surprise... .
I guess we all know the famous words spoken by John F. Kennedy in 1961 where he said to Congress that "this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." In the early 1960s the United States had found themselves in a space race with the Soviet Union - but unfortunately on the loosing side. 4 years earlier Sputnik had successfully been launched into space and just one month before Kennedy's speech Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. I wonder why no one had ever asked: why did the two superpowers go into a contest of science? Why did both side want the world to perceive them as superior because of better technology achievements? What was the long term gain in this?
When you work for Senators and Congressman you somehow start thinking like them. Always trying to find out why something exists. Why a contract was made. Why this and why that? Who gained by this? So when I stumbled upon a transcript of a later speech Kennedy held in 1962 at Rice University I started wondering those questions: Was there a political gain to the US to go to the moon? I mean, spending twenty five million bucks to get some moon rock to the earth and being able to put a medal on your own chest - we did it first - is hardly worth tax payers money, right?
In that speech I stumbled upon he had said: "We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theatre of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the Moon! ... We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win ..." - John F. Kennedy, 1962, Sep 12th.
I have to say that I am a fan of Kennedy. So I do have a little knowledge of how his psychology worked. Other than always being (or playing) the optimist, he very often hid things in plain sight. "Why, some say, the Moon?" This is the main point of what he wants to reveal, and also what he wants to hide. At least to the casual listener. He liked to play that way - and if you caught his real intentions you would be on his winning side (at least if you desired a political career).
The real reasons are found before his question: why the moon.
New knowledge to be gained? New rights to be won for all people? In space is no strife, no conflict as of yet? Chance for peaceful cooperation may never come again? - My thoughts began to roll as I read those. What were his real intentions with putting America into this race without obvious political gain? So I started to dig up corresponding news articles, scientific reports, released secret congress reports from the Freedom of Information Act - anything I could connect to this early era of the space race.
It all began with a geological survey report of 1939 which mentioned the finding of a new kind of mineral deposits. They were found in meteoric ore and interacted very strangely with normal matter. This went through the scientific community of that time like wildfire because of the extreme attributes those elements showed. But those reports as suddenly as they had come up died out even more quickly. Too quickly, as I found out because the government had put their fingers on it.
Because of the European War those attributes had come up in a national security briefing and were deemed war decisive. So a plan was put into action to put them back in the bag they had come out of. Since no practical experiments could be conducted due to limited resources of those materials the general public lost sight of this very quickly and the scientific community went silent again shortly after, because the government had brought the leading geologists to silence. I was able to find signed government papers of almost all leading geologists of that era to stop publishing anything on those elements. Well, I wasn't able to find those for all of them, so I was not astonished that from those people I could not find signed papers from, all of them had died of natural causes in early 1940. Don't need to say what really happened to them, I guess.
Due to the brilliant idea of marking those new findings as war propaganda to frighten the Germans and Japanese they never took those reports seriously - as well as the rest of the world. Playing it as ridiculous war propaganda the cat went back into the bag. Only the UK and Russian Government did not let go and had begun their own secret research as to the validity of those as they were inofficially called now: Trans Newtonian Elements. But since they could only be found in Asteroids research possibilities were limited.
To make a long story short: because of their alliance against the #### and Japanese regimes the UK, the US and Russia decided in their secret meetings that
a) secret research has to be conducted to find out more about these elements
b) no one in the world should know about them because of their unpredictable and possibly war decisive nature
The war made it easy to keep this secret, but after the war tensions arose between the US and Russia. Secret research was intensified on both sides, and ways to get more of those materials were searched everywhere - but no other than the way into space looked promising. If only meteors do have them, well why not going to the meteors?
Rocket technology seemed to be the answer but it was a long way from launching rockets to conducting space mining or something similar. Until the Russians were successful in orbiting the first satellite. Space Race had begun - but not for the advancement of mankind - as Kennedy had said (and maybe hoped) - no, it was the very essential topic of survival as a nation if the soviets could get an unbeatable advantage through finding more of these elements, and possibly find a way of using them. But we as a world never were told that there was a secret reason for the space race in the first place.
The official story was well played and the secret reasons to go as quickly into space as possible went underground. Until in the midst of the 1960s a breakthrough in understanding these new elements was made - followed by a surprising move from Kennedy - changed the whole space race to the moon into a space exploration for all nations of the world.
As I said, Kennedy always had hoped to bring a new era of peace and cooperation to the world. So when the scientific community found a way to extract those new trans newtonian elements from normal minerals (I am not a geologist but as far as I understand this, those elements are radiated by objects like the sun or similar types of stars. But unlike normal matter they are in a state of transquantum flux. One could say they are slightly out of phase to our normal matter, and therefore undetectable by normal sensors. But normal matter can "catch" and accumulate them, although still unseen in their transquantum flux state. Basically any planetary body can over time accumulate quite a lot of them, like magnets. With a specific electrical impulse those elements can be brought into normal spacetime and exist as normal matter. Then it becomes very easy to extract them.) - Kennedy wanted the whole world to benefit from this. Because not only were those new elements ideal for space exploration, they also became pretty harmless when taken out of their transquantum flux state. So he announced a change from the race to the moon to explore the universe by utilizing those new elements. Construction plans were given to the UN and distributed to all nations who were willing to go peacefully into space. Yes, Kennedy really had hoped to bring humanity together - in peace.
Today this revelation Kennedy made in 1968 is known history - and we all know that this had changed this world. Unfortunately and unintended by Kennedy it also ended the peaceful dream of exploration Kennedy had, because the nations took their differences into the exploration of space. Our history can tell you that. But one of his goals he was able to reach: advance humanity. When he spoke to the world in that December of 68 to tell the world of the existence of fantastic new elements, it pushed humanity into a new realm of wealth and prosperity. And when he died in July of 92 he did it with a smiling sadness, after seeing what after his revelation had become of this world.
He never had told the world that there had been a secret reason for our way into space: Fear of loosing the position as prime nation of earth. Sometimes I think it is not good to know all things. So having these documents in my hands now, I am unsure as to weather I shall publish them. But withholding my findings feels also not right. So I hope the world likes it.
- Roger N. Wessels, New Havenport Colony, June 16th, 2118, Earth Time
PS: On a personal note. I wonder what this world would have looked like if Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had gotten their moon walk. I think it was unfortunate that the lunar landing program was cancelled to begin our race into space. Sure there was no reason any longer to do such little things - but I think we should have finished that little one. To get there with conventional means - it must have felt awesome... don't you think?
