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Peep No-ShowAlien abduction, accident, or something else? |
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Left: Ed Myszka readies the payload for launch. Inside the payload box were a camera, a GPS receiver, and ham transmitters for the video/audio and telemetry streams. Containers of xerogel were mounted externally to potentially capture meteorite particles, as were the Peeps®. Light and audio beacons, as well as a radar reflector, were suspended below the payload box. |
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Right: Peeps® strapped in for the April 11 launch. The peeps capsule was mounted on top of the payload, next to a box containing xerogel capture medium. The launch was nominal, with no major problems. Strong winds at the launch site were something of a concern, but proved not to be a major hazard. Telemetry from the payload reported the position of the balloon and returned video footage of either the ground below or of the horizon. The first indication of any problem was the loss of GPS telemetry at 22 minutes and 40 seconds into the flight.
As the payload fell toward Earth, the attached parachute began to work due to the denser atmosphere. Near the surface, the missing telemetry stream reappeared! Not long after, all signals disappeared as the payload drifted out of "sight" behind Lookout Mountain and the hills of northern Georgia. Left: Leslie Mullen, science writer and notorious burglar, interviews peeps shortly before launch. The signal was still being broadcast, however. The payload was recovered within about 3 hours by volunteer balloon chasers Ralph Fowler and Eddie Foust about 5 miles west of Adairsville, Georgia on the property of Chet Hale. However, the Peeps® in their capsule, as well as the top-mounted Plexiglas xerogel sample capture device, were missing! Ed Myszka, Payload Integration and Test Administrator (PITA), later met the recovery team to return it to Marshall Space Flight Center. Continues after sidebar |
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Motive, Means, and Opportunity: Another Possible Explanation
The photo on the left shows the mysterious phenomenon known as a Sprite (see story Spirits of Another Sort). Sprites have been known to appear briefly above powerful thunderstorms. Dr. Dave Sentman of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks is one among a small group of researchers who have been studying these mysterious bursts of colored light. Although no one is sure what sprites really are or what causes them, these scientists have learned that sprites contain a great deal of energy.
So we know that Sprites inhabit the high atmosphere (opportunity), and have the energy necessary (means). But what of motive? Throughout much of history, humans have worshiped the weather, and the gods of the weather. Jove, Zeus, and Thor were intimately associated with thunder. The Judaeo-Christian God and the Amerindian Great Spirit are both attributed with power over the weather. The North Wind has been represented looking much like the pictured Sprite. But such devotion has fallen out of favor in these days of meteorology. On the right we see the preflight adoration of the weather balloon that took place that fateful April day. Might not this show of worship to a mere balloon have sparked the jealously of a powerful Sprite? Motive, means, and opportunity, all at hand. An intriguing possibility, though far from an open and shut case. We may never know for sure. |
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Left: The payload after retrieval from the tree it landed in. What we do know for sure is that Peeps® are not easily cowed by danger. On the next balloon flight another team of five Peeps® were up to the task of braving the stratosphere. Launched on Friday, August 13, the balloon was release during the Perseid meteor shower.
Right: Have you seen these Peeps®? A close-up of the missing Peeponauts shortly before launch. "Was their safe trip only due to the premature pop," Walls wondered, "or might they have successfully made the full trip this time? We may never know for sure." Some further light may be shed on the perils of these flights during the next launch in November, during the 1999 Leonids meteor shower. The four remaining Peeponauts from the original 15 (one was eaten by an observer during the April 11 launch) are patiently awaiting their manifested destiny to see if they, too, are made of the Right Marshmallow Stuff. |
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September
8, 1999: NASA scientists at Marshall Space Flight Center,
in cooperation with ham radio enthusiasts, have launched weather
balloons on three different occasions in an attempt to capture
particles in the high atmosphere. The first occurred during the
Leonids meteor storm on November 17, 1998. On this first flight,
particles of extraterrestrial origin were discovered. An April
11, 1999 launch was intended as a control flight, flying
when meteorite activity was at its lowest. A third flight, on
August 13, 1999, coincided with the Perseids meteor shower.
As any reader of
detective novels knows, if a mysterious disappearance occurs
one should investigate the motive, means, and opportunity of
possible suspects. Though all evidence is purely circumstantial,
there is an intriguing possibility for a culprit in the Case
of the Missing Peeps®.
"Although we're
not yet certain, we suspect that the energies from sprites may
be sufficient to drive some novel ... reactions," said Sentman.
"The region of the atmosphere where sprites appear typically
doesn't contain a lot of energy, so the energy introduced from
a sprite could do some really interesting things."
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