Updated: 6 July 2012
Updated: 13 April 2011
Updated: 6 March 07
Updated: 1 July 2008
Updated: 24 August 06
Updated: 9 March 06

Questions and Answers

Q: The orbital data do not appear to correspond to Kepler's Laws . Can this be explained?
A: Much more data is needed. It is currently unclear whether Zeta Reticuli 1 and 2 are a distant binary (as astronomers say they have measured and determined) or whether it is a close binary, which various comments by Anonymous suggest. If it is the former, Kepler's Laws should theoretically apply. If it is the latter, the situation is far more complex and difficult to calculate. Anonymous states that in the 3,000 page briefing document (Paul McGovern's supplied information) which is his reference, there are literally hundreds of pages of scientific calculations to explain the orbital data, and that the scientists had great difficulty comprehending how physical laws which we thought we understood and which we has assumed were universal constants might not in fact be so.

Q: What do the Ebens actually look like? What is their physiology?
A: Not clarified. This data has not yet been released, although Anonymous describes the Ebens' digestion and the food they eat .

Q: Why did they take electric heaters to a very warm planet?
A: Not clarified. They may not have known the temperature, or it may have been routine military planning to prepare for anything.

Q: Why did they take 9,000 lbs of supplies but no microscope - although they took three telescopes ?
A: Not clarified. Good telescopes would have been necessary to make accurate astronomical observations. (Note: the 9,000 lbs figure was subsequently amended to 90,500 lbs .)

Q: What kind of scientific calculator did they take?
A: Unless the military was ahead of the commercial world (quite possible), the best portable calculator available in 1965 was the Sharp CS-10A, which weighed 25 lbs. The first handheld pocket calculators went on sale in 1970. These were just glorified adding machines - the term "scientific calculator" didn't come into use till a far greater degree of sophistication had been achieved.

Q: They had access to an energy device which automatically provided the proper current and wattage . But their clock stopped because they had no batteries . Why did they not rig this device up to the clock at 4.5 volts and 3 amps?
A: Not clarified.

Q: SERPO moved around one sun only. The other sun was within the two orbits . What does this mean?
A: Not clarified.

Q: The war was fought using particle beam weapons, developed by both civilizations. The Ebens eventually were able to destroy the enemy planet . What kind of particle beam weapon could destroy a planet?
A: The possibility has to be envisaged that a race that has the technology to travel 38 light years in a few months could also develop weaponry beyond our comprehension.

Q: How was it that they could not measure time properly? It would surely have been easy to improvise primitive "clocks" using candles, sundials, sand glasses, and the like.
A: They did bring several timepieces, but due to a combination of human error and lack of batteries these clocks eventually failed them. Disoriented by the long days and by the apparent disregard of the Ebens for time as we relate to it, the team eventually lost track of the passing Earth time. As per Michael Siffre's chronobiology experiments , the team appears to have underestimated the length of time that was passing in Earth terms. Furthermore, there is also some indication that time in some way operated differently there, but this is not clear from the account so far. Dan Sherman reports communication with ETs who can move "around" time, as if stepping into another time-stream. Kepler's laws , which are time-dependent as is almost every other known physical law, also do not appear to hold if the orbital data supplied by Anonymous is accurate.

Q: In Anonymous's fifth posting, it was stated that the team took 9,000 lbs of equipment , between 12 people - in other words, 750 lbs each. Even if all that was food (which it wasn't) that would have been an allocation of military C-rations of merely 12 oz per day to have lasted for 2 years and 8 months (Paul McGovern's supplied information). Did the team have any other source of food during this period?
A: Not clarified. Anonymous explains that early in their visit the team found the Ebens' food unpalatable, but they may have augmented their rations with the Ebens' vegetables. It should also be noted that in Anonymous's eleventh posting the 9,000 lbs figure was amended to 90,500 lbs .

Q: Why were two women selected for the mission, to accompany ten men ? One might think that this would have been a risk from a human behavioral viewpoint, considering the importance of saveguarding the emotional stability of the team during a very long mission.
A: They may have been the best people for the job - and it would not have been easy to totally "disappear" twelve people, taking into consideration friends, family, relatives, and their ties with normal government bureaucracy. Possibly the options were limited.

Q: Did Serpo have seasons or was the weather constant all year long?
A: (verbatim from Anonymous in correspondence) Serpo didn't have seasons as we know them (extreme heat then freezing cold). However, the temperature varied.

Q: If the planet's tilt was 43 ° , how is it that the changing seasons (especially at the poles) weren't more marked? Anonymous says the North Pole was at a constant temperature of 33 ° (presumably F), with 20 feet of snow, while the South Pole was a barren desert , and says above that Serpo didn't have seasons as we know them.
A: Not clarified. It might be expected that the climatology of an alien planet might require some in-depth study before weather patterns were fully understood.

Q: It appears that it was a while before the team encountered any wildlife. Would one not have expected them to have seen many small animals before encountering the ox-like "Beast" and the "Mountain Lion" ? What would have been the components of the food chain?
A: Not clarified. As with alien climatology, one might expect that alien ecology might similarly require much study before being fully understood.

Q: Anonymous states that We did have visitors from nine other star systems . Who were they, and does the "we" refer to the inhabitants of Earth, or the Ebens?
A: Not clarified. It appears to refer to visitors to Earth. Anonymous describes three other races besides the Ebens: the Grays, a race from Epsilon Eridani, and a race from a G2 (sun-like) star in Leo. No further specifics were given.

Q: What is the purpose of the visiting races to Earth?
A: Not clarified.

Q: The Ebens first visited Earth about 2,000 years ago . In the Project Aquarius Briefing Document (which some believe to be a hoax) it is stated that "EBE reported that 2,000 years ago, his ancestors planted a human creature on earth to assist the inhabitants of Earth in developing a civilization." Who might this have been?
A: The Project Aquarius Briefing Document goes on to state that "This information was only vague and the exact identity or background information on this homo-sapien [sic] was not obtained." If we accept Anonymous's information, then, allowing for problems of calibration with Earth time, such an individual may have been Gautama Siddhartha (The Buddha), Jesus, Plato, Socrates, Alexander the Great, Viracocha (recorded in Inca legends as a great educator), Enki (a benevolent godlike figure in Sumerian mythology), any other king, queen, leader, prophet or philosopher, or maybe a person unknown to history. More data is needed.