Fragility of alien craft and kit

On 5 Jan 2002, at 8:41, [hidden email] wrote (Subject: Re:
UFO smashing):-
> As far as we're aware, the UFO's that came to Earth
> were allergic to the atmosphere and usually blew up
> with[in] twenty four hours of arrival. ...

With alien technology being so advanced, it is to be wondered why
alien science can't come up with an adequate oxygen-proof coating
on vulnerable parts. Even if their own world has run short of
materials, if they can routinely raid Earth, they could surely fly to
other planets to get raw materials. Unless UFO's were deliberately
made to be vulnerable to oxygen when away from home, to make
sure that their crews quickly do their job and come home instead of
going off exploring or staying on Earth or deserting and going
native.

Likewise, I suspect that aliens who breathe Earth atmosphere die
as in "Identified" because while away from home something in their
spacesuits doses them with a chemical that kills them if they are
not breathing spacesuit liquid, to stop them from deserting. That
alien desertion can happen is shown in "The Responsibility Seat".

In issue #2 of the UFO series fan fiction periodical Flightpath
(Published by Mike Adamson / Entropy Express, POBox 270,
Brighton, South Australia 5048 (email: [hidden email])) is a
story "The Hunting of Eagle X-Ray" (in Antarctica SHADO and a
UFO fight together against a different alien threat). In it, an alien
must breathe air to quickly discuss matters with a rather surprised
Freeman, and it makes the alien ill, but he recovers later after he
went back to liquid-breathing. (So far Flightpath has run to 7
issues, with 39 stories, all UFO; a few of them are crossovers.)

Also the fragility of alien spacesuits surprises me. I have seen in
canon matter:-

- An alien on Earth walks through a forest and trips on a tree root
and falls forward, and his helmet faceplate hits another tree root,
and breaks. Earth-made motorcycle and riotsquad helmet visors
routinely withstand much harder impacts successfully.

- In a forest an big dog bites an alien and tears a piece out of his
spacesuit, and SHADO men find the piece. That might be possible
with the c.1970 Earth-made lycra material that the studio used to
represent alien spacesuit fabric; but surely super-advanced alien
science could make something tougher?

As alien crew might get into fights and scrapes, I would have
thought that alien command could come up with stronger
materials, even if they had to go off-planet to get necessary raw
materials. Haven't the aliens discovered kevlar and polycarbonate?

Perhaps it takes many years for aliens to get from their homeworld
to Earth and back, and it will take that long for alien command to
find that Earth is now resisting and they can't any more send their
men and craft in completely "soft" with only hunting-type weapons.
But I seem to remember an episode where, when Monbase came
into operation, the aliens were quick to assemble a large force to
try to knock out Moonbase. Perhaps the aliens did not realise in
time what men were building on the moon. Perhaps they did
realize but it took too long for the information to get far enough
back for an attack force to be gathered.

"anthonyappleyard" wrote:
Yes, I don't like the idea that the UFOs somehow 'react' with our
atmosphere and disintegrate, it doesn't seem right somehow. I
prefer the idea that they are designed to 'self-destruct', not to
prevent their crews deserting (it wouldn't do that anyway imo)
but to stop their technology from falling into our hands.

James

> Likewise, I suspect that aliens who breathe Earth atmosphere die
> as in "Identified" because while away from home something in their
> spacesuits doses them with a chemical that kills them if they are
> not breathing spacesuit liquid, to stop them from deserting. That
> alien desertion can happen is shown in "The Responsibility Seat".

Good points, Anthony,

and I suppose you mean "A Question of Priorities".
I wonder why the Alien in this ep stays with the blind Lady without
his helmet on if this is so dangerous to them. Furthermore I don't
remember another episode with a fast ageing Alien. Even the Alien
in "Computer Affair" hasn't the problem with it, if I remember right.

I am also not a fan of the idea of disappearing UFOs. Even if the
Aliens are quick enough to get out of Earth' Orbit before the
disintegration, I think the craft must be damaged in one way or the
other anyway. Because I can't imagine that the atmosphere destroys
the UFOs from one moment to the other.

I would like to know how solid the glass of a real spacehelmet is.
Could it be destroyed when an astronaut is falling onto the surface
(e.g. of the Moon)? Anyone on the list who knows this or have read
about this?

Thanks
Christian

--- In SHADO@y..., "memorymetropolis" <memorymetropolis@w...> wrote:
> ... and I suppose you mean "A Question of Priorities".

Sorry.

> ... Furthermore I don't remember another episode with a fast ageing
> Alien. ...

Perhaps partway rhrough the stories the aliens' local command changed
the setting so that they could last longer on Earth atmosphere if
they were stranded and had to wait to be picked up by another UFO and
had to go to atmosphere to avoid using up their life support pack's
duration. Or perhaps the alien in "Identified" activated a suicide
mechanism. Or perhaps the injection of ?truth drug? that he was
given, interacted with something and did the mischief.

> I am also not a fan of the idea of disappearing UFOs

It would be a self-destruct mechanism.

> I would like to know how solid the glass of a real spacehelmet is.

I have had some quite hard skidding falls on my motorcycle helmet's
ordinary Earth-made polycarbonate visor, and it did not break. A
space helmet faceplate would likeliest be not glass but polycarbonate
or something like that.

--- In SHADO@y..., "memorymetropolis" <memorymetropolis@w...> wrote:
>
> > Likewise, I suspect that aliens who breathe Earth atmosphere die
> > as in "Identified" because while away from home something in their
> > spacesuits doses them with a chemical that kills them if they are
> > not breathing spacesuit liquid, to stop them from deserting.

My take on the issue was that it was more related to a combination of
factors, most significantly the alien's massive injuries.

> I wonder why the Alien in this ep stays with the blind Lady without
> his helmet on if this is so dangerous to them. Furthermore I don't
> remember another episode with a fast ageing Alien. Even the Alien
> in "Computer Affair" hasn't the problem with it, if I remember
> right.

Straker's guess was that he was "comparatively young". But again, I
see it as more due to the fact that he was taken alive and uninjured.

>
> I am also not a fan of the idea of disappearing UFOs. Even if the
> Aliens are quick enough to get out of Earth' Orbit before the
> disintegration, I think the craft must be damaged in one way or the
> other anyway. Because I can't imagine that the atmosphere destroys
> the UFOs from one moment to the other.

Maybe it's a self-destruct device inside the craft to prevent
inspection by humans.

>
> I would like to know how solid the glass of a real spacehelmet is.
> Could it be destroyed when an astronaut is falling onto the surface
> (e.g. of the Moon)? Anyone on the list who knows this or have read
> about this?

Early helmet visors (early 60's) were made of plexiglas, but by the
time of Apollo, they were using Lexan. I saw a demonstration once
which showed a sample of each being hit by a hammer. The plexiglas
cracked, but the lexan didn't. I was a TA in shop during undergrad and
worked with the stuff and can attest to its virtual indestructibility.
You can't break it by falling on it, even in Earth gravity.

Later
Teresa

"Oops - My shirt tore and my ship blew up. I am certainly having a bad day
on Planet Earth!"
--- Quote from from a frustrated Alien soldier
------ from the Episode "Straker shot me in the shorts"

Just kidding...

I believe that the UFO technology and pilots were "protected" from
compromise by disintegrating after even short term exposure to Earths
atmosphere. The goal was to keep sensitive technology and physiology from
SHADO Scientists. The Aliens can build Interstellar spacecraft -- they can
likely handle a little rust.


Gordon.


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Thanks, Teresa
for this information! So it seems that the Alien technology is not
always more advanced then ours. Most comforting to us ;-)

TTFN!
Christian
(still waiting for his box set...)

--- anthonyappleyard wrote:
>
> Perhaps partway rhrough the stories the aliens' local command
> changed the setting so that they could last longer on Earth
> atmosphere if they were stranded and had to wait to be picked
> up by another UFO and had to go to atmosphere to avoid using up
> their life support pack's duration. Or perhaps the alien
> in "Identified" activated a suicide mechanism. Or perhaps the
> injection of ?truth drug? that he was given, interacted with
> something and did the mischief.

Interesting ideas, Anthony!
I've never seen it that way. Although concerning your last statement
I'd just like to point out that they used the truth drug in COMPUTER
AFFAIR also but this Alien hasn't died on fast ageing.

> > I am also not a fan of the idea of disappearing UFOs
>
> It would be a self-destruct mechanism.

Maybe. But in the episode SURVIVAL, Straker told Foster:
"But we know that a UFO disintegrates if it stays too long on Earth.
All of our evidence suggests that it has some reaction with our
atmosphere." (I hope I've understood it right :-)

And isn't this also stated in the 'Bible' of the series? Marc? Oh, I
forgot that he's out of town this week :-)

Thanks for your info about the helmet, Anthony!

Christian

Teresa is very right about the indestructability of Lexan. It is now what is
used for bulletproof glass. A piece of the stuff only a 3/8 of an inch thick
will stop a .44 magnum bullet.

James K.


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