New Year, New Info about UFOs!

Project Aquarius began 35 years ago as the Pandora Project. The idea was to digitize various historical collections given to MUFON over the years. MUFON also has the Project MARRS files, which consist of about 7,000 paper UFO reports mailed to MUFON before it began computerizing its database around 1995. MARRS is short for the MUFON Archives Records Retention System.

All of this has beautifully come together in time to offer members and researchers in 2023 a treasure box of material rarely encountered in ufology. It will be a taste of the new, the old, and the forgotten. Many luminaries in the UFO field participated over these last three-and-a-half decades in researching and creating this database, including John Schuessler, Clifford Clift, Richard Hoffman, Michael Swords, Robert Powell, and others. We thank them all. Most recently, MUFON Board Member Debbie Ziegelmeyer and Colorado State Director Katie Paige led teams redacting witness contact information behind digital walls so that MUFON could safely offer its archived library of historical reports to the public. Anonymity is first and foremost MUFON’s primary concern with UFO witnesses.

Project Aquarius currently consists of:

1. Old MARRS paper reports between 1967 and 1995, when MUFON went digital. These paper reports are fresh new evidence never seen by the public before and will add a new dimension to UFO research.

2. A drawings gallery of UFO shapes, entity types and symbols submitted by MUFON witnesses. The drawings will be grouped by craft type, entity type, and more and consist of over 7,000 illustrations from 135,000 cases, most not released earlier.

3. A free public domain library of thousands of newspaper articles about UFOs, many eventually being classified into categories such as “orbs” and “airships of 1896–7.”

4. Digitized MUFON Journals between 1967 and 2010, which encompass the Journal’s predecessor publication, Skylook.

5. The Edward J. Ruppelt files (Ruppelt was the first chief of Project Blue Book). The above material is slated for the initial launch at Christmas 2023. In the Spring of 2024 and continuing through the Autumn, Aquarius will be expanded to include:

• All MUFON Symposium Proceedings
• Additional UFO drawings from submitted cases
• Additional newspaper articles
• The Hayden C. Hewes collection, donated by Mindy
  Tautfest
• The Craig Lang collection, donated by Minnesota MUFON

7. The MUFON upgraded multi-level UFO map with levels including:

• a.) The entire MUFON CMS with all digital watermarked videos and photos
• b.) The entire NICAP chronology, thanks to Fran Ridge
• c.) A first-of-its-kind USO map laid out by latitude and longitude
• d.) The NUFORC database
• e.) The Swedish and Norwegian UFO databases MUFON is reaching out to Argentina, Italy, and
• Germany for their databases, also to be mapped, and in return for their cooperation, MUFON
• hopes to develop a UFO map app of their databases, which they could then sell.

Finally, MUFON is also reaching out to CUFOS to establish a cooperative effort. Additionally, MUFON is looking for volunteer collections to help make this the largest online UFO information library in the world. As such, the organization will be attempting to advance cooperation with various universities and private collectors, such as Barry Greenwood, David Marler and others to create an ever-larger network of UFO resources.

The cost? Researcher level memberships cost just $399.00 per year and include all the benefits of VIP membership but with additional access to the Project Aquarius library. Should you not want a MUFON membership, we offer access to this library as a stand-alone subscription at fifty dollars per year. This is the ultimate Christmas gift when you are out of ideas. Give the gift of new UFO research possibilities! How unique! How essential! Be part of the answer! Gift your researcher family member or friend a one-year fifty-dollar subscription to the truth and to possible answers!

MUFON’s projects take money, of course. MUFON is a nonprofit that maintains a vast 135,000-case UFO database housed on expensive servers. It publishes a monthly magazine at marginal profit, hosts an in-member social network, a twice monthly newsletter, and a symposium searching out top-notch talent for speakers each year. Income from memberships, the MUFON Store, donations, and symposium registrations, as well as the efforts of hundreds of devoted volunteers, thankfully sustain it from year to year.

As a result, it is more than likely the largest civilian UFO case-investigatory organization in the world, and it seeks to export its acquired knowledge and experience widely. Always has. If the UFO phenomenon is to be understood, then cases need to be investigated, witnesses interviewed, articles written and published, and the public informed.

Please join us in this effort.