59_214434_SP_16_-7.18.1963

OFFICIAL USE ONLY EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT NATIONAL AERONAUTICS and SPACE COUNCIL WASHINGTON [Handwritten marginalia, top right:] SP-1-NASC ISA FILE COPY RR EMJR rft TN EOS CED KMM [Handwritten marginalia, right margin, vertical:] National Aeronautics + Space Council from Hunter +--------------------------------------------------+ | DECLASSIFIED | | NND 939551 | | By [illegible] NARS, Date [illegible] | +--------------------------------------------------+ July 18, 1963 MEMORANDUM FOR Mr. Robert F. Packard Office of International Scientific Affairs Department of State Washington 25, D.C. SUBJECT: Thoughts on the Space Alien Race Question During recent discussions the question has occasionally, though rarely, arisen that perhaps we should consider the policy question of what to do if an alien intelligence is discovered in space. Some discussion of this occurred, as you will recall, during deliberations on BNSP Task I. This memo contains some miscellaneous thoughts on the question. The consensus of scientific view says, with quite good reasons, that the possibility of running across an alien intelligent race in our solar system is negligible. This is due primarily to the presumed unsuitability of conditions upon other planets to support life as we know it. The flying saucer advocates claim, of course, that the scientific viewpoint is nonsense, and that…