mch

CONTACT WITH EXrRA.TERRESTBIAL CIVILIZATIONS 105
computer in motion and I discovered that the dates of flying saucer
invasions corresponded precisely v^th the dates of Marsearth
or Mars-Jupiter conjunctions.
Arriving from a farav^ay stellar system with a very high velocity,
these spaceships could use the enormous gravitational attraction
of the four big planets of our solar system to slow dovm and
settle into an orbit around Jupiter or one of its four largest satellites.
There, like in an airport terminal, they could wait for
their connecting flight, the planet Mars, to pass by and then settle
into an orbit around that planet. There they could wait again
for the earth to pass by and then settle into an orbit around the
earth or the moon.
In astronautic terms, passing from one planet to the next with
a minimum of fuel consumption is
called "using a minimum energy
orbit," and space astronauts might just do that. Anyway, for
the fun of it, and before we know for sure, I have established a
flight schedule for outer space travelers
arriving on earth and,
believe it or not, it checks perfectly with the dates of the latest
flying saucer invasions.
Of course, the interval between two flights
will never be exactly
780 or 816 days, because of elliptical orbits, but do you
know one single airline that is always on time? Anyway, for optimal
precision in arrival time the Mars-Jupiter and Mars-earth
flights will coincide every 143 years, the next time being in 1980.