Thanks to Airbus for help with research into this story…

While I’m not sure when the following news will be officially released, I believe it’s important enough for me to break the story now as people consider whom to cast a ballot for in just 30 days.

Republican candidate for Governor of Colorado Dan Maes may sooon make a substantial public disclosure regarding adding to his resume a previously secret aspect of his prior service in the US Air Force.

Through several months of filing Freedom of Information Act requests, I have been able to verify the former existence of a secret Air Force program intended to study the militarization of inner space, particularly the suitability of the moon as a base for a long-distance weapon based on either sound or laser beams. (The precise details of which form of weaponry became preferred were redacted within the DoD report received in response to my FOIA request.)  The program was known as the National Earth Radius Defense ("NERD").

Due to the development of highly capable satellites, the NERD program became unnecessary, and was disbanded sometime in the early 1980s, likely along with Ronald Reagan’s push for “star wars"  missile defense, officially known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).  As part of NERD, NASA trained several “backup” astronauts whose names were never published, though their (anonymous) existence was known simply because it seemed obvious that NASA would have astronauts available in case one of the primary moon landing personnel was unable to fulfill the mission.

What was not publicly known until now is that the last three Apollo missions (Apollo 15, 16, and 17) each had one more participant in the actual moon landing than was publicly known, each a low-ranking Air Force officer trained by NASA who went to the moon after entering the spaceship through a secret tunnel, so as not to be seen by the liftoff’s public spectators.  That NERD officer’s mission was to scout out moon areas which, based on a combination of suitable surface conditions and angle of reference to the earth, might be suitable locations for the placement of a high-power weapon. As to whether the weapon was intended for hitting cities, military bases, or other land based targets, or whether it was actually a precursor to SDI, that information remains classified.

For the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, that secret NERD astronaut was Dan Maes.

For security purposes, very few photographs were ever taken of the NERD astronauts, and those that were taken were quickly hidden in Air Force archives. (Not even NASA got to keep copies.)  However, more than 30 years after the last NERD mission, and with some prodding from the Air Force’s own legal team following my third FOIA request on the subject, I have received two photos of Maes’ participation in the program and have been told that no other photos will be released in the future.

The first was taken during Maes’ NASA/NERD training, before the actual mission was executed:

The latter, taken during Maes’ approximately 75 minute moon walk, is the only photo of Maes during the mission; it is also the only known photo of any of the Air Force’s NERD “secret astronauts” on the surface of the moon:

While I greatly appreciate Dan Maes’ commitment to the secrecy and classified nature of the NERD program, given the time that has passed and the importance of knowing as much as possible about our gubernatorial candidates before our upcoming election, I (with the approval of my attorneys and the Department of Defense) have decided to share this information with the public at this time.