Ground level scanning of the bubble area revealed no bubble. As well, it showed the LIDAR scanner had an 80-foot difference in elevation, but it had been on the ground in place. The LIDAR on the helicopter that held the same altitude showed it raised in altitude, even though it had remained level.
As they continued to drill atop the mesa, they filtered the core samples. They looked for ceramics, metal, and anything unnatural. At 60-70 feet depth, they found a metal flake. The metal was not shiny and had some rust, so not from the drill. This metal was very thin compared to the other they found previously. It was layered like the previous metal.
Using high-tech instrumentation, Eric studied the metal, and found iron and aluminum, but no uropium or tellorium like past metal samples. They decided to have it analyzed by the university.
The next 15 feet of drilling, they found no more strange out of place items in the sandstone.
They blew a hydraulic hose while drilling at 86 feet. They had to stop drilling for the day to do repairs. They were only 4 feet away from the 90 foot max drilling depth. Travis pondered if they might have nicked a smaller anomaly. Ultimately, they would need a new drilling location.
Loc Precision Rockets showed up the next day for them to do more rocket work at the triangle.
First, they shot off a small rocket with no instruments to see if it could get out of the bubble area up to 1500 feet okay. The rocket wiggled, veered off, and broke apart as if it hit something in the air. It seemed to go wrong at the blob height in the 30-foot range.
Telemetry instruments on the next rocket, a big one, would measure as it went to 3500 feet with more info. It maxed out at 2200 feet and should have gone another thousand feed higher. As it descended, at about 2000 feet, the bubble height, it seemed to be held in place. It fell away from the bubble and landed 2000 feet away and should have dropped straight. It acted like it slid down something, the bubble limit.
They put high speed cameras on the next rocket. This time, the parachute didn't work. It reached more than 3000 feet up, but the chute tangled. Luckily, the camera was intact after a crash landing.
They set up for a night launch. If the bubble or blob are affecting the launches, they should be able to better see if they go off course.
They set up a rocket with a copper coil that could help measure any magnetic interferences. It will also measure all flight data to compare. It went up high, but it came down with a chute that didn't work. They found the crashed rocket and the chute hadn't even unfurled.
They prepared another rocket to be launched on the launch tower at the blob level. At 2200 feet, 200 feet above the bubble, they noted the rocket's chute was deployed. It started to descend and then veered off in another direction, as if he had slid down the bubble boundary and landed outside of it.
The team shut down for the evening to start reviewing data.
The rocket that went up with cameras was reviewed frame by frame. At the blob height, some of the rocket exhaust jetted outward horizontally as if something shot through the exhaust.
The rocket with the copper coils inside showed on the sensors large jumps in the electromagnetic field to levels way above baseline. This proved there is an electromagnetic field anomaly. At 750 feet is where the rocket detected the electromagnetic field anomaly. It was the location dead center of the bubble. In the footage they saw a strange red squiggle looking thing that showed up when the rocket's chute didn't deploy. Did it interfere with the rocket's chute deployment?
They decide to do more experiments in that area.
Next week's teaser looked like there was some excitement. Yay!