Think Differently. Solve the Impossible.

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About the Host

Daniel Stih is an aerospace engineer, software engineer, indoor environmental consultant, and author of 12 books. For more than 20 years, he has investigated complex problems spanning engineering, technology, the built environment, and human decision-making. His work explores how evidence, assumptions, and systems shape the conclusions we draw—and whether we're solving the right problem. Learn more about his approach in Why I Think This Way.

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Show Notes

Steve Favis: 
http://SteveFavis.com 
http://Far-Corp.com 
http://MisterRobots.com 

Laser Capabilities and was there a Satellite Flying above Maui at the time of the Fires?
https://www.misterrobots.com/lasers 

Steve Favis’s source code to access satellite data using MatLab:
Source code to access satellite data using MatLab Identifying Directed Energy Weapons in Space
A Real-Time Monitoring Guide Tools You Need for Monitoring
Sample Code for Setting Up Satellite Monitoring: 
https://www.misterrobots.com/post/ccp-directed-energy-satellite-source-code-using-mathworks-matlab    

Other References:

Space-Track.org  promotes space flight safety, protection of the space environment and the peaceful use of space worldwide by sharing space situational awareness services and information with U.S. and international satellite owners/operators, academia and other entities. https://www.space-track.org/documentation#lch 

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1202110410/how-rumors-and-conspiracy-theories-got-in-the-way-of-mauis-fire-recovery 

https://www.space.com/space-force-1st-targeting-squadron 

https://www.viristar.com/post/hawaii-wildfires-illustrate-climate-related-risks-to-adventure-and-outdoor-programs 

“New images use AI to provide more detail on Maui fires.”
https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2023/ai-images-provide-maui-fire-details 

Wildfire Monitoring, NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS): https://nasaacres.github.io/maui-wildfires 

First fire location: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#t:tsd;d:2023-08-02..2023-08-08;@-156.50,20.80,10.00z 
 

More ways of Accessing Satellite Data:

Satellites launched by space agencies are freely available (and can be explored below), but are at a lower resolution. Most satellite datasets collected by NASA and European Space Agency satellites are available publicly on the same day the satellite observations are taken. The high-resolution satellites from private companies like Planet, Maxar, and others are typically not freely available. However, many companies have disaster response programs that give free access to high-resolution imagery following disasters.

Planet Disaster Data Program
Planet makes their high-resolution imagery available to the public following select disaster events, including the Maui wildfires.

Maxar Open Data Program
Maxar has made high-resolution post-disaster images from August 9, 2023 openly available for download.

Sentinel-2 SentinelHub Playground
The SentinelHub Playground makes data from the Sentinel-2 satellites available to explore in your web browser. The date of the imagery can be controlled in the calendar icon on the webpage header (highlighted by a red box in the image above). Sentinel-2 images are captured at least every 5 days, at approximately 10:00am local time. The last Sentinel-2 images over Maui were taken on August 8, so the next image should be available on August 13.

NASA Active Fire Data
This website provides the raw geospatial data of active fire detections from the NASA MODIS, VIIRS, and Landsat satellites to generate the map on the NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System linked above. You can access the data by downloading the files or using their API.

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Transcript

Let's jump into the Directed Energy Weapons in Space. I went online trying to ask you intelligent questions. So I'm going to read, I'm going to give listeners some background who don't know the story.

2023 wildfires break out in Hawaii and Maui, killing 100 people, causing 5 billion in damage. The most significant fires said to have started near the town of Mahana, where a power line snapped due to high winds.

I'm reading this literally from Wikipedia. The official story, the fire caused by re-energizing a down power line due to the ejection of molten metallic material. Now, that caught my attention.

I'm not being conspiratorial here, just I've used an infrared camera in my business to check arcing on power lines and transformers.

They're causing this conspiracy if they call it that because of the way they report stuff, ejection of molten metallic material because you re-energize the power line.

In response to the suggestion that the fires were started sources other than one single down power line, MAUI chief, fire chief in the Maui said, there is in fact only one. The fire started in Lahana and spread to other big fires on Maui.

Doing my own research, the lasers in space, Steve, I saw, I was like, okay, that's interesting, but it's the sequence.

You claim your satellite data shows that the fires were started in the opposite sequence and versus the official story on how and where the fire started, to which I found investigating this, that the order you show the fire starting from satellites,

your theory is the same sequence as researchers at Michigan State University who are producing a map of the fires, where they started to help where fire remediation activities should be prioritized after the fires. And that's the same sequence as the

findings on the map. These are also, these are in space satellites that are taking pictures of the fires to help with firefighting.

The Fire Information for Research Management System, totally different people, their findings the same thing opposite from the official story. Two can't be wrong in terms of the sequence.

So now you tell me, Steve, what you found in terms of this theory that the satellites, Chinese satellites, in space over Maui, passed over Maui at the time of the fires and started them.

Yeah, definitely. You have a perfect analysis there. It looks like your information is good.

Again, you're a programmer and I encourage programmers to run my program. It's only maybe 35.

So I tried real quick. Yeah. MatLab, literally the code you gave me, you need some more instructions.

Dude, it was hacked together.

It was hacked together. So I learned how to code in MatLab in about two weeks. So I'm a hacker.

If you could get step-by-step.

I have Python, for example, loading. I think Python can do MatLab instead of having to do MatLab. But either way, I was having to scramble to go find the packages and the stuff.

I couldn't literally just copy-paste your lines code into that. Okay.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

So the version that I have, the latest one, you could download a 30-day trial and just install all the toolbox. The Aviation Toolbox, Navigation Toolbox. The latest package of MatLab, you could just install all toolboxes.

So just re-download, install toolboxes, then run. Once you have the GPS toolbox, the Aviation Toolbox, then the satellites line up geographically with geographically accurate Earth map basically.

I did find some really cool stuff. Who knew for those who are skeptical that there's lasers in space and satellites, you could just go online and there's a form to register your satellite that it has a laser on it, a weapon in space.

It's easier than registering to get a gun permit. Then you can actually, trying to do your MatLab thing, I found some other places where you can track satellites in space and predict where they're going to be, and it's cool.

That's fantastic. I'm so glad you reached out to me. It's nice to hear from another programmer.

A lot of people are just like, code, they're scared, but I'm glad you're doing this. Thank you so much. Remember, the telemetry data decays every maybe seven days.

You can't look out more than maybe seven to ten days out.

I noticed that I could look in the future. I couldn't figure out how to look in the past.

Yes, that's right. You have to query. You have to use spacetrack.org's REST API.

It's under spacetrack.org. Don't use any other satellite provider. NORAD is providing legitimate data.

There is satellite counterintelligence where they have Chinese satellite counterintelligence. Yes, exactly. Where they actually list these directed energy weapons as rocket bodies.

They're not.

Tell them, listeners, the story of people watching.

Yes, exactly. I live in California and it started way back in the fires, a little towards the end of Trump's administration. There's a massive fire in paradise, which is only three or four hours from where I'm at.

The smoke was so bad. It was terrible. I had to evacuate friends.

I've had to evacuate friends and family from all those three major California forest fires. The paradise fire had a different smell. It didn't smell like a campfire, like a nice, you're going to roast some marshmallows over this fire.

It smelled very plasticky, like burning plastic. Going back to what you're seeing about stuff melting, no forest fire melts aluminum tires to liquid. I'll talk about the energies behind these things in a second.

I knew something was wrong. People kept on saying directed energy weapons. I'm like, what the hell?

I don't believe that stuff. Then finally, after Maui, I realized something was wrong. All I did was saying, okay, was something in the space above Maui at the time?

In space, was anything above, any satellite? Then instead of finding one satellite, I ran into three satellites that were over three fires in Maui at three separate times. Maybe one satellite.

For those not familiar with the fires, there were three big ones.

Two of them on one side of the island and one on the other side, the nice side, and they're basically saying it all started on the nice side of the island when in fact, the fire resource management in the universities show the pictures were starting

on the other side of the island. I think your satellites show it's starting on the other side of the island.

Yes. I'm glad you're doing your research on this. You're doing a fantastic job.

Thank you for doing that research. I saw one of us like, okay, well, maybe this is just by chance it's flying up there. Obviously, I can't see it.

I took NORAD's data, NORAD's tracking everything, and then I plugged that into MatLab, the Orbital Propagator, SGP4, I think is what it's called. It's a very accurate orbital propagator. So as long as you have the two-line file.

It seemed to me, the more I dug, it's fascinating how much space stuff like this is available to young people, I think, in college and whatnot.

Yeah, absolutely.

There's probably a lot of people out there, they can do it if they watch this and they really want to do it.

Yeah, I encourage to do it.

I mean, it's maybe a day. If you have old toolboxes, it's a lot easier. So make sure you use the GPS tool boxes.

I think NORAD is tracking like 70,000 objects, right? So it's like, how do you sort through 70,000 objects? So what I did was I said, how much energy would it take to make something burn on the ground?

And then I said, what spectrum? Because microwaves can't penetrate the atmosphere very well, but they burn everything else.

Let's set it up. Is it even possible? My older brother, who's a geek, he's actually one building the TRS-80 computer.

He's very skeptical. His first question to me when I asked, when I told him I was going to have you on my show, is technical limitations, atmospheric interference, precision targeting. Can it hold that much power?

It's not credible from space that you'd be able to shoot a laser down to the ground, start a fire.

Yeah. So again, the physics, if he likes physics and math, the physics are on the website. So the math formulas are there, the physics.

So I said, well, how many batteries, you know, using standard modern-day batteries, would it take to energize a weapon to one gigabyte to start a fire on earth, one gigabyte of laser energy on earth? And I did the calculation.

I calculated 32,000 or three, about three tons of capacitors could do that. The March 5 lineup of rockets for China can launch five, around five tons, I believe, or more. The calculations are on there.

So I said, OK, physically it's possible.

How come we don't have them on warships or land-based satellites? It seems like, how could we do them from space, but not from the ground already, from like the warship on the ground?

Well, again, you need direct line of sight. And on the ocean, if you have it on a naval vessel, you can only fire 15 miles. On the top of a deck on a warship, you can see 15 miles.

So what about the atmosphere interfering with it?

Yes, that's a good question.

The atmosphere particles scatter these things. That's why some places are not burnt, some places are burnt to the ground, and why blue stuff is not getting burnt. So you'll see the pattern.

It's an effective weapon, but it's not like a precision laser. It's scattered and sprays through the atmosphere from that far away anyway.

You know, anywhere within a couple of mile target, it doesn't have to be a precision target.

Yeah, it's a shotgun laser, basically. It's not a sniper laser, it's a shotgun laser.

In your research, you found two Chinese satellites. There were two satellites that you found in the registered China. The first one flew over the Kaluhov fire, and it was the second one that was over the Lahana.

Yeah, that's right.

There's three of them. So I realized, okay, the physics does exist. The physics does exist.

We do have the orbital payload to put something in there. Okay. Now, was there anything in the sky?

So then I found one. I'm like, okay, that's probably a coincidence. I found a second one.

I'm like, uh-oh. And in the third one, at three different times, that's way too much correlation. The deductively, way too much correlation.

Can you tell by the orbit, was it intentional to be over Maui or just a coincidence?

Well, I think it was intentional because there was a fire.

And I also looked at the Paradise Scar. There's a scar in the Paradise Fire. I measured the scar of the Paradise Fire that's there, comparable to the strip of Lahaina.

And it almost fits the same length and width. So they're not just zapping and burning, they're scanning it like that.

And you don't really know what else the Chinese satellite could be used for, because in terms of payload, they don't have to disclose that part, right? No.

And going back to that's how I could sort through 68,000 satellite objects. All you have to look up is large objects, that eliminates Starlink.

Okay.

That eliminates 70,000.

I was shocked how many 4,000 Starlinks or something like that just covering the earth.

Yeah. So the majority of the constellation Starlink, those are small. So that eliminates like 80 percent of the stuff that's out there.

And then not only that, but norite catalogs, unknown objects is unknown. So that eliminates another 90 percent of the satellites.

Did you check for non-Chinese satellites that could have started the fires in the same area?

That's a really good question. I only looked at PRC satellites because number one, who has launch capabilities? Russia, America, China.

PRC, what's?

People's Republic of China or CCP China, basically.

People's Republic of China is PRC, CCP is Chinese Communist Party.

Yeah, I noticed on the satellite tracking program, it's really cool. You can pick which country.

Yeah. No, it's important stuff. NORAD was very way ahead of their time.

So when I was trying to do my own thing, I was picking the Chinese, but I can only go forward, not backwards, and so forth.

Yeah. What if the Chinese satellites could they have been hacked to make it some arsonist terrorist?

That's a good, that's a plausible situation. Okay. So I'm going to tell you what happened after I released my open source data.

Within three days, Li Shengfu, the top Chinese general in charge of advanced weaponry was imprisoned.

He should have been on top of this and let it go or something like that.

Yeah, exactly. So he was gone. He was gone.

And then a couple just recently in LA, they struck again for same Chinese or different satellites.

But yeah, that's a delicate question. Do you think the LA fires were started by similar method?

Oh, no, I verified it already. I found the satellites above Los Angeles. There's multiple satellites flying across.

Which ones?

The Chinese ones still?

Yeah, still Chinese satellites. I didn't. I stopped my focus on detecting them.

And now I'm focusing on predicting them.

In trying to prove or disprove a conspiracy, another idea I had was what if the fires back to the Maui fires were started on the ground to make it look like the satellites started them, hoping somebody like you would find it and blame it on the

satellites, but they weren't the satellites. It doesn't seem possible if you're.

Yeah, I don't know any high-energy weapons on the ground that could melt aluminum. They might exist. But as far as framing, framing Chinese satellites to do it, I don't know.

I just don't see. I don't see Americans doing something like that to do that. I mean, it's possible.

I mean, you know, the satellites are passing over. You have a high-energy weapon and you melt something and then let them pass over.

So back to I know nothing about this. I'm Googling the Maui fire. It said that it seemed like the Maui Emergency Management Agency didn't fully activate its emergency operations until long after the fire had charged deep into the town.

I'm reading this. Burning many buildings. It's a fact.

There was a communication breakdown. It almost seems like someone is, besides the Chinese, trying to make it easier for these fires to start and spread.

I think what's happening is the United States government is covering them up because they don't want people to know that China has weapons in space. That's the simplest argument or the simplest.

Oh, that's a great one.

Yes, exactly.

I just discovered this today that the or read about the Trump Iron Dome.

Yes.

Also, I remember back to Ronald Reagan years and for listeners to Star Wars. Yeah. Star Wars for those who weren't around at the time, Ronald Reagan came up with this billion, trillion-dollar package.

Back then, they were actually going to Congress to try to get people to support it. They didn't because it was trillions.

But what if they did, and now we have it, whoever starting with Chinese or maybe it's who's ever doing it, it could be to get the American people to officially support weapons in space. Because look, the attack is kind of like Pearl Harbor.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, it's not just one attack.

It could be dozens. I haven't had the time to go through all of them yet. I'm more focused on predicting the next attack instead of doing forensics on the old stuff.

There's nothing I can do about that, but I can help prevent an attack. As long as-

Star Wars was designed to hit missiles, so I'm sure they've been working on the marketing for a while.

So I have different intel on Star Wars. I think it was counter intelligence that it didn't work, and I think it actually worked program. So I think it does work.

I think it's working fine.

It means that you never had to really worry about a nuclear war.

I think so. I think that's the case. I think if we have to be able to handle, China has 500 missiles, we should be able to-

What I mean, Steve, it's political play.

It's making you afraid.

Yeah, exactly. I agree. I think there is that element.

I think we've been able to block nukes post Reagan administration. I think it works.

Tell me about the Space Force. I hadn't dug into that.

That's correct. Yes, I'm in contact with them because their REST API is too slow. Their spacetrack.org REST API is too slow.

I mean, they limit the request to 30 requests a minute and 300 an hour.

But in Space Force, it sounded like soldiers in space.

It's another military branch of the United States military. They operate independently. They aren't under the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So Space Force people are working for NORAD now. So Space Force people are responding to me.

I'm trying to think of why would they strike there an island instead of, clearly LA was, there's no words for how destructive that was. Why wouldn't they just, maybe was it a trial thing to see who would react? How would they react?

Would they call it a conspiracy? Oh, now we can take out LA. Nobody believes that.

Nobody knows that. I mean, why not just hit in something big to start with, if you're the Chinese instead of Maui?

Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know what their motivations are, but I think, honest and my humble opinion, we've been at war since COVID was released. Think about what's happening towards the end of Trump's administration.

He was putting train sanctions on China.