An odd but serious question

boris1969

New Member
I have been going through my late father's office paperwork and found an empty folder with a few pieces of paper that don't explain it. He was an astrophysicist researcher at one of the research universities in the United States and occasionally worked with federal and international agencies on various projects, all classified. The folder I found only had a hexadecimal designator and a piece of paper with "Project: Polar Bill" written. I don't know what it means, but my father's research usually dealt with the natural forces in the universe, like gravity. Has anyone heard of this or have any idea what it may refer to at all?
 
The name hits nothing on google, but likely wouldn't if it is classified. Unfortunately there's pretty much nothing for it but to wait up to fifty years for it to be declassified, assuming it doesn't fall into one of the various exemptions to that process.

With just the name there's not much to go on, they're non-descriptive by design (i.e. you can't infer it's somehow related to something polar or somebody named Bill or any other meaning you can pull from the words).

Honestly, if it's classified it might be for the best that there's nothing left in the folder and likely not worth the effort of finding out. Not that you're likely to get in real trouble (you came into possession of it innocently and had no way to know ahead of time it was there or having found it no way to know what it is, and nothing operational sounds like it's left anyway) but it's always easier to just not have to deal with a situation to begin with.
 
The name hits nothing on google, but likely wouldn't if it is classified. Unfortunately there's pretty much nothing for it but to wait up to fifty years for it to be declassified, assuming it doesn't fall into one of the various exemptions to that process.

With just the name there's not much to go on, they're non-descriptive by design (i.e. you can't infer it's somehow related to something polar or somebody named Bill or any other meaning you can pull from the words).

Honestly, if it's classified it might be for the best that there's nothing left in the folder and likely not worth the effort of finding out. Not that you're likely to get in real trouble (you came into possession of it innocently and had no way to know ahead of time it was there or having found it no way to know what it is, and nothing operational sounds like it's left anyway) but it's always easier to just not have to deal with a situation to begin with.
--I haven't finished going through all of his official paperwork. According to a family friend, his research centered primarily on magnetic force and its effects on satellite and planetary bodies, which was no secret given his doctorate from St. Petersburg University in Russia. He and my mother emigrated to the US shortly after he graduated in the early 1970s to work at a private company.--
 
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