Occator Crater

Occator Crater is a large impact crater on Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt, measuring approximately 92 kilometres (57 miles) in diameter and 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) deep. It is notable for its prominent bright spots — now identified as deposits of sodium carbonate and ammoniated phyllosilicates — concentrated in two dome-like structures at its centre, designated Cerealia Facula (the central bright dome) and Vinalia Faculae (a cluster of smaller bright spots to the east). The crater was first imaged in detail by NASA's Dawn spacecraft as it approached Ceres in 2015 and was formally characterised during Dawn's orbital survey in 2015–2018.

Geology and bright spots

The Cerealia Facula dome — roughly 4 kilometres in diameter and 400 metres tall — formed as a result of briny liquid water and vapour reaching the surface through fractures created or widened by the original impact, then freezing and depositing salt minerals. The process is ongoing: Dawn data from 2018 showed evidence of contemporary water-vapour activity, confirming that Occator Crater sits above a partially liquid saline reservoir that continues to express material onto the surface through geological time — making Ceres an active geological body rather than a dead rock.

The bright spots drew widespread media attention from early 2015 onward as the Dawn spacecraft progressively resolved them; initial speculations among the general public ranged from ice, volcanic material, to artificial structures before NASA's analysis confirmed a salt-brine origin. NASA formally announced the findings in 2020 in Nature Astronomy, describing a network of subsurface briny fluid ascending through the fractured geology of the impact site to produce the visible surface deposits.

Alleged Dark Fleet mining colony

According to Tony Rodrigues, who claims to have served as a slave labourer on Ceres during an alleged 20 and Back secret space program deployment beginning around 2000, a mining colony operated under Dark Fleet supervision was located on or near the crater, with slave labourers performing mineral extraction work.

In the 2022 Exopolitics Today interview with Michael Salla, Rodrigues described the internal infrastructure of the Ceres colony in detail: "In Ceres Colony, inside Ceres, there was a giant hangar network that was, you know, 15–20 miles long." He described his accommodation during his six to eight years at the Ceres colony as being on "a converted submarine" type vessel kept inside the hangar.

Salla noted that Ceres, as described by Rodrigues, was one of several locations used by the Dark Fleet as a home base in the inner solar system, with Rodrigues confirming the presence of storage facilities in the Kuiper belt as well.

Salt geyser testimony and pre-confirmation (2015–2020)

Rodrigues described observing "salt geysers" erupting from the surface of Ceres — testimony given approximately in 2015–2016, several years before NASA's 2020 papers formally described the ongoing active salt-deposition process at Occator Crater. He described the visual appearance in detail: "the salt was falling at different speeds down the geyser as it fell and it was just gorgeous. I mean, it was breathtaking." From an economic standpoint, the salt and magnesium deposits were reportedly considered worthless by the trading civilizations he interacted with: "he said it's worthless to them. Nobody, everybody that we would trade with already had it."

Rodrigues stated that his researcher was actively monitoring the Dawn probe's data releases: "In 2015 I went on the record, and the guys are there, and in all those white spots are salt, and the researcher I was working with was following it when the Dawn probe was getting closer." Supporters cite this as verifiable pre-confirmation testimony: the specific geological process (active salt/brine emission from a subsurface reservoir) was not publicly known at the time and was only reported by NASA in 2020. Critics note that the general existence of Ceres's bright spots was widely reported from 2015 onward, and that general knowledge of the spots could have informed a retroactive interpretation.

Remote viewing corroboration (2022)

In 2022, Courtney Brown of the Farsight Institute released remote viewing data targeting Ceres and Tony Rodrigues's claims specifically. Brown's remote viewers, working blind to the target, described a hollowed-out interior to Ceres with a substantial base and infrastructure. Brown concluded: "It seems like the asteroid or planetoid known as Ceres has quite a bit of hollowed out interior. There is a base on the inside. Moreover, it seems like there is some support for German secret space program activities." Salla characterised Brown's findings as "notable independent corroboration for Tony Rodrigues's core claim that he spent 13 years serving on a merchant marine spacecraft operating out of a large underground base on Ceres."

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