The first layer of analysis must strip away the technical implausibility. For a human voice to be transmitted from an unknown spacecraft in the 1990s, that vessel would require a functioning power source, a thermal control system (to prevent the speaker from freezing or boiling), and a transmitter powerful enough to reach Earth. No declassified Soviet or Russian mission fits this profile. The legendary "lost cosmonauts" of the Soviet space program—the men and women allegedly sent on secret, fatal missions before Yuri Gagarin’s successful flight—are a well-trodden trope of conspiracy theory. Apahrān 2 is a postmodern iteration of this myth, updated for the internet age with an exotic linguistic twist (Farsi, hinting at a non-Russian, perhaps Iranian or Afghan, origin) and a hauntingly feminine voice, a departure from the typical male cosmonaut archetype.
