Continued
Continued
6-7-00
Open Letter to SPSR
The following is a [revised] open letter to the Society for Planetary SETI Research (SPSR) urging a more grassroots approach for acquiring additional Cydonia imagery.
Dear SPSR,
Since starting my own website devoted to chronicling planetary SETI research, I've become aware of several other sites that provide some remarkably cogent arguments that reinforce SPSR's own working hypothesis and mission statement.
A recent online survey conducted by FACETS, for example, shows an interesting demographic range among individuals who advocate taking a closer look at the Cydonian enigmas, particularly the "Face." I refer you to graphic artist Kurt Jonach's very reasonable and illuminating article on this topic. Author David Jinks' recent letter to the editor of Space.com is also evidence of a mature and articulate "underground" of Cydonia researchers.
In that spirit, I would like to invite SPSR to adopt a more open and interactive public forum to better serve the online community's clear need for good information on this subject. We've all seen the largely negative and self-defeating conspiracy-oriented mentality that surfaces when information is not forthcoming, either from NASA or responsible Cydonia investigators.
In my opinion, adopting a more vigorous dialogue with the Internet "Cydonia underground," would be an important step toward democratizing the investigative process.
The independent researchers I have corresponded with recognize the need for the delay between hypothesis and conclusion. Even so, the delay between SPSR updates and the lack of a coherent public forum for SPSR's work is troubling -- especially in light of the rapidly approaching end of the Mars Global Surveyor's mapping sequence.
Your continued commitment to the Cydonia controversy is immensely appreciated.
6-8-00
New Features Addressed
Yesterday the Enterprise Mission unveiled a sampling of anomalous Martian surface features taken from Malin Space Science Systems' online motherlode of MGS data. Richard Hoagland addresses the features in question in a reasonable, speculative manner. None of the newly proposed artifacts prove the Artificiality Hypothesis. Nonetheless, several of the features are quite interesting and bear out NASA's own admission that examining the Martian terrain at high resolution has been "humbling."
The "domes" pictured above are among the new features under examination. The Enterprise Mission offers that these don't look like volcanic features, and I tend to agree. Note the eroded internal detail on the right-hand dome.
Part of the striking cylindrical formation dubbed "the tunnel." Similar features elsewhere on Mars have led some researchers to propose a planet-wide "plumbing system" once used to transport water beneath the surface. Note reflection that indicates a possible translucent exterior. Exotic geology or alien architecture?
Hoagland hails the feature above as a remnant of an artificial glass tunnel system. While I'm generally very suspicious of Hoaglandesque claims of "crystalline" ruins (glass is, after all, transparent, and discerning possible eroded glass structures on planetary surfaces strikes me as a formidable undertaking), the "tunnel" is quite obvious and requires little imagination. While I see no direct evidence of transparent material, the supposed "arches" indeed seem to enclose a fairly well-defined cylindrical interior space.
At least five right angles are visible in this unusual formation, which is located near yet another Martian pyramid.
This interestingly rectangular formation of apparent "craters" (above) lies north of a fairly well-defined pyramidal formation. I find this feature intriguing, as it provides further evidence that whoever built the structures on Mars (assuming artificiality) utilized craters as foundations. Similarly placed features include the Cliff and Crater Pyramid.
High-contrast photo of the Cliff. The terrain to the right of this puzzling, anthropoid (?) feature appears to have been excavated, possibly in order to build the Cliff.
The "Crater Pyramid." Both the Pyramid and the nearby rectilinear feature (circled) lie along crater rims, arguing against a natural origin. Similar "architecture" is seen in the many-angled array of "craters" discovered by the Enterprise Mission (see above).
I don't think any definitive statements about these features can be offered at this point. But I think it's a reasonably safe bet that the more vigorously we dig into MSSS' trove of high-resolution images the more anomalies we will find. The discovery of more "strange" features may justify future missions designed expressly for reimaging anomalous landforms.
6-25-00
Mars Missions and Extraterrestrial Artifacts: Where We Stand
NASA's news that probable liquid water periodically flows in the depths of Vallis Marineris has launched a flurry of excitement in the science news media. This is, of course, exactly what NASA's timed release was supposed to do. Still reeling from the loss of two Mars-bound probes, NASA's "revelation" that liquid water -- and possibly life -- exists on the Red Planet has redeemed the space agency and provided justification for missions in the near future, among them the costly and difficult Sample Return Mission.
Water on Mars is hardly "news" in the sense that NASA is treating it. Of the agency's admission, the indirect evidence upon which the water announcement was based came from images acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor satellite in 1998. But evidence of water on Mars is far older, dating to the find of an apparent waterspout or steam gesyer on Mars twenty years ago (since popularized by Vincent DiPietro in SPSR's book "The Case for the Face"). Why, one wonders, isn't NASA enthusiastically pointing to DiPietro's evidence as collaboration for their "new" findings?
The answer might be that DiPietro is associated with that most unsavory crowd that has dared to entertain the possibility that certain features on Mars might be artificial. In fact, his name provides the "D" in the now-famous "D&M Pyramid," a perplexing five-sided structure located provocatively close to the even more well-known "Face."
NASA has ignored other highly significant evidence provided by planetary SETI researchers, despite the fact that doing so would raise the evidential urgency of the Vallis Marineris find. In 1998, after photographing a portion of Cydonia including the "Main City Pyramid," SPSR geologists quickly pointed out that at least one crater in the region appeared to have a flat, reflective base consistent with the presence of ice. Even ultra-skeptical Malin Space Science Systems paid an unannounced return visit to the Main City Pyramid later that year, taking a high-resolution photo that confirms the probable existence of ice in Cydonia.
The SPSR ice discovery, discussed elsewhere on this site, is actually more compelling than NASA's hypothesized water flows in that it is much more accessible to surface missions. Anyone familiar with the research of Robert Zubrin and his "Mars Direct" strategy will quickly understand why: ice can be cheaply seperated into oxygen and hydrogen, both of which are key fuel elements for Mars-based exploration.
While NASA appears characteristically reticent to give credit to independent researchers, the existence of ice and water on Mars, regardless of location, remains a stirring discovery.
"T"-Shaped Formation: Natural or Artificial?
Diligent sleuthing through MSSS's mass of catalogued Mars imagery has resulted in the following image of an unusual feature alternately known as "the airplane," "the anchor" and, more properly, "the T-shaped formation."
An attempt to determine whether the "T" is a concave or convex feature. Comparison with neighboring craters suggests that the main portion of this feature is actually sunken, contrary to this independent analysis by Efrain Palermo.
From what can be seen of the surrounding terrain, there are no analogous features that would favor a geological explanation (such as the "Inca City" formation on the other side of the planet, which -- at first take -- appears engagingly artificial). This feature, like other recent anomalies, must await careful scrutiny.
