1976: The Viking Mars probe caused a sensation when NASA and the public eventually discovered a 1,500 foot high "face" staring out into space from the surface of the Cydonia region on Mars. This image was initially dismissed as a trick of the light by NASA . Other images were discovered which had been taken by the Viking probe at a different sun angle... and the face was still there.
Also present on these photographs were additional anomalies perhaps even more impressive than the face itself. One of the greatest of these, a five sided pyramid nearly two miles wide arranged exactly 1/360th of the martian polar diameter from the face. This pyramid was also pointing to the face. There was also discovered what appeared to be a city complex so oriented that all three structures arranged to form a perfect equilateral triangle. More information at the Pyramids of Egypt and Mars.


"Conspiracy theories abound over NASA's role in the Monuments of Mars affair - and with good reason. The space agency's almost unbelievable lack of interest since photographic Frame 35A72 was taken by the Mars orbiting Viking craft in 1976, and its obstinate disregard for calls from other scientists to investigate the Cydonia mystery further, have raised suspicions of a cover-up.
And why not? We know that our governments selectively censor potentially traumatic or destabilising information. If something has been found with the potential to upset established social values and religious beliefs, then it is reasonable to suppose we might not have been told about it yet.

What makes this seem more probable is the facet that NASA's probe, Mars Observer, scheduled to rephotograph Cydonia in 1993 in response to growing pressure, failed to do so due to alleged technical problems (the orbiter was 'lost' by mission control at the crucial moment). Also noteworthy is the fact that NASA's constitution authorizes it to co-operate with agencies directly concerned with national defense and specifically obliges it to withhold from the public information classified to protect national security'. It is, therefore, by no means impossible that information has been withheld.

At any rate, it does seem odd that NASA, which steadfastly scorned any suggestion that the Martian pyramids and Face might be signs of civilization has in the past two weeks embraced the implications of a few fossilized microbes in a Martian meteorite.

But if NASA really does have a secret interest in the Monuments of Mars, it would be expected that such an interest would also have been manifested here on Earth - in, particularly, the three great pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza in Egypt."

http://www.mt.net/~watcher/mars.html

http://www.enterprisemission.com/ody.htm

An interesting link.

There is tons of 'shady things' about the cyndonia region. Part of it comes with the constant...misinformation from NASA. Where they show results that 'prove' its not a face but they have poor resolution. Or are inverted. Or are run through filters first. Or are taken from an extreme angle.

If NASA wanted to 'really come clean' they'd take some honest pictures. The problem is, the 'skeptics' would never believe them.

It is true that part of NASAs constitution marks it so that if they find anything that may be a threat to national security, it goes through the NSA/White House first...so, chances are, NASA won't be making alien discoveries, the WH will. (or they are witholding the information)

Really, I don't think we will know anything about Cydonia until we get a man there.

NASA gets most of its funding from the military nowadays *cough cough DAMN NIXON cough cough*, so yeah, of course they'd have to run everything through the gov't. It USED to be totally civvie, government funded, civilian run...that went down the tubes when Nixon cut funding because NASA was too much Kennedy's baby and Nixon hated Kennedy.

Oh, look, I've brought politics into the thread...I'll shut up now...

NASA gets most of its funding from the military nowadays *cough cough DAMN NIXON cough cough*,

Not sure why you say that...

have any links or anything?

NASA actually USED to be totally military and in the late 50s/60s they made it a civillian organization...

My mother did the research for the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon." I'll ask her for some stuff when I go home next week.

From my understanding now, the only real source of military funding into NASA is for satelite launches and mapping missions. Other than that, it is pretty separate.

Originally posted by Manu
Really, I don't think we will know anything about Cydonia until we get a man there.
:werd:

The same goes for other "formations" on Mars. We won't know with any certainty until we get there.

I believe it was, I don't think the face on Mars was carved by the wind, especially with the uncanny resemblance to the Sphinx in Egypt..

http://www.geocities.com/red331w/mars_face_1976_full_02.txt

Does anybody else see an arrowhead-shaped depression surroinding the face, pointing "up" with the tip above the face, or is it just me?

I never noticed that before. Good catch.

...face on Mars...


Wow.

--Mark

How would an announcement that there are figures formed by intelligent beings on mars be a threat to national security?

I think because of all the alien fanatics (I suspect that more people believe in aliens than don't) would get all active, and those that don't would likely go into a mass hysteria...


...or so they think.


Me, personally, I think the NSA people who sensor what gets told to the public are the aliens that put the structures there, they just don't want us to know about it.

There are a lot of suspicios formations in that picture, The formation on the bottem left looks like it used to be a face, with only the nose remaining, and the formation in the bottem right looks like it used to be something to, its far to ovular to be natural, and whats up with all the dots that form pretty straight lines that grow diagnaly across the pic are they from Viking?

One point, though...

...the face of the Sphynx in Egypt is not the face it was created with. The Egyptian face on it was carved later. At least, that's the new thought since carbon dating placed the structure itself as being made BEFORE the Egyptian culture ever existed. Scholars believe a Pharoh decreed his face should be made onto the Sphynx.

But whatever, it's still an uncanny resemblance.

igo-

Another reason for the 'national security' issue is that it would CONFIRM that there was intelligent life other than us. (or that at sometime humans could travel between planets and we've now lost that ability)

The danger comes in from a few sources:
1. Public panic/reaction
2. Religious implications
3. What if these aliens are still around and know we're observing them

I guess I'm just a mellow kind of person because even if I was deeply religious and other life was discovered, I'd be incredibly curious to know more about it, but my reaction would basically be *shrug* "I'm not surprised, that's cool."