FILE: ARES1.TXT AUTHOR: Martin E. Arant DATE: 03-15-89 SUBJECT: Mars Face, Project Cydonia ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUBMITTED BY: Martin E. Arant In 1976, while the nation was celebrating its 200th birthday, Viking I, a US space probe entered orbit around the Planet Mars. Like a giant scythe, its television cameras slowly cut an ever widening photographic swatch around the planet. Forty million miles away, in Pasadena, California, the images from another world built up line by line on the monitors of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. It was on orbit thirty five, when the spacecraft was over an area known as Cydonia, that possibly the single most important photograph in the history of the human race was taken. A perfectly formed human face, starring straight up into the eye of the Viking camera, starring up from the ancient sands of Mars! The reaction of the planetary scientists and geologists at NASA was quite predictable and understandable. The data already collected on Mars from the previous Mariner mission showed the planet to be a harsh and withered world, totally unable to support any complex life forms. Even though there was ample evidence that large amounts of liquid water had once flowed over its surface, even the most optimistic scientist couldn't imagine this "warm epoch" ever having lasted long enough for anything but the simplest life forms to have evolved. It is, therefore, not surprising that the appearance of the face was reduced to the simplest explanation; "A trick of lighting and shadows." This turned out to be more than just an idle comment, for it became the battle cry of NASA for over 10 years. Every time an inquiry was made regarding the face, NASA responded with this one-liner. Had it not been for a couple of open-minded researchers, this photograph would probably have ended up filed away with thousands of other nondescript photographs taken by the Viking orbiter. Slowly, very slowly at first, the evidence begin to build, culminating last August in the proof that this enigma is NOT "a trick of lighting and shadow." Even NASA, that most infallible of government agencies, has been forced to retreat from their previous statement. Their open ridicule of the scientists involved in researching this phenomena has turned into embarrassed silence. Discoveries made during the past few years seem to indicate that the face, along with four other "artificial looking" formations in the immediate area form a geometric and mathematical complex. Does this prove that ruins of an ancient civilization has been found on the surface of Mars? The answer is absolutely NOT! Aside from what you may have read in the tabloids, none of the scientists and researchers involved in this project have ever stated that this complex IS artificial. What is becoming very obvious is this. Something is very wrong in Cydonia Mensae. Either our understanding of Martian geology and mathematical relationships is seriously flawed or... The purpose of this section is twofold. First, to collect and disseminate information pertaining to the discoveries made in Cydonia and second, to build the grass root political support to make certain that NASA is FORCED (by law, if necessary) to reexamine this site during the Mars Orbiter mission in 1992. NOTE: This section is NOT about paranormal phenomena. It is NOT about UFOs, alien abductions, or ancient astronauts. Not that it is our intention to dismiss these phenomena but they simply don't belong in this section. There is always the tendency to "speculate" on the phenomena at Cydonia but we feel that is putting the cart before the horse. The first and only goal right now has to be the verification of the data by the scientific community and the commitment by NASA to re-photograph this site!