by Andrew D. Basiago

President Mars Anomaly Research Society

December 12, 2008

from ExopoliticsBlogs Website

 

 

ABSTRACT

There is life on Mars.

 

Evidence that the Red Planet harbors life and has for eons was discovered by the author by examining NASA photograph PIA10214, a westward view of the West Valley of the Columbia Basin in the Gusev Crater that was taken by the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in November 2007 and beamed back to the Earth.

 

This photograph has been the subject of public speculation since January 2008, when what appeared to be the figure of a human female was found jutting from the edge of a plateau. The figure was quickly dismissed as a natural rock formation produced by wind, water, and time, but the author and other researchers in the Mars anomaly research community believed that it was either a statue or the fossilized remains of a humanoid being on Mars.

 

Intrigued by this anomaly, the author subjected PIA10214 to further photo-analytic scrutiny and discovered that the photograph contains other images of human and animal life forms that constitute the first evidence of life on Mars.

 

In this paper, the author presents his initial data related to his discovery of life on Mars in PIA10214 in five areas, namely,

  • evidence of humanoid beings

  • animal species

  • carved statues

  • built structures

  • dead bodies

The life on Mars consists of intelligent, bipedal hominids capable of carving statues and building structures and a variety of animal species that exist, that once existed, or that have never existed on Earth.

 

Reptilian species predominate. He also addresses frightening content and definitional constraints that individuals in Mars anomaly research confront when evaluating this first view by human civilization of life forms and ancient artifacts on another planet.

 

He concludes that the discovery of life on Mars marks an epochal moment in human history when for the first time human beings from Earth have encountered biological organisms living elsewhere in the Cosmos.
 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

Life has been discovered on Mars.

 

The evidence of this discovery is contained in a photograph of the Martian surface that was taken by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during November 6-9, 2007 and beamed back to Earth.

 

The number assigned to the photograph by NASA-JPL was PIA10214 (below images - large files).

 

This photograph is a panoramic montage of a series of photographs taken by the Rover Spirit from November 6th to 9th, 2007.

 

 

 

 

 

At the time that it was taken, the Spirit was perched near the western edge of the plateau called Home Plate in the inner basin of the Columbia Hills range inside Gusev Crater.

 

The photograph is a westward view of the surface of Mars, with the southwest on the left and the northeast on the right. At the bottom of the photograph, the solar panels of Spirit can be seen. In the foreground, the western edge of the Home Plate plateau is prominent, lighter in color than more distant parts of the terrain.

 

The rocky foothill in the middle distance across the left third of the image NASA identifies as Tsiolkovski Ridge, which NASA estimates is about 100 feet from the edge of the plateau and about 100 feet across.

This photograph has been the subject of much speculation since January 2008, when two anomalous human figures – one an apparently female figure in a blue gown, the other an apparently male figure in a blue bodysuit – were spotted on the far left edge of the plateau.

 

The figures were quickly dismissed as a natural rock formation resulting from erosion by wind, water, and time, despite the fact that two distinct human forms were present and gender differentiation seemed to be indicated in the form the anomalies took. The author, founder and president of the Mars Anomaly Research Society, thought that these enigmatic forms looked like a statue, or the fossilized remains of Martians fleeing a cataclysm, like a deluge, a mudslide, or a volcanic eruption, or a monument sculpted to memorialize such an apocalyptic event.

 

If the figures on the plateau were artificial, then the valley below might also contain evidence that Mars is – or once was – inhabited.

Recent analysis of this photograph by the author utilizing imaging software available to the public has revealed evidence of humanoids, animals, statues, and structures in the West Valley below the Home Plate plateau, especially on the Tsiolkovski Ridge and in the northeast corner of the valley, where a field of turquoise blue forms can be seen that look like rocks but that are living entities.

 

Creatures with human heads and the alpine complexion of Europeans dot both Tsiolkovski Ridge and The Turquoise Field.

 

In a third area of the valley, one named by the author The Rock Garden, humanoid beings in blue bodysuits can be seen with hand-held devices that may be technical or musical instruments. The life forms and artifacts encompassed by these landmarks startle the imagination, evoking a surreal landscape by the mediaeval artist Hieronymus Bosch.

The life forms contained in PIA10214 include:

  • humanoids with bulbous heads and elongated bodies, like those beings described in the UFO literature

  • animals still found on Earth, including lizards, frogs, snakes, alligators, and mantises

  • animals that once existed on Earth but are now extinct, including the reptile species plesiosaur, which has been advanced as a solution in the Loch Ness, Lake Champlain, and Lake Okanagan mysteries

  • animals that have never existed on Earth, including human-insect hybrids with multiple appendages like centipedes, termites, and silverfish, segmented bodies like scorpions, and larval bodies like Earth worms, fly larvae, and butterfly chrysalises

The taxonomy of some of the animals seen in some parts of the photograph is so bizarre that in some cases it is difficult for observers to even recognize them, so that the keen observer finds himself cast in the role of the aboriginal shaman, who could not only see the arrival of the Spanish ships that others could not see but discern that they were not sea monsters.

 

If one looks closely, then one can see creatures on Mars with the head and torso of humans and the body of caterpillars moving across the sear Martian landscape. In other parts of the photograph, higher order beings with transparent, translucent, or bioluminescent bodies have been detected that await further photographic analysis.

 

To see what is in these photographs, one must view what one has never seen before and see it.

The artwork on Mars found thus far in this photograph consists almost entirely of statues of human and animal heads, intaglios carved casually on rocks featuring human and alien faces, and vast etchings carved on the ground conveying human and animal themes.

 

Giant grotesque heads exist in several places (including The Rock Garden) that are either the skulls of large, dead hominids or sculptures designed to resemble demonic entities, with head and hands rising from below to devour or bury those on the Martian surface.

The built structures found in the photograph include evidence of:

  • stairways leading to ornate rock sculptures of substantial refinement

  • derelict waterworks

  • metal works of exotic design that may once have served as viewing platforms, one forming the stylized face of a bovine or reptilian

  • several large stone sarcophagi, including the ossuary of a king in the Egyptian style laid on a cliff top and another in the Easter Island style half-buried in the valley below.

There is evidence of extensive digging into the Martian soil.

The panorama itself presents massive evidence of a cataclysmic event in Martian history. The western edge of the Home Base plateau and the West Valley below are littered with the half-buried remains of thousands of victims of an apparent deluge, caught in alluvial deposits like slag heaps that resemble a pebbled moraine.

 

This cataclysm may have been the destruction of the planet Maldek, which created the asteroid belt and pummeled Mars so that it was squeezed into an oblate spheroid and fractured. The region photographed may be a nature reserve, a fossil dig at a paleological site, or a memorial park related to this cataclysm and the veneration of the fossilized remains present in situ.

 

By the very nature of this photograph as the first human look at an alien civilization, the variety of life forms, activities and artifacts are so esoteric that the entire content and purport of the otherworldly montage defies complete description and proper categorization at this time.

This discovery, however, marks the advent of a new epoch in human civilization. Humanity has now crossed the threshold that separates its past as an earthbound race and its future as a space-faring civilization in contact with extraterrestrial beings. We are not alone in the Universe. We are not even alone in our own solar system.

 

Mars, the Red Planet, which every two years supplants Venus as the planet closest to Earth, is inhabited with other biological life forms, and shows evidence of having been inhabited for eons.

 

In this paper, the author analyzes this first view of Martian ecology and civilization, and endeavors to present his preliminary findings related to the discovery of life on Mars in the form of:

  • humanoid beings

  • animal species

  • carved statues

  • built structures

  • dead bodies

  • where they are located in the photograph

  • what they ultimately might be

 

 


HUMANOID BEINGS

The humanoids that can be seen on the surface of Mars in PIA10214 consist of four typologies. It is not known whether or not these typologies represent different species. Three of these typologies, the first three cited, may be related, but one seems to be an exception. Those beings in the fourth typology might be statues that look like life forms.

The first typology consists of humanoids with bald, bulbous heads and elongated bodies. They are dressed in blue or gray bodysuits. They have two arms and legs, like human beings, or multiple appendages. Their Caucasian complexion is in the light Alpine range. Some are manipulating hand-held devices that might be technical or musical instruments.

The second typology is taller and more mantis-like. They are semi-transparent or devoid of coloration, like some soil-dwelling and deep ocean creatures on Earth. They seem to be standing around directing or observing things. One can be seen standing next to a humanoid being that is either digging a hole or entering or exiting a tunnel opening.

The third typology, found in The Turquoise Field, possesses the head and upper body of a bald male human being and a lower body that might be described as larval or pupal. Some can be seen half-buried in The Turquoise Field, as if burrowing. Some are looking up at Spirit from their locations and seem to be evincing anger or bemusement.

The fourth typology is, for want of a better description, all head. The humanoid head near the right shore of The Lake is an example of this typology. Imagine the head of a clown in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade that has broken loose from its body. It is not known whether this typology is a living being or merely a comic statue or building.

Because the first three typologies combine human characteristics with the adult and the larval stages of many insect species on Earth, they may represent the three developmental stages, or three sub-species, of an animal that is a human-insect hybrid.

 

DNA seems to have taken different evolutionary forms under the unique selection pressures of Mars.

 

 


The First Typology of Humanoid
Evidence of the first typology of humanoid life on Mars consists of two human figures on the far left side of the plateau in the photograph.

 

These figures were found by many researchers and widely reported in January 2008, when NASA posted PIA10214 on the World Wide Web. They were debunked at the time as a natural rock formation.

These figures can be found by examining the far lower left quadrant of the photograph. The viewer must find the cliff’s edge on the western side of the Home Base plateau. It is discernible by its different coloration from the valley below. With magnification, a tiny female figure, as if a statue (left), and a tiny male figure, as if fallen (right), can be seen.

It is the opinion of the author that these forms are not a natural rock formation, because they possess highly articulated human form, differentiation between individuals, gender, locomotion, intention, even clothing.

 

They are probably a statue of some kind.

 

 

 

 

Examining the far right side of the photograph, the author discovered several beings in blue bodysuits (left) sitting in a rock cluster he named The Rock Garden. The humanoids may be holding hand-held devices.

 

One, sitting demurely as if female, has multiple arms, like a centipede. They have bulbous heads and elongated bodies, as if “extraterrestrial.”

At the back of The Rock Garden is a large statue or skeleton of a humanoid with a pointy head and large, elephantine ears (right). His skull, arms, and hands are evident on the surface. He is reaching out from the depths of Mars with his hands.

 

This skull may be the fossilized head of a giant primate in Martian history or simply the statue of a demon.

 

 

 

 

In front of the skull sits another bald-headed Martian (center).

 

He is sitting as if clutched in the right hand of the statue behind him. He is holding his hand to his mouth. Farther to the right, a bald Martian with a bigger head and body seems to be throwing something. A female being with multiple arms sits on the ground behind a transparent pane (right).

The Rock Garden is easy to find in the photograph. The viewer must look to the far lower right quadrant of the panorama. There, a Y-shaped pattern on the ground, probably the result of canalization by water that once flowed on Mars, can be seen. To the right of the upper right prong of the Y is a smudge like an eyebrow.

 

This is The Rock Garden.

 

 

 

 

The Rock Garden is significant because in this one small area of this vast photograph, multiple mutually corroborating forms of evidence of life on Mars have been found.

 

These include the presence of intelligent, bipedal hominid creatures not unlike Homo sapiens; technical gadgetry; social interaction; and terra-forming of the Martian surface.

Similar humanoid beings are present at other locations in this photograph taken on Mars. Inside The Rock Enclosure on Tsiolkovski Ridge, for example, a humanoid with two arms and two legs can be seen. He is kneeling with his back to Spirit. He has a bulbous head and an elongated body. He is wearing pants and a belt but is bare-chested. The scapulae in his upper back are evident. He is leaning over the wall away from the viewer. He may be reaching for, or lifting, a Martian child over the wall created by the back rock.

The humanoid being inside The Rock Enclosure on Tsiolkovski Ridge is easy to find in the photograph.

 

Find the square in the upper left corner of the left solar array of Spirit, count five solar panels to the right on the edge of the array facing the valley, and proceed straight up the photograph. The C-shaped formation on the ridge is blue-gray in color. The humanoid is kneeling inside the enclosure of rocks. He is tiny and thin, like a praying mantis hatchling. He is interacting with other humanoids just beyond the rocks.

Standing next to the humanoid in The Rock Enclosure is a being with a large, ovoid face as found in the literature of extraterrestrial contact.

 

This being has a transparent or translucent body that has not been photographed with the same clarity and opaqueness that the other being’s body has, presumably because her body is not made of protoplasm.

 

 

 

 

The humanoid in The Rock Enclosure on Tsiolkovski Ridge is surrounded by other anomalous beings.

 

To his right on the hillside, bald humanoids in blue clothing are sitting on the hillside (left). Up the hill, other beings are standing behind a large rock shaped into the face of a rabbit, gerbil or similar small animal (right).

 

Other humanoid beings can be seen standing in apertures in the soil among statues of huge heads (bottom).

 

 

 

 

On Mars, humanoids and plesiosaurs extinct on Earth co-exist (left), as snakes slither across the ground and a humanoid confronts an odd entity with a cobra-like torso (right). The Martians have adorned the surface above their subterranean dwellings with relics.

 

Is this an ecosystem teeming with life or a surreal sculpture garden?

 

Probably, it is both.

 

 

 

 


The Second Typology of Humanoid
An example of the second typology of humanoid being on Mars can be seen on the rock with a face on it which is located down the ridge from The Rock Enclosure.

 

There stands a tall, semi-transparent being with multiple, asymmetrical appendages (below). His body type is like a Native American totem pole on Earth made entirely of transparent glass.

This being has a big head and a childish grin on his face. If he is a statue, then The Glass Totem on the Boulder reveals the light-heartedness with which the Martians craft their artwork.

 

If, however, he is an entity, then we can conclude that some Martians are friendly and have taken delight in the fact that we have landed Spirit on their planet.

 

 

 

 

The combination of opaque humanoids dressed in blue clothing and transparent beings with many arms can also be found in the vicinity of The Turquoise Field.

 

There, a corpulent humanoid dressed in a blue gown, cape, or caftan can be seen furiously digging a hole or descending a tunnel, as several of the glassine mantises stand nearby (below).

This juxtaposition might reflect a social dominance hierarchy based on intra-species sub-speciation within this species on Mars. This division of labor might also be based on a cooperative, co-mensal, or coercive relationship between two distinct humanoid species.

 

Definitive biological classification will result from improved photo-analysis and study.

 

 

 

 


The Third Typology of Humanoid
The third type of humanoid found on Mars combines the head and upper body of Homo sapiens with the lower body of an arachnid of the order Scorpionida. An example of one of these scorpion men can be seen in The Turquoise Field in the upper right quadrant of the panorama (below).

 

He has a horn on his head and is looking towards Spirit.

 

 

 

 


The Fourth Typology of Humanoid
Beyond The Turquoise Field, on the right side of The Lake, is a large head (top).

 

This may be the head of a living organism or an artificial structure. Its facial features are cartoonish, in the way that the façade of a ride at an amusement park is here on Earth. Its features have inspired the author to name it Mister Potato Head. Next to it sits a Fun Balloon Animal. Their form and proximity to the water suggest a theme park or resort.

There is a similar figure in the pink terrain towards Grissom Hill on the far left side of the photo. There, a mirthful, egg-shaped face surrounded by tubules peers from the ground (bottom).

 

The clownish features of the one and roller coaster-like tubes enveloping the other suggest that these are built structures in the nature of amusement parks and not humanoids, but their human shape invites one to consider a universe of possibilities.

 

 

 

 

The very roundness of the features of these figures is similar to beings seen elsewhere in the photograph.

 

We can include among these oblate humanoids the figure crawling like a baby on the far leftward edge of The Turquoise Field (left) and the figure to her right in the photo that resembles an astronaut buried in the sands of Mars that time forgot (right).

This might be a sculpture by which the Martians are sending a subtle message to us only understood according to the “context communication model” of alien-human language first posited by Webre, in which aliens communicate with human beings by their actions rather than their words.

 

The message is apt when one considers the rudimentary structure and function of Spirit:

“You are just taking your first baby steps in space exploration.”

 

 

 

Throughout the photograph, the beings with bald, bulbous heads can be seen interacting with a variety of species.

 

On a hillside beneath the mountain ridge in the far upper right quadrant, two of them sit in the Lotus position surrounded by animal species which resemble the penguin and ibis-like figures found in Egyptian hieroglyphics (below).

 

 

 

 

In one scene from The Turquoise Field (left), many humanoids, as well as an elephant-like creature, can be seen sitting around a table.

 

Surrounding the table are many colorful, glassine statues evocative of the style of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. The transparent matrix in which they sit is icicle-like, multi-colored, and exquisitely artful.

 

One of the statues (center) resembles the statue of a head on Tsiolkovski Ridge (right).

 

 

 

 

This kind of round table built around ornate glasswork is present at another location near The Lake, where the Martians have designed a complex, interwoven, glassine structure embodying the heads and torsos of different beings.

 

The faces of adjacent beings are complementary in the manner of Pablo Picasso and executed in dreamy, pastel forms reminiscent of Marc Chagall (right).

 

This is art created by a high order of intelligence.

 

 

 

 

Similar glass artwork can be seen on a hill above The Turquoise Field (below).

 

One, in the center of the hill, has a cheerful smile on its face like The Little Engine That Could. Another, to the right in the image below, resembles the kachina dolls that exist in the western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices of the Hopi.

 

It is almost transparent, but one can see that it is carrying a smaller person grasping a cruciform object.

 

 

 

 

From this initial anthropological evidence provided by NASA, we can preliminarily conclude that the humanoid beings on Mars are sentient, possess a sense of humor and a love of laughter, cultivate the transcendental, spiritual side of life, and make decisions (or at least convene regularly) in some form of communitarian social organization.

The complexity, sensitivity, refinement, and child-like whimsy embodied in their designs reveal an advanced, intelligent species peaceful in nature. This might be the most important finding in the discovery of life on Mars.

 

This evidence that we can gather from Spirit confirms the remote viewing data that the Martians present no threat to Earth.

 

 

 


ANIMAL SPECIES

There is much diversity of animal life represented in this small sample of the Martian biosphere.

 

Presumably, these animals subsist on little or no water or water gathered from subterranean aquifers, because the only water visible in the entire panorama of Mars seen in PIA10214 is in The Lake, the azure pond below Husband Hill in the far distance.

The animal life on Mars falls into four broad categories. It should be noted that these categories are derived via analogy from animal species found on Earth. The fauna on Mars might be so different that biologists will have to think anew even to classify it.

 

Until the anatomy of these creatures is understood, this methodology will have to suffice.

 

 


The First Category of Animal
The first category consists of animals that resemble animals that presently live on Earth.

 

This category includes elephants, platypuses, horses, cows, frogs, turtles, snakes, slugs, and snails. Some of these look to be living organisms, while others seem merely statues.

 

What is significant is their incredible similarity to animal species found on Earth.

 

 

 

 


The Second Category of Animal
The second category is those animals that combine elements of animals that inhabit Earth at this time in Earth’s biological history and that from our perspective would be viewed as hybrids of living animal species.

 

This category is exemplified by one species on Mars (below) that combines the bodily shape of an octopus with the face of a lion or a dog.

 

 

 

 


The Third Category of Animal
The third category includes those animals that resemble dinosaur and reptile species that are extinct on Earth.

 

In this category, we can cite the plesiosaur, which has been proposed as a solution to the Loch Ness, Lake Champlain, and Lake Okanagan mysteries. The plesiosaur on Mars resembles the dinosaur brachiosaurus or a long-necked tortoise.

To the right of The Rock Enclosure on Tsiolkovski Ridge, a herd of plesiosaur-like creatures can be seen with long necks like snakes and round bodies like turtles (below). One clearly seems to possess the lenticular shell of a tortoise. Others have more ovoid bodies, like large, round, gray-brown boulders. They have a head that is horse-like.

The fact that many of them have bodies camouflaged to look like boulders suggests that these creatures are indigenous to Mars and have evolved under its conditions. The plesiosaur is so common on Mars that it has even found its way into Martian art.

 

The one at right (bottom), from The Turquoise Field, may be a statue of two Martians riding one.

 

 

 

 


The Fourth Category of Animal
The fourth category encompasses those animals that are unlike anything that presently lives or has ever lived on planet Earth. Into this category, we can place the human-lizard hybrids seen resting on the ground as if cold-blooded and fairly immobile by nature.

In The Bowl to the left of The Rock Garden, and at three locations within The Rock Garden, a human-reptilian species can be seen (below). They have bulbous heads and flesh-toned arms and legs but creep along the ground. Their lizard-like bodies are flat, as if cut out of rubber, like the popular children’s television character Gumby.

 

The author has given these relatively inert human-reptile hybrids the name The Gumby Lizard.

 

 

 

 

Reptilian and serpent motifs jut from the bowls that ring The Rock Garden to the left of The Grotesque Skull. One resembles a snake (left), the other a brachiosaur (center).

 

Beneath the snake that emerges from the basin, a Gumby Lizard can be seen crawling on the rim of the basin. It resembles a toddler with the lower body of a lizard.

 

A being standing in the center of the garden (right) also possesses both hominid and reptoid traits.

 

 

 

 

In front of The Rock Garden, below where the humanoids sit, three filamentous creatures are walking toward Spirit.

 

This species, named The Woofy by the author, combines the morphology of a sea sponge with the face of a dog (Canis lupus familiaris), and would be mistaken for a sagebrush or tumbleweed on Earth, were it not for its puppy dog face.

 

 

 

 

These and other animals on Mars defy classification by any known system on Earth.

 

We would include among the new forms of fauna on Mars the animal whose giraffe-like head can be seen peering from behind the cliff literally within feet of Spirit. This animal has red lips, a patch of blue beneath its bulging eyes, and a crest atop its head like some dinosaurs.

 

Even the most spirited disinformation that this report will inspire will have difficulty finding a mundane, non-biological explanation for The Spying Giraffe (below).

 

 

 

 


The Predominance of Reptilian Species
One early conclusion that we can draw about the variety of animal species on Mars as shown by this small sample of Martian biota taken from the West Valley of the Columbian Basin of the Gusev Crater is that reptilian species predominate.

 

These include reptiles that once existed on Earth and reptiles that have never existed on Earth. Among these species, the plesiosaur seems to be very common.

 

According to Wikipedia:

Plesiosaurs were carnivorous aquatic… reptiles. After their discovery, they were somewhat fancifully said to have resembled “a snake threaded through the shell of a turtle,” although they had no shell. The common name “plesiosaur” is applied both to the “true” plesiosaurs (Suborder Plesiosauroidea), which includes both long-necked elasmosaurs and short-necked polycotylid forms…

 

There were many species of plesiosaurs… Plesiosaurs… appeared at the start of the Jurassic Period and thrived until the K-T extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. While they were Mesozoic reptiles that lived at the same time as dinosaurs, they were not dinosaurs…

Maybe the creatures seen – including both living plesiosaurs (left) and dead ones (right)– are plesiosaurs that survived on Mars the extinction that befell plesiosaurs on Earth.

 

 

 

 

The reptilian species on Mars seem to be more evolved than reptiles on Earth.

 

In one scene from the photograph, three turquoise creatures lie tangled on a hillside (left). One has the head and shoulders of a man but his lower body is snake-like (right). Heis arching his back onto the back of a turtle and looking toward Spirit.

 

They seem to be more sentient and intelligent than any reptile or amphibian one would find on Earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 


CARVED STATUES

There are numerous carved statues in NASA-JPL photograph PIA10214.

 

These include the human figures on the left edge of the western side of the Home Base plateau whose discovery in 2008 led to the discovery of life on Mars later that year; the myriad of heads that litter Tsiolkovski Ridge; and other statues found along the jagged edge of the cliff.

These statues can be classified into three kinds. The first is statues of human forms worked in stone in the European style or in terra cotta in the Chinese style. The next is monolithic heads like those of the Olmecs.

 

The third is bas reliefs on the sides of rocks like Native American petro glyphs or the sides of hills like Britain’s Cerne Abbas Giant.

 


Human Forms
The two figures on the left edge of the plateau, The Beings on the Edge (below), might be carved statues. This is supported by the notion that human form is so highly articulated, natural forces could simply not have carved two human figures in such close proximity.

 

 

 

 

It was first theorized that the female figure is a burl or spar formed naturally on the edge of the cliff.

 

Artists have noted that the blue gown of the female seems to be flowing forward, so as to intentionally give the statue a sense of drama and urgency. Others have observed that she looks made of terra cotta, like the buried soldiers of Xian in China.

While it is possible for natural forces to carve biological forms over time – New Hampshire’s Old Man of the Mountain and New Mexico’s Camel Rock are examples – The Beings on the Edge are probably artificial. This opinion is reached on the basis that they are two separate and distinct forms that possess anatomy, gender, and movement.

In light of the photographic evidence (below) that the plateau from which this anomalous object juts (left) and the sweeping valley below it (right) inter the remains of thousands of Martians, who may have died when Maldek disintegrated, we cannot discount the possibility that this statue – indeed, Tsiolkovski Ridge beyond it – is a funereal site.

The Beings on the Edge might be a memorial statue high above the cemetery grounds by which these deaths are remembered. These objects might have been set in place to honor the dead, mark their burial site, and tell the story of the cataclysm in which they perished.

 

We can see in these details (below) awful reminders of the killing fields on this planet.

 

 

 

 

Huge rock carvings of a fallen woman and man on the cliff below The Beings also tell this terrible tale.

 

A female (center) and male (right) lie still in their muddy tombs. The woman’s dress has been carved to resemble that of the female figure up on the edge of the plateau.

 

The man has been given the hands of a lobster to signify death by deluge.

 

 

 

 


Monolithic Heads
The humanoid head – touchstone of intelligence – is, it would appear, a prevailing feature of Martian art.

 

Tsiolkovski Ridge is littered with monolithic heads, faces, and masks (below). These are placed at safe removes from each other, like statues in an open-air art museum.

 

Small humanoids are seen standing on and around them, as in a playground.

 

 

 

 

Among the numerous colossal heads that litter Tsiolkovski Ridge can be seen a large gold face of the highly articulated Gray species that has appeared in the UFO literature since the abduction of Barney and Betty Hill by extraterrestrials in 1961 (left).

 

Other heads of alien beings are carved on the tops of rocks in and near The Rock Enclosure (right).

 

 

 

 

The largest head in the photograph also happens to be where humanoids are found.

 

At the back of The Rock Garden, a grotesque humanoid skull with hands can be seen (below). This is probably a carved statue rather than the skull of a dead being. The skull is pointy or pyramidal. It has a heavy brow ridge, elephantine ears, and deep eye sockets.

To its right, another large statue can be seen. He is half buried and is thrusting his fist into the air (bottom right). These occult statues are 20 times bigger than the humanoids that sit nearby.

 

They might represent Mars reaching up and literally bringing the living down into the Martian underworld during the muddy deluge of the cataclysm on Mars.

 

 

 

 

From the perspective of art criticism, the distinguishing aspect of these statues is the element of the mud itself.

 

These figures are seen rising from the mud, as if suffocating in it. They are covered by mud. They have been given the color of the mud in which they are buried alive. While the haunting nature of this work might cause us to conclude that the Martians have a dark bent, if, as we theorize, this is a work pertaining to the cataclysm that devastated Martian civilization, another way to look at these statues is as an imaginative way to keep the memory of that catastrophe alive for future generations.

Another large head, a boy’s face, is located in the jagged rocks of the cliff over-looking the valley (left). The rock (or metal) from which the face is carved (or cast) is dark bronze. His features are supple, even cherubic.

 

The Face of a Boy looks like it was cast in copper or brass and then placed in the cliff.

 

The metal has tarnished over time.

Next to it, a stylized head resembling the ceremonial mask of a Native American medicine man has been carved into the pink and turquoise rock, as if this site were in the Southwest. The Medicine Man lies in a shamanic trance next to the boy (right). A being or statue can be seen arduously climbing the stairs that have been notched into the rocks (bottom). He may represent the universal human yearning for spiritual transcendence.

This complex may be a shrine, vista point, or power spot where religious rituals, nature walks, or healings take place.

 

One of the most striking works of terra-forming on Mars, Shaman Point may be destined to be regarded as one of the most impressive works of large stone work in a natural setting in the solar system, the Martian Mt. Rushmore.

 

 

 

 

Yet a third massive statue of a head, The Mask of Joy, can be seen lying on the escarpment to the left of The Turquoise Field (below). It resembles a Greek mask and some depictions of the head of Bacchus in Roman art.

 

Its mouth is open, and humanoid beings can be seen sitting in its mouth and dancing around its blue-green periphery.

 

 

 

 

Not all carved statues of colossal heads in the West Valley of the Columbia Basin of Mars are of the heads of humanoids.

 

Some depict animal heads. These heads include, for example, dog’s heads, such as in The Head of the Dog and The Head of the Dinosaur, over which The Spying Giraffe can be seen observing the Rover Spirit (below).

 

This head is carved in a severe or menacing style that might be described as brutal in nature.

 

 

 

 


Bas Reliefs on the Sides of Rocks
The Martians do not always carve heads in statuary form either.

 

They also craft heads in intaglios carved onto the sides of rocks. Bas reliefs of this type can be seen on several of the rocks at The Rock Enclosure on Tsiolkovski Ridge within which the ectomorphic humanoid is standing.

 

On the stone to the right of The Rock Enclosure is a bas relief not unlike those images from our civilization that personify the Sun as a being (right).

 

 

 

 


Bas Reliefs on the Sides of Hills
On the side of a hill in the far distance can be seen a bas relief consisting of two hearts. Inside one heart (left), a female sprite vaguely resembling Tinker Bell arches backward to reveal her breasts.

 

Inside the heart next to her (left), a male face looks over at The Arching Sprite and smiles fondly, as if the Tinker Bell figure inside is his valentine.

 

Nearby is the figure of a recumbent dog-like animal, with its face at bottom (right).

 

 

 

 

Other bas reliefs on the hillside depict intelligent entities looking out inter-dimensionally from within spheres of light, as in the not-yet-fully-explained orbs phenomenon on Earth.

 

Like the other artwork, they produce a three-dimensional, holographic effect (below).

 

 

 

 


Other Statues near The Beings on the Edge
That The Beings on the Edge are a statue and not a natural rock formation is supported by the existence of other statues in their immediate vicinity. In human culture on Earth, statues are often grouped among other statues in a common public display of art.

 

We have no basis to conclude that this is not also true for humanoids on other planets.

Down the escarpment of the plateau, toward its precipice, to the right of The Beings on the Edge, our Martian artists have carved numerous other statues (below). One is a stele featuring a human face (left). The others are details of different animal species, including the head of a lion, the head of a horse, a tropical fish, a bee, and a dog.

 

The Bee (bottom center) has the gold head of a man on it where the upper body of the bee would begin.

 

 

 

 

The notion that these are carved statues is supported by the fact that The Tropical Fish has been moved a considerable distance up the plateau.

 

Since it is resting on the downward face of the plateau and could not have tumbled there, it had to be moved there, like a heavy piece of furniture dragged across a carpet, as evidenced by the drag marks.

 

 

 

 

The strongest evidence that The Beings are statues that convey something meaningful can be found by examining their location relative to not only these statues but the previously mentioned outcropping terra-formed toward the precipice of the plateau.

 

In this view, we can see the position of The Being (left), The Tropical Fish (right), and these rocks (top).

 

 

 

 

At this ostensibly natural outcropping, as noted above, a female (left) and male (right) lie cold and still. She lies on her back, staring at the sky; he lies next to her, on his stomach.

 

Her dress has been carved so that it resembles that of The Being up on the plateau’s edge.

 

 

 

 

A sea tortoise (left) looks on, as if asking why the woman and the man have sunk to his natural state.

 

Elsewhere on the plateau, the statues of The Bee (center) and The Locust (right), also depicted on their backs, as if dying, complete the picture of a complex Martian ecology, and the advanced civilization that it supported, that have collapsed.

 

 

 

 

The Royal Children lie fallen beside them (below), as an Indian (far left), Mad Scientist, Ufonaut, and Falcon (far right) look on, providing mute testimony to their demise.

 

 

 

 

Happily, not all of the statues on the plateau are fraught with apocalyptic symbolism.

 

Some have been carved to satisfy the artist, in a way that shows a child-like sensitivity for the preciousness of animals. Among these are The Sleeping Cat in front of Spirit (left) and The Baby Salamander Nestled in the Rocks in the middle of the plateau (right).

 

 

 

 

A similar joie de vivre has been expressed in The Dolphin (right), which is emerging from the ground as if from the sea, on the valley floor below The Locust.

 

The Martians that carved these figures seemingly possess sensibilities that we associate with human beings, including joy, a fondness for the playful side of animals, and a reverence for life.

 

 

 

 

What is so conspicuous about these statues is not only their proximity to The Beings on the Edge, but that they all represent animal species that exist on Earth.

 

By divine providence or cosmic serendipity, Spirit has set down on a plateau on Mars that is an open-air gallery for statues of animals that convey Mars’ primordial connection to Earth.

 

 

 

 

Presumably, Earth animals like cats have found their way into Martian statuary because these species also exist on Mars. This finding is supported by this detail, in which two puppies can be seen playing far down on the middle of Tsiolkovski Ridge.

 

One is cream-colored (left) and the other brown and banded across the eyes like a raccoon (right).

 

 

 

 

Several statues emit a gaseous or aqueous substance or have been designed to appear as if they do.

 

These include The Rocket on the Rock, a missile sitting atop a round head with Asiatic features on the far left side of Tsiolkovski Ridge (left), and the statue named Vomitus, a head that can be seen ejecting a muddy effluvium from his mouth (right).

 

 

 

 

One wonders which Martians did these imaginative works.

 

Perhaps it was a Martian of the decidedly human-looking sort seen standing, obscured, behind The Green Gargoyle, the jade green, pepper-shaped head at the bottom right side of the ridge (below).

 

His bald head and gray outfit are reminiscent of “Dr. Evil” in the Austin Powers movies.

 

 

 

 

 

 


BUILT STRUCTURES

The evidence of built structures on Mars found in PIA10214 is so clear that it proves that Mars is – or was once – inhabited by beings capable of building things.

 

In fact, some of the best evidence for built structures is lying within plain sight, on the right side of the cliff, directly in front of the Rover Spirit. There, laid out like a child’s toys, are a sarcophagus, an aqueduct, and the scaffolding of a long-ago abandoned building.

The Sarcophagus (left) is shaped like a tin soldier. It has the body and the head of a king in the Egyptian style. We can readily see the king’s eye, ear, and beard. Amazingly, his thin neck remains intact.

 

The king is wearing a hat identical to the banked, cylindrical type worn by the Great Royal Wife of the Sun King Pharaoh Akhenaton, Queen Nefertiti, as depicted in the iconic bust of her discovered by Ludwig Borchardt in 1912 (right).

 

 

 

 

To the right of The Sarcophagus, the blue-green form of The Water Sprite can be seen. She is leaning forward arms outstretched, as if drinking from a river (below).
 

She might be both a waterworks and a sculpture symbolizing the return of life-giving water to the land. Her praying mantis-like form also evokes the spring, when mantises are prevalent.


She could be mistaken for an insect, were it not for the human form of her upper body.

 

 

 

 

Next to The Sarcophagus and The Water Sprite is The Face of the Bull.

 

This rusted metalwork welded to the side of the plateau is obviously a built structure. It might be the remains of a dwelling or of a terraced viewing platform that marks the location of the crested dinosaur fossil that pokes from the cliff above it, called The Head of the Lizard.

 

 

 

 

The Sarcophagus, The Water Sprite, The Face of the Bull and The Head of the Lizard (below) could represent the four seasons:

  • Winter, when the Sun lies dormant, like a Pharaoh asleep in his stony tomb

  • Spring, when The Water Sprite returns to refresh the land

  • Summer, when the Sun rages in the sky like a furious Bull

  • Autumn, when the Sun begins to slumber like a cold-blooded Lizard caught too long on a cold rock

 

 

 

Human figures (left), a Goat (center right), and a Gremlin (right) also occupy the cliff.

 

 

 

 


The Egyptian Connection
Like The Sarcophagus, an Egyptian hat sits atop one of the stone heads on Tsiolkovski Ridge (left) and The Queen at the outcropping (bottom), whose Gray face and mitered hat blend into the terrain because they were carved from the same amber-colored rock.

 

Curiously, the statues on the ridge and The Sarcophagus have been laid true north, which suggests that the entire area might once have served as a funereal site.

 

Metaphorically, they also point to Egypt and the historical linkage between Ancient Egypt and Mars.

 

 

 

 

Cats also reveal this connection.

 

The Ancient Egyptians worshiped cats (Felis sylvestris catus), which were commonplace in their statuary during the reign of the Pharaohs. On Mars, form also favors feline.

 

The Sleeping Cat (left) is not the only cat at the site.

 

The Blue Cat (center) also expresses the Egyptian love of cats as pets and in statuary (right).

 

 

 

 


The Easter Island Connection
Farther to the right of The Sarcophagus, not far from The Rock Garden, within the right prong of the Y-pattern canalized into the ground, is another ancient artifact.

 

This relic resembles a galleon that lies shipwrecked in a desert land (left) or one of the monolithic heads made by the Rapa Nui - Easter Island (right).

 

A flower has been draped over it.

 

 

 

 

The Eastern Island connection can be conjectured in the sense that this massive stone object shares the brooding forehead, protruding nose, and pursed lips of the statues found on that mysterious island.

 

Tiny humanoid beings can be seen on and around this timeless relic (left). One can be seen extricating himself from the roseate soil (center).

 

Does the rongo-rongo script of Easter Island (right) tell of the many reptilian life forms on Mars?

 

 

 

 

We have only begun to find the myriad of obvious and obscure details in PIA10214.

 

If it proves to be real, and not the result of a hoax by or within NASA, then PIA10214 will be regarded as the most significant photograph that has ever been made.

 

More ancient artifacts like these await discovery in PIA10214, purportedly the first photo ever taken by human beings from Earth to capture a visual record of humanoid beings, animal species, carved statues, and built structures existing on another planet in the Universe.

 

 

 


DEAD BODIES

Dead bodies are evidence that life exists, or at least, once existed, at a particular location.

 

Thousands of Martian bodies – fossilized, desiccated, or recently buried – lie in The Debris Fields scattered across the entire panorama. They look like a vast, light brown, pebbled moraine.

 

These were discovered by enlarging very small portions of PIA10214.

 

 

 

 

They might be the remains of humanoids on Mars that were drowned and half-buried on the surface of the silt deposited by a massive flood that struck Mars.

 

The mass disaster scenario is supported by the presence of fossils in The Valley Bottom, where human, animal, and extraterrestrial remains can be seen submerged in the dirt (left), like human corpses floating on muddy flood waters, since the day they perished in a huge deluge.

 

 

 

 

Alternatively, these could be humanoids killed by the snakes that exist on the Martian surface.

 

In the detail below (left), a serpent slithers through the mass of dead humanoids, as a living humanoid tries to escape his fate by walking across the mass of dead bodies.

 

Serpents seem to abound in the West Valley of the Columbian Basin (center and right).

 

 

 

 

Another possibility is that these are not the bodies of Martians interred following a mass deluge, but the larvae of fetal Martians, gestating in the ground, only to walk the surface of Mars during later stages of development.

 

According to this view, what we are looking at are embryonic Martians that first germinate in the ground like mushrooms do on Earth. This would be consistent with the remote viewing data that determined that the Martians live underground. Perhaps the Martians don’t live underground, but thrive in the ground.

If they are not fungal primates, there are other possible explanations for this vast morass of bodily forms. They include the science fiction-inspired hypothesis that the individual Martian bodies seen might be part of a larger organism that can spread across the surface like an amoeba that contains a host of individual Martians.

 

Such a membrane might be made up of a myriad of tiny individual humanoids (below) but possess a unitary mind.

 

 

 

 

Such fanciful notions would be readily refuted by any forensic pathologist, for many of the bodies in The Debris Fields are dressed in all blue or blue and white clothing. In the lower left corner of the detail on the left (below), a male body dressed in a white shirt and blue pants can be seen.

 

At the center top of the detail on the right (below), a female body in the same type of blue gown worn by the female figure on the cliff is lying face down.

 

 

 

 

What we are probably looking at are thousands of corpses fructifying in a sticky paste.

 

This substance might have been produced by the predators that killed the humanoids or by the humanoids as part of their burial practices. The presence of clothing establishes that this membrane is neither a common organism nor a field of gestating humanoids.

If this theory holds up, The Beings on the Edge would constitute not carved statues but rather the exoskeletons of humanoid beings that were killed by a predatory species, perhaps by having some kind of immobilizing substance sprayed on them as they were fleeing. They then remained permanently fixed at that point on the edge of the plateau.

While this supposition that a reptilian species on Mars is preying on a humanoid one is too horrifying to even contemplate, it seems to be the biological explanation most readily suggested by the available evidence. We have to look at the evidence of life on Mars in a non-teleological way, seeing what is actually there and not what we would wish to see.

If the initial theory holds and The Beings on the Edge are determined to be a statue, they might constitute a memorial statue that has been intentionally placed on this soaring vista point high above the sprawling killing fields that lie below. The plethora of dead bodies present in the tan slag is troubling and might suggest a reptilian civilization that, like the Aztecan one of old, venerates death and has a fetishistic manner of burying its victims.

Indeed, the point where The Beings stand might be a place of ritual sacrifice. This is indicated by the painted carving on the pediment upon which The Beings stand. It is a hirsute reptile, resembling a feathered snake, biting the neck of a bearded male human. This might be the sacrifice altar of the Martian Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan.

 

The Aztecs founded a blood sacrifice civilization around a reptilian man-serpent, and it is above a statue of this figure, the Plumed Serpent god Quetzalcoatl, that The Beings stand.

 

 

 

 

 

 


FRIGHTENING CONTENT

In order to properly analyze PIA10214, we are going to have to cope with macabre scenes of this sort.

 

Another case in point is found on the right crest of Tsiolkovski Ridge, where there are three boulders that look like Three Pieces of Chocolate Cake. Far from it! This part of the photograph is like something found in a rotting log in a dark forest.

We can see two men – half like beetles – pitch forward to confront a plesiosaur (top), as serpents with goofy faces slither up the hill and tiny humanoids seek refuge by clambering onto a rock (bottom).

 

This phantasmagoric scene suggests that the sparse vegetation on Mars makes predation between biological life forms especially intense.

 

 

 

 

Above The Scorpion Man (left), darkly hooded figures (center) drag a woman (right) to an uncertain fate.

  • Are human beings from Earth being abducted and taken to Mars?

  • Are the 600,000 human beings said to be on Mars volunteers, conscripts, or abductees seized on Earth in military abductions (MILABs)?

These hellish scenes haunt the imagination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


DEFINITIONAL CONSTRAINTS

Just as we anthropomorphize from the human experience on Earth to our peril when evaluating the humanoids on Mars, so we reach the limits of the Linnaean system of biological classification when describing its many and varied animals.

 

It is enough to say that The Land Octopuses on Mars show differentiation of facial structure and fur color.

 

 

 

 

Similar taxonomic impediments arise when we consider the glass beings, such as The Glass Totem on the Boulder (left) and The Glass Kachina (right).

 

These might be translucent statues, biological entities with transparent bodies, or spiritual beings appearing in PIA10214 because of the inter-dimensional significance of this photograph.

The problem deepens when we consider the fact that at the center and standing around The Glass Kachina are transparent forms with apple-shaped heads identical to that of The Glass Totem on the Boulder.

 

It is unclear whether the appendages coming from The Glass Kachina are natural appendages or just regalia put on for show to welcome Spirit.

 

 

 

 

The Face of the Bull (left) might have been forged not to represent a bull but a life form on Mars that has an anvil-shaped face that we on Earth would recognize as that of a bull.

 

It is impossible to tell from this distance whether the more modern-looking form (right) is itself a structure or the life form that inspired the design of the object on the left.

 

 

 

 

In the valley, the white spacesuit and blue helmet of The Astronaut can be seen (left and center).

 

Near him, the body of a similarly large form lies face down in the mud (right).

 

Are these the remains of a doomed space probe to the Columbian Basin or just a Martian memorial to those who have lost their lives as star voyagers exploring the Cosmos?

 

 

 

 

The bright line distinction that must be drawn between what is animate and inanimate will be difficult for us to make.

 

While The Magic Carpet Rider (left) is clearly a stone edifice of some kind designed to represent perhaps the pilot of an intergalactic ship, Triangle Face the Rock Animal (center) makes a stronger case for the prospect that some animals on Mars have evolved to camouflage themselves as boulders.

 

This seems to be a common evolutionary outcome on the surface of Mars, where some of the plesiosaurs might not be reptiles at all but rather a species of fowl with round, gray bodies that make them look like boulders and that have earned for them the name Rock Roosters (right).

 

 

 

 

Similarly, we are unable to tell whether this is a human female bending over to look at her infant or a Caterpillar Woman doing so (below).

 

All we can say at this time is that this appears to be a humanoid, who is female, who is looking down at what appears to be a baby (right). A baby stroller appears to be on her left, a large black slug on her right.

This determination is made on the basis of what we know.

 

However, to begin the field of exobiology by this breakthrough that has emerged on the surface of the Red Planet, we will have to analyze the evidence not just on the basis of what we know, but on the basis of what we don’t know, and for that matter, on what we don’t know that we don’t know.

 

 

 

 

Close to where The Spying Giraffe looks over The Head of the Dog at Spirit (left), a small creature sits on a rock (right).

 

It has the look of a wrench that has been left too long in the rain. But it also shares characteristics with Aves, hence its name The Wrench Bird. Some things that we find on Mars will defy definition by any standard on Earth.

 

 

 

 

Thus, we must use not only our knowledge but our imagination when evaluating the evidence of life on Mars, for as Albert Einstein said,

“Imagination is more important than knowledge… [K]nowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

 

 


CONCLUSION

Mars is inhabited.

 

It is inhabited by humanoid beings like us and also by animal species that are like those that exist on Earth in this age, that once existed on Earth in prehistoric times, or that are hybrids that possess the characteristics of two or more Earth species at once. These include human-insect hybrids and human-lizard hybrids.

The discovery of life on Mars is highly significant because it represents the first time that life has been found beyond the confines of Earth. It is also very important because it constitutes the first evidence of humanoid life beyond Earth. This suggests that in universal terms, human life forms might be fairly common throughout the Universe.

Earth is not the only inhabited planet in our solar system. This discovery will work a Copernican revolution in every area of human learning, especially anthropology, evolutionary biology, archaeology, the history of ancient civilizations, and Exopolitics. The 21st Century will be one of intergalactic contact for human civilization on Earth.

Life on Mars mirrors that on Earth. It shows evidence of such things as speciation, predation, the descent of primates, division into male and female, and the development of symbiotic relationships between species. This indicates that life on Earth and Mars might have come from the same source or followed similar developmental pathways.

This discovery helps solve the UFO mystery, in the sense that it confirms that life exists beyond our planet, that such life includes intelligent, bipedal hominids, and that the humanoids found on Mars conform to the “aliens” reported in the UFO literature. Human beings share a common template with other humanoids in an inhabited Universe.

Mars is the site of many ancient artifacts consisting of statues and structures of great archaeological significance that reveal the presence on Mars of at least one advanced, intelligent civilization. The similarity of biological and archeological forms on the Earth and Mars indicates an evolutionary and historical linkage between the Earth and Mars, specifically, a connection between Ancient Egypt and Ancient Mars.

The life that has been discovered on Mars is stranger than we could ever imagine it to be. Luckily, the evidence available from this first view of Martian civilization indicates that the humanoids on Mars are intelligent, social, peaceful beings that do not endanger us. They are cooperative and make art with both high intelligence and a child-like sensibility. The implication of the ancient artifacts is that the Martians are in some way related to us.

Any future manned mission to Mars should account for the diversity of human groups, animal species, and ancient artifacts on Mars, and carefully plan to protect them from the externalities of the mission. To do otherwise would violate the precautionary principle.

The discovery of life on Mars is one of the great events of the 21st Century and begins a new chapter of the human adventure in the Universe, one in which humanity collectively crosses the threshold that spans its past as an earthbound race and its future as a space-faring civilization in contact with biological species that exist elsewhere in the Cosmos.

 

 

 


METHODOLOGY

The full-resolution, 5.856 megabyte-sized JPEG of PIA10214 posted by NASA on the World Wide Web at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10214 was imported into the Paint program of the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system on the author’s HP Pavilion Entertainment Laptop Personal Computer.

 

Small parts of the photograph were copied utilizing the cutting tool of its Paint program and then embedded into a Word document in Microsoft Word 2003.

 

These embeds were then enlarged at 500% resolution and stretched to fit the margins of the text of this paper. Besides horizontal and vertical stretching of each embed to achieve page justification, no alteration of the form or color of any of the images was performed. The Word document was then converted to PDF for posting in that format on the Internet.

 

The evidence of humanoid beings, animal species, carved statues and built structures in PIA10214 was demonstrably evident when a generic PnP monitor with driver NVIDIA MCP67M was set to 1,280 x 800 pixels and the highest color resolution (32-bit).

 

In the future, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 will be used to create higher quality JPEGs of details from PIA10214, with alteration of color to enhance the visibility of the evidence, and the Mars Anomaly Research Society will collaborate with an artist to produce line drawings of the forms found in the images.
 

 

 

 

GLOSSARY

The names given by NASA to the land formations on the surface of Mars that can be seen in this historically momentous photograph honor two American astronauts who died while bravely exploring space and who collectively represent eight others, the astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 and space shuttle Columbia disasters.

 

They also honor two visionary Russian space scientists, one an astronomer, the other a rocket scientist. This might not be a coincidence.

 

American and Russian astronauts first collaborated in space during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975 and may do so again on Mars.

 

  • Grissom Hill was named for Virgil (Gus) Grissom, 1926-1967, the United States Air Force pilot and NASA astronaut. Grissom was the second American to fly in space. In 1959, after physical and psychological tests, he was chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts.

     

    A captain when selected, Grissom rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during his career in the astronaut program. He was the pilot of Mercury-Redstone 4 (Liberty Bell 7), the second American spaceflight.

     

    He was killed during a training exercise for the Apollo 1 mission on January 27, 1967, at Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy, along with fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

     

  • Gusev Crater was named for Matvey Matveyevich Gusev, 1826-1866, a Russian astronomer who worked at Pulkovo Observatory near St. Petersburg from 1850 to 1852 and then at Vilnius Observatory thereafter. He was the first astronomer to prove the non-sphericity of the Moon, concluding that it is elongated in the direction of the Earth.

     

    In 1860, he founded the first scientific journal dedicated to mathematics and physics in Russia.

     

    He is considered one of the pioneers in using photography in astronomy, having taken pictures of the Moon and the Sun – including sunspots – while at the Vilnius observatory.

     

    He became the director of the Vilnius Observatory in 1865.

     

  • Husband Hill was named for Richard Douglas Husband, 1957-2003, the commander of space shuttle Columbia. Husband was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1994. He reported to the Johnson Space Center in 1995 to begin a year of training and evaluation.

     

    Husband was then named the Astronaut Office representative for Advanced Projects at Johnson Space Center, working on Space Shuttle Upgrades, the Crew Return Vehicle, and studies to return to the Moon and travel to Mars. He flew as pilot on STS96 in 1999. Husband was later assigned to command the crew of STS-107 in 2003.

     

    He was killed when Columbia disintegrated after re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

     

  • Tsiolkovski Ridge was named for Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovski, 1857–1935, the Russian inventor and rocket expert. His most important work was concerned with the possibility of rocket flight into space.

     

    Tsiolkovski published The Investigation of Outer Space by Means of Reaction Apparatus in 1903. In this work, he discusses in mathematical terms the problems involved in overcoming Earth’s gravitational pull via rockets. He also suggests the use of reaction vehicles for interplanetary flight. In 1929, he presented a design for a multi-stage rocket called a rocket train.

     

    He also proposed the use of satellites and manned platforms as way stations in interplanetary travel.

 

 

 

REFERENCES

Blanchard, Guillaume, Photograph of the Cat Goddess Bastet in the Egyptian antiquities of the Louvre Museum, Paris. See “Cats in Ancient Egypt” on the World Wide Web at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Egypte_louvre_058.jpg.

Etumyan, Arkadiy, Photograph of Bust of Queen Nefertiti in the Altes Museum, Berlin. See “Nefertiti” on the World Wide Web at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), PIA10214.jpg: Spirit’s West Valley Panorama, Full-Resolution JPEG (5.856 MB). See “Catalog Page for PIA10214” on the World Wide Web at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA10214.

Webre, Alfred Lambremont, Exopolitics: Politics, Government and Law in the Universe. Vancouver, B.C.: Universe Books, 2005.

Wikimedia Commons, Photograph of Moai at Rano Raraku, Easter Island. See “Eastern Island” on the World Wide Web at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island.

Wikimedia Commons, Photograph of Rongo-Rongo Script, Easter Island. See “Eastern Island” on the World Wide Web at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Island.

Wikipedia, Plesiosaurs. See “Plesiosaur” on the World Wide Web at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosaur.