Mars

When I'm walking down the street or naked in a phone booth, people often stop me and say, "binnall ... what's the deal with your obsession with Mars?" Well, my friends, the answer is quite simple. On my endless quest for answers to the secrets of the universe, the journey invariably takes me to Mars ... the Red Planet.

In the late 1800's, a man with a telescope named Percival Lowell, discovered the "Martian canals." From there, Lowell extrapolated a variety of meanings behind the canals and from there the quest for life on Mars was born. Shortly after that, H.G. Wells took many of Lowell's ideas and twisted them into the "popular" notion of hostile and invading Martian forces. "War of the Worlds" thrust Martians into the pantheon of pop culture.

It wasn't until the mid-1900's that the idea of life on Mars was dismissed after NASA began taking pictures of "The Red Planet" and did not find any "little green men" inhabiting the surface. In 1976 however, the Mars Viking Probe did produce a picture that started the ball rolling on the new quest for life on Mars ... "The Face."

I don't have all day to get into the credentials of my Martian guru, Richard C. Hoagland, but suffice it to say, the man is a genius. And in 1983, he stumbled upon a little pamphlet by a couple of scientists who were studying "The Face." And from there, Enterprise Mission was born. Their mission ... "To boldly go where someone has gone before ..."

Since then, Hoagland has looked into every angle of "The Face" and its surrounding structures comprising the city of Cydonia on Mars. And his results have been remarkable. Amazingly perfect geometric angles from one structure to the next suggest that "The Face" and the various elements of Cydonia had to have been created by intelligent life. As we get closer and closer to finding the answers on Mars, Hoagland continues to ride NASA for more and more images of Cydonia and every time he is shut out or given largely useless data. The data he is given, however, does nothing to dismiss the notion that Cydonia is or rather was a city on Mars. If there is nothing there, why wouldn't NASA take any more pictures of "The Face ?" Without the tireless work of Hoagland and his supporters "The Face" and its surrounding structures would have faded into obscurity.

Sounds crazy, don't it? Look at the Sphinx in Egypt. We don't know who made that, but it bears a striking resemblance to ... "The Face." In 1979, Hoagland championed a theory of oceans on Jupiter's moon Europa. Many laughed him off as a nut. Now, after NASA's Galileo probe sent back pictures of Europa, it turns out that his theories are most likely correct! Looking for an Ocean on Europa (ABC News)

After first discovering Hoagland's work at the beginning of this year, I took my findings to a science teacher I once knew. His response was the same as NASA's canned reply "It's a trick of light and shadows." That's it. When someone asks me, "You believe in that thing?!" I reply that there are two options. One, NASA's respone "It's all light and shadows." The other option, Hoagland's 500 page book detailing the structures of Cydonia and why they had to have been created by intelligent life. Now, which sounds more plausible.

The quest for answers on Mars will be heating up this year as two new probes have been launched to learn more about what is going on on our "red twin." Recently, NASA released this picture you see to the left, which is the first ever view of Earth from Mars. Had extraterrestrial life had even the simplest of microscopes, this is what they would have seen. In the 70's, NASA released a picture of Earth from the Moon and it became an icon to millions of Earthlings everywhere. Hopefully, this new view of Earth will serve the same purpose, to galvanize the populace into a quest to go to Mars.

The interest in Mars is not limited to late-night radio and sci-fi conventions. Mars has always been the assumed next stopping point on man's ever growing sphere of exploration. In wake of the recent Columbia disaster, many in the scientific community have pushed for an end to space experiments and a start to a real effort for sending man to Mars. Already in NASA's budget for 2003/4 is "Project Prometheus," a nuclear-powered rocket that would allow man to arrive at Mars in an amazing six weeks time with six times the payload of a normal shuttle mission. Conservative estimates place man setting foot on Mars within the next ten years.

Does NASA know of the structures on Mars? Hoagland says "yes." And cites a myriad of examples of coded references in the names of its missions. The obvious example is "Project Prometheus" itself. Prometheus was a greek Titan who "stole fire from the Gods." Ironically, or perhaps not, Project Prometheus serves the same purpose: to go into space and steal "fire" i.e. knowledge from the "gods" i.e. the ancient inhabitants of Mars.

As we get closer and closer to the end of the first decade of the millenium and near the infamous 2012, we will go to Mars. When, and if, the findings at Cydonia are shown, Hoagland will be lauded as the modern day Gallileo, one who dared to look out into the sky and say "what if?"

We'll be posting the news from the ever-expanding quest for answers on Mars on the main page, but for more info, check out Enterprise Mission's website where Hoagland details the latest developments from NASA not seen throught the rose-colored glasses of the mainstream press : Enterprise Mission