© 2002 THE ENTERPRISE MISSION

ENTERPRISE MISSION INVESTIGATORS CONFIRM
PRESENCE OF ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURES ON MARS --
BUT CONFLICTING DATASETS RAISE SERIOUS LEGAL AND POLITICAL QUESTIONS
Albuquerque, New Mexico, 09/05/2002 -- New research by investigators for the Enterprise Mission (www.enterprisemission.com), a private, not-for-profit space science research organization, has revealed overwhelming evidence of ancient, artificial structures on Mars. Working with recently released daytime infrared imaging of the Cydonia region of the planet Mars, a team of independent investigators from around the world has uncovered clear and unmistakable evidence of a massive, "city-like grid structure" just beneath the dusty surface of this northern Martian desert. In addition, individual buildings the size of city blocks have been revealed that display unambiguous evidence of architectural design.
Using state-of-the-art image processing software provided by Colorado-based Research Systems, Inc. (www.rsinc.com, a division of the Kodak Corporation), the Enterprise Mission team was able to extract data from the various raw infrared image bands provided July 24, 2002 by the THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) instrument aboard NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Using ENVI 3.5, their top-of-the-line multi-spectral imaging program (provided gratis by Research Systems Inc.), Hoagland and other team members managed to achieve analytical results on the historic NASA data that would not have been possible with conventional image processing techniques.
These new findings will be formally announced by Enterprise Mission principal investigator Richard C. Hoagland on the September 5th late-night edition of the nationwide radio program "Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell," (www.coasttocoastam.com).
However, serious questions have been raised by the existence of at least two conflicting source datasets from the official NASA/THEMIS website, maintained by Arizona State University (ASU), in Tempe, Arizona. Hoagland has attempted to enlist the assistance of Dr. Phillip Christensen, the THEMIS instrument Principal Investigator, by sending him examples of the conflicting datasets, but after one acrimonious response from Christensen, the THEMIS team leader has remained silent concerning the obvious discrepancy.
"There is no question that what we are seeing on the real image is architecture," Hoagland said in an official statement. "Although we have already made what we consider an incredibly strong case that certain objects at Cydonia, including the famous Face on Mars, are artificial, this data is on a whole different level. It will ultimately end this debate once and for all-particularly if we get to see the rest of the original Mars THEMIS IR data, including the vital nighttime IR images, that we now know NASA is deliberately withholding."
"However, we have discovered in the last two weeks that the data we have been working with is not the same as that currently posted on the official THEMIS website (http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20020724A.html). This raises serious questions about the integrity of the data provided by NASA and ASU."
Hoagland and his team obtained their version of the daytime IR data from the same THEMIS website as the current official version of that data. The "real" data was downloaded by Keith Laney, an independent image processing specialist who is currently supplying imaging enhancements for NASA-Ames' MOC MER2003 Landing Sites Project and the NASA "Marsoweb Program, on July the 25th, 2002 at 10:27 PM EDT. Laney considers it a possibility that he may have been redirected to a site that looked exactly like the official THEMIS website, when he went to download the image on the 25th.
Adding to the mystery is the fact that Laney was encouraged to go to the site after he had criticized the quality of the "official" data in The Enterprise Mission's electronic Conference room. The person doing the most encouragement was Noel Gorelick -- Manager of Arizona State University's Mars Computation Center, and the person responsible for creating and posting the official NASA IR Cydonia composite images on the THEMIS web site in the first place. "I would not have bothered to revisit the THEMIS Cydonia image again, if it were not for Mr. Gorelick forcefully encouraging me to do so in several e-mail exchanges and sequential posts," Laney stated.
Adding a strange twist to the whole mystery, is the fact that Gorelick chose the nickname "Bamf" for posting in the Enterprise Conference -- a slang computer term for "redirecting someone to a fake website or server," as his identifier in the Enterprise Conference. "I tend to think 'Bamf' Bamfed me to the real data," Laney said.
Once the discrepancy was discovered, Hoagland, Laney, and other members of the Enterprise Mission team set out to determine which set of images was the real one -- and which was fallacious. All their tests now unequivocally point to the image obtained by Laney on July 25th as being genuine.
"We compared it with visible light images of the Cydonia region, to match up specific features, we analyzed the noise content and compared it to the instrument specs, we cross-checked our results with MOLA laser altimeter data, and we compared it to previous infrared data obtained by the Russian Phobos 2 spacecraft in 1989. We also checked the header tags embedded in the two different images. All of these tests came back in favor Keith's data as being legitimate, and the official version being 'something else,'" Hoagland stated.
Hoagland then attempted to communicate the discrepancy to Dr. Phillip Christensen, the Principal Investigator of the THEMIS instrument via email. After nearly 24 hours, Christensen responded with a harshly worded email which accused the Enterprise Mission team of having "tinkered" with the data. Hoagland then provided Christensen with a side by side comparison of the two datasets, which clearly shows that the official version on the THEMIS website is highly degraded, and obviously not in keeping with the published capabilities of the instrument. Christensen has not responded to that initiative in the last 48 hours.
"We simply wrote and asked him to try and clear up the discrepancy from his end. After all, he is ultimately responsible for the integrity and quality of what's on the THEMIS web site," Hoagland said. "He responded by attacking us, instead of simply analyzing the comparison we sent him. I find that curious to say the least."
Hoagland refused to speculate on how the "official" version of the data may have been created. "We have our ideas on that. But we are far more interested at this point in who slipped us the real data, and who instructed them to do so." He also asserted that "We have total confidence that we could prove in a court of law, beyond any reasonable doubt, that our version of the data is a legitimate THEMIS IR image. But we hope it won't come to that."
Hoagland dismissed the idea that with two conflicting datasets, results cannot be trusted from either one.
"That's a Red Herring." Hoagland stated. "Imaging professionals will be able to follow our processes using both sets of source data. The results will not only be entirely different, but the results from the 'real' dataset will be orders of magnitude better than can be obtained with the 'official' version of the data. It will be very obvious that the results obtained from Keith Laney's data are consistent with the designed capabilities of the THEMIS instrument, and that the results obtained using the 'official' version are not."
Hoagland also pointed out that the Enterprise Mission team could not have processed the infrared data without the help the Arizona State University THEMIS imaging team themselves, including Gorelick, who provided an unprecedented level of expertise and technical support directly to the Enterprise workers. However, Gorelick also implied in later postings to the Enterprise Mission Conference that he may have tampered with the data at some point.
According to Hoagland, "The crucial question that must be solved is 'which set of data he was talking about?' The one that Keith Laney obtained, or the one that is currently posted on the official THEMIS site?"
Hoagland flatly rejected any notion that he or his team had somehow fabricated their version of the source IR data. "That's laughable. We don't have the time or talent to do such a thing. And what would be our motivation? We are better off not raising this issue than getting into this conflict. Besides, it will quickly become clear to imaging professionals that it is the 'official' image that has a myriad of problems. No one could have 'created' the kind of detail we are seeing in the real version of these extraordinary images."
"That's why we intend to publish step-by-step instructions for everything we did with this data. Anyone with adequate software will be able to duplicate our results," Hoagland said. "And frankly, if they have a problem with how we processed these images, they should take it up with Dr. Christensen's science team and the folks at Kodak. All we did was follow the blueprint they laid out for us. The integrity of the results is not in question, as anyone who duplicates the process will quickly discover."
Hoagland speculated that the "official" version was "sanitized" when someone inside the THEMIS team got a good look at what was on the data. "We know that Gorelick, at least, saw our version of this data, because he admitted to Keith Laney in a private chat that he had seen the peculiar 'block shapes' - the buried City -- that distinguish our data from the 'official' version."
Hoagland also pointed to the long and acrimonious relationship between his organization and NASA as a possible reason for the "bait and switch" maneuver. "The argument between myself and NASA has become rather personal over the years, despite the fact that I was once welcomed there with open arms," he said. "If we had published our results when we originally planned, two weeks ago, before we discovered the different datasets, no imaging professional would have been able to duplicate our results with the 'official' version on the THEMIS website."
"Despite the fact that the results now prove beyond any doubt that there are artificial structures at Cydonia, no one would have been able to replicate them," he said. It would have been a modern version of the 'cold fusion' debate."
Hoagland said he intends to call for an official investigation into the matter. "We intend to use whatever resources we have at our disposal, which are considerably less than those of NASA or ASU, to get to the bottom of this. That includes pressing for a congressional or criminal investigation."
In any event, Hoagland also intends to press for release of any and all nighttime infrared data that the THEMIS team may acquire, or have already acquired, in the next few days. "There are at least seven other prime locations that we consider likely to show aspects of similar artificial construction. In fact, in one case we already have a nearly identical result from the Hydraotes Chaos region of Mars. An infrared image of that area was taken in 1989 by the Russian Phobos 2 probe and it showed the same kind of rectilinear, strikingly "cityscape pattern" (see related story at http://www.enterprisemission.com/expect.htm)."
"And we won't know what else we might find until we see all of the data," he added.
"But unfortunately, it is now obvious we can't trust the internal data handling methods at ASU. There must be far greater accountability than has been in place to this point. This nonsense has got to stop. They know what's down there. We know what's down there, and the majority of the public will soon know what's down there. It is time for them to just admit they were wrong, and begin to cooperate with our investigation -- instead of resorting to these college fraternity pranks to try and obscure the issue."
The Cydonia IR processed original images will be publicly released to the Enterprise Mission web site (www.enterprisemission.com) and Art Bell's website (www.artbell.com) just before Hoagland's appearance on "Coast to Coast with Art Bell" -- Thursday, September 5th, 2002.

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Richard C. Hoagland is founder and principal investigator of the Enterprise Mission. In 1971, Hoagland successfully proposed to NASA (along with fellow researcher, Eric Burgess) that a "message" be attached to Earth's first interstellar spacecraft: Pioneer 10. NASA, through the offices of Dr. Carl Sagan, accepted the proposal and thus was born the well-known "Pioneer Plaque." Hoagland has also served as an official NASA consultant to the Goddard Space Flight Center; and, in the 1960's was formal science advisor to Walter Cronkite and CBS News, during NASA's Apollo Program to the Moon. In the early 1980's, based on NASA data from the more sophisticated unmanned Voyager fly-bys of the outer planets, Hoagland became the first to propose (in a widely-quoted series of UPI and AP stories on his startling paper, published in 1980 in Star & Sky magazine) the possible existence of "deep ocean life" under the global ice shield perpetually surrounding the enigmatic moon of Jupiter, Europa. In 1993, for his continuing work on possible "extraterrestrial artifacts" and their implications, Hoagland was awarded the prestigious international Angstrom Medal for Excellence in Science. In 2001, he published the "Mars Tidal Model," (www.enterprisemission.com/tide.htm) a revolutionary new view of the planet Mars and how many of its geological features came to be formed. This paper made specific predictions about the presence and distribution of water and water ice on the surface of Mars that were confirmed by 2001 Mars Odyssey results earlier this year (see www.enterprisemission.com/excuses.htm).
Keith Laney is a digital imaging and software applications specialist and experienced space imaging researcher from Charlotte NC. He is an MOC image processor for NASA-Ames' MER2003 Landing Sites and Marsoweb Project (http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landingsites/mer2003/mocs/), as well as a promotional partner for Research Systems Inc.'s ENVI 3.5 imaging software.