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APRIL -MAY 1994 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Agreat scientific experiment came to a climactic and frustrating end when, on 21st August 1993, communication with NASA's Mars Observer space craft was reported lost after its successful completion of ao eleve!\.,month journey to the Red Planet.2 Just three days before it was to enter Mars orbit, but shortly after instructions for orbital insertion had been uploaded, the spacecraft mysteriously failed to respond to commands from the ground or to signal its pres ence to its controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. In the weeks following, repeated attempts to restore communications have been made. As of this writing, all efforts have failed. This apparent tragedy, ending the first mission to Mars since the Viking probes of 1976, is part of a much larger story-a story of deception and scientific irrespon sibility designed to suppress or prevent what might be one of the greatest scientific discoveJ"ies in all of buman history. With a replacement mission in the planning, a very real possibility exists that the scenario that dominated the Mars Observer mis sion may be repeated. This report chnmicles the ongoing picture of scientific, ethi cal and political concern within which the Mars Observer mission took place, in 'the hope that the mistakes and distortions that plagued that mission will not be repeat· ed. THE MARS OBSERVER SPACECRAFT The Mars Observer, launched 25th September 1992, was the first of lID "Observer series" of missions for planetary exploration. The principal objective of the mis sion was to gather information on the geology and climate of Mars.) Mars Observer w.as scheduled to reach its destination in August 1993 and begin its "map ping phase" by November 1993. The mapping phase was to last for one Martian year, or 687 daYS.4 During this phase the Mars Observer camera would relay low resolution photagraphs of the entire planet daily. It would also take moderate-reso lution photographs (size of smallest visible objects 300 metres) and high-resolution ,photographs (size of smallest visible objects 11 and 1.4 metres)! for the purpose of secur,jng geological and a1bedo (reflectivity) information on targeted areas of inter est.s The Mars Observer was reported "lost" by NASA on 21st August 1993, short ly after instructions for orbital insertion had been sent to the spacecraft. At this writing, com!TlUnication with the spacecraft has not been reestablished, and NASA is still attempting to overcome the problem. It is not known whether the Mars Obscrver has gone into orbit around Mars or has passed the planet and entered a solar orbit.6 THE AOC HYPOTHESIS During the 1976 Viking mission to Mars, photographs of the planet were obtained at a 50-metre resolution.? In 'the seventeen years since then independent research groups have engaged in an exhaustive study of certain unusual surfac_e fea tures revealed in the Viking images, most of which are located in an area of Mars known as the Cydonia Plain.s All of the independent researchers have concluded that the data supports the possibility that some features at Cydonia may be the ruins of intelligently designed structures. 1 will refer to the hypothesis that the Cydonia fcatures may be of artificial origin as the AOC hypothesis (Artificial Origin at Cydonia). The AOC hypothesis does not claim that there is proof of artificial features on Mars; it claims that the probability of there being artificial features is strong enoogh to make new high-resolution photographs a top priority for any future mis NEXUS-33