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sion to that planet—including the Mars Observer mission, tographing the Cydonia Region of Mars" and letters written should communications with that spacecraft be restored.’ in January and October 1992 by Dr Michael Malin, NASA Some of the researchers have gone further in their hypothe- | Mars Observer Camera Principal Investigator, and Mark A. ses regarding the Martian objects, and others have not. The Pine, Chief of the Policy and Plans Branch of the NASA present discussion is not intended to support or deny any fea- Office of Space Science and Applications (references 8, 9 tures of these extended hypotheses.'"® The immediate purpose and 11). of this paper is to determine and evaluate the relationship Dr Malin's letter indicates that the Cydonia region of Mars, between evidence supporting the AOC hypothesis and _ where the AOC landforms are located, was targeted for high- NASA's policy on setting priority resolution photography as part of levels for targeting the Cydonian a general plan to secure images features for observation, as well of scientifically interesting natur- as NASA's policies regarding H ; al geological formations. public access to any such data ..the possible social le a ely However, the AOC hypothesis once it is obtained."” The long- Of an extraterrestrial discovery and played no significant role in the term purpose is to illustrate the Hy prioritising of NASA objectives. political, ethical and scientific to consider whether such a This position is reiterated in the tension that arises when the discovery should be kept from the etter from Mark A. Pine-and in potential of a discovery that could oo . 1c other NASA documents: "NASA cause a major shift in our under- public in order to avoid political has no plans to treat images of standing of ourselves and our his- Change and a possible "devastating" the Cydonia region any different- tory comes up against the biases oat ly than those of the other regions of individual scientists and the effect on scientists themselves... of the Martian surface.""* While interests of a government bureau- the region in general may be tar- cracy. —__—_—_—————————————— ees geted, this does not guarnnice any special effort to image the AOC PRIGRITY LEWES landforms. Careful analysis of NASA priorities as embodied This report has been prompted in part by a document dis- in the Mars Observer mission indicates that in all probability tributed by NASA titled "Information on NASA Re-pho- _ they would not be included. cracy. This report has been prompted in part by a document dis- tributed by NASA titled “Information on NASA Re-pho- APRIL - MAY 1994 34¢NEXUS PRIORITY LEVELS Enlargement of NASA Viking frame 35A72, showing the Face feature. Estimated dimensions of the ‘Face of Cydonia’ are: 2.5km long, 2km wide, and between 500 and 800 m high.