EVIDENCE OF LIFE ON MARS?

Linn: Once again, Iowa City UFOlogist Jeffrey Sietsema is delving into the mysteries of intelligent life in space. His most recently published essay, "Mars---The Bunkers: The Long Story" (November, 1997, Three Acre Press) suggests that intelligently-designed structures do exist on the surface of Mars, and that NASA is attempting to hide this information from us.

     At almost nine o' clock on the afternoon of July 4, 1997, the Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars. CNN broadcast "live" footage of Mars: a barren desert strewn with rocks and boulders, lit by a red sky.

     More recently, NASA has released new photographs of the Cydonia region of the planet, the region containing the formation known as the "Face on Mars". The Mariner 9 satellite took photos of pyramid-shaped mountains in an area called the Elysium Triangle. Scientist Dr. James Hurtak speculated that if there are pyramids on Mars, there might also be a sphinx. The new photo shows the "face" lit from a different direction, looking more like a shoe print than a face. Still, Steve Corrick, hawker of the book, The Case for the Face, says, "You see nothing that looks like anybody's uncle, but it would be possible to perceive a clearly delineated eye socket and what might be some kind of mouth."

     Other than the face, Mars-watchers have found an assortment of other structures on the surface that they believe points to an extraterrestrial presence; the pyramids being the most prominent. The five-sided "D&M Pyramid," named after Di Pietro and Molenaar, when viewed from directly overhead "embodies mathematical design, including a constant logarithmic base (2.72, the value of e) and the value of pi (3.1415827...)" In addition, the proportions of the pyramid also almost exactly replicate Leonardo Da Vinci's famous drawing of the human figure, "Man in a Squared Circle." And this pyramid is in the vicinity of the infamous "face." Coincidence?

     Many don't think so, including Jeffrey Sietsema. He spent a great deal of time analyzing the images that Pathfinder beamed back from the Martian surface. In one particular image, he spied what appeared to be a cubic or rectangular object, which he labeled a "bunker." These bunkers appeared to be constructed out of white stone instead of the dark Martian rock. Sietsema also points out in the essay that later mysterious black boxes appeared on certain portions of the images on the NASA pathfinder web site. Why? He believes that NASA is purposely editing out some of the images in an effort not to let the general public see the intelligently-built structures on Mars. Why the government would wish to hide such information, Sietsema is not sure.

     Sietsema thinks that the structures on Mars may not be evidence that life actually exists, or did exist on Mars but rather that an extraterrestrial race may have put these buildings as an attempt at communication with Earthlings. After all, Sietsema does think that the aliens speak through sign and symbol, not ordinary human language (see: IC UFOlogist Explores Visitor-Contact Science, March, 1998, Vol. 5, Issue #3). If this is the case, then it is up to researchers to interpret the message the pyramids and face are attempting to relay.

     D. Moench, The Big Book of Conspiracies, Paradox Press, 1995

Iowa City Press Citizen, April 7, 1998