University of South Florida
Tampa St. Petersburg Fort Myers Satasota
Department of Religious Studies
Tampa, FLA 33620-5550
813: 974-2221
March 17, 1989
Mr. Richard C. Hoagland %The Mars Mission
P.O. Box 981 Wytheville, VA 24382
Dear Dick,
Thanks very much for the new information about the large pyramid of the Cydonia complex lying precisely upon Mars geodedic north latitude 40.87 degrees, the tangent of which is e/pi. That is quite impressive, as it is an empirically-derived location, not one produced by adjusting the framework of latitude to fit the observations.
Of course I am not speaking as a space scientist, but I think I can comment as an archaeologist on the results so far obtained. It seems to me that we now have a set of detailed correlations of mathematical constants with surface features, which are at the very least suggestive. The only hypotheses that are any good in science are those that are falsifiable and testable. If I were looking at comparable data from some ordinary but inaccessible place on Earth, then it seems to me that the next step would
be to form a falsifiable and testable hypothesis, namely, that these structures and mathematical correlations were produced by design. I would then suggest that the next step would be a close look -- first in a lowaltitude fly-over, then in survey by foot, and finally test by excavation.
If we apply this line of reasoning to the Cydonia complex, then the immediate implication is that we should go have a look, perhaps by some kind of space probe that can produce photos with good resolution in several kinds
of light. Therefore it seems reasonable to me to press for a Mars Probe that is charged, among other things, with sending back low-altitude, high-
resolution photography of Cydonia. The second line of reasoning leads to the conclusion that we should send a manned Mars probe to investigate this and the other [enigmatic and highly-suggestive] features of the red planet.
One night twenty years ago I was at Tell Gezer in Israel, sitting on a wall built in 1400 BC, when a friend from Harvard walked up and announced that man had landed on the Moon. What better time to go to Mars than on the twentieth anniversary of our trip to the Moon?
I hope for success in persuading those in position to make decisions affecting this proposal. It is not important whether we believe there ever was "life on Mars," it is only important that you and others have developed some important correlations, even stunningly important correlations of mathematical constants with surface features, and we need to follow up properly and scientifically.
Of course, you are welcome to quote from this letter.
Sincerely yours,
James F. Strange, Professor