Dispatch, Columbus, OH.
May 31, 1994
By Micheal B. Lafferty
Dispatch Science Reporter
Richard C, Hoagland has amused the space science community for years by arguing that NASA photographs show monuments and other artifacts on Mars built by intelligent aliens.
On Thursday, in a Columbus lecture, he will talk about related structures on the moon.
Hoagland, 48, says his findings are based on advanced computer analysis of space agency photographs not available when the photos were first taken more than 20 years ago. The computer analysis, he said, has uncovered spires, domes and other structures of a long-dead alien city on the moon.
He will present his evidence publicly for the first time at Ohio State University during a 7 p.m.Thursday talk in Indepenence Hall, 1923 Neil Ave.
His talk, delayed from last Thursday, is sponsored by OSU aeronautical and astronautical engineering students and MidOhio Research Associates, a local UFO investigation group.
Hoagland, who lives in Weehawken, N.J., was reported unavailable for an interview last week because of illness.
Bruce Cornet said the images confirm the presence of structures of an ancient, ruined, lunar metropolis beneath a long-broken transparent dome in a basin known as the Mare Crisium. The area is in the upper right portion of the moon's disk as viewed from Earth.
"It's a multi-tiered structure of high complexity that cannot be explained away as a natural feature," Cornet said of the dome. "Even the astronauts observed things of this nature when they were flying over them. They thought they saw clouds but what they may have been seeing were the micrometeorite frosted surface of the (dome)."
Hoagland has named the remains of the dome "the Shard," The frosting Cornet refers to is the result of dust-sized meteorites scaring the surface of what Cornet believes are the remains of the transparent cover. The city has been destroyed by meteorites striking the moons surface.
Cornet said the area covered by one of the ruins compares in size to Los Angeles.
OSU astronomer Gerald Newsom doesn't believe Hoagland's theory. He said lunar photo analysis is much like "interpreting rubble."
"There's rubble all over the moon. It sounds like he wants to see ruined civilizations."
Hoagland says he is a former consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A NASA spokeman said he could not confirm Hoagland's claim.
Hoagland bases his analysis on moon photos taken by the Surveyor 6 spacecraft in November 1967, the lunar orbiter in February 1967, the Apollo 10 spacecraft in May 1969 and Apollo 16 in June 1972.
Hoagland believes his lunar evidence is linked to pyramids and other monuments, including the famous "face on Mars" he purports to have discovered from NASA photos. He outlined his theory and eveidence in a 1992 book, The Monuments of Mars.
In the late 19th century, astronomer Percival Lowell theorized the
"canals" observed by earlier astronomers were part of an extensive irrigation system. Various science fiction authors have helped foster an image that Mars might have once harbored life, notably Robert Heinlein in modern times with his Martian Chronicles.
The fires of imagination also have been stoked by the failure of some of the space probes to Mars - both from the United States and the former Soviet Union. In 1993, conspiracy theories popped up in the wake of the loss of the Mars Observer spacecraft.
Was the destruction an accident? Was the spacecraft destroyed by aliens? Was it destroyed because the federal government wished to keep the public in the dark at least until more is learned?
In fact, was the observer destroyed at all? One theory holds that the Mars Observer is out there still sending closely guarded data back to Earth.
Hoagland claims that one of the Martian artifacts - in the shape of a triangle enclosed in a circle - provided the lead that allowed him to find the ancient lunar city.
He discovered the same symbol on the moon.
Hoagland's investigations have identified a structure he called "the Tower" in an area in the Sinus Medii near the center of the moon as viewed from Earth. The Tower is about 200 miles from the Shard and rises 5 miles high. The top of the Tower, according to Cornet, appears to be composed of regular cube shapes that form a larger cube more than 1 mile in diameter.
The connection of the Martian and lunar theories with pyramids and similar monuments on Earth are obvious and, if proven by independent investigators, the implications are staggering.
But that's a big "if."
NASA officials have consistently said that what Hoagland believes are Martian monuments are merely shadows and odd reflections and that the photos show nothing but natural features.
Cornet said Hoagland's analysis is based on original, unretouched NASA photos; he claims the agency now retouches or censors the images when they are ordered by the public. That's disputed by NASA.