Finding Potential Alien Artefacts and Structures on the Planet Mars
Should Rovers and Orbiters Studying the Red Planet be Searching for Signs of Past Civilization?
Is it possible to discover and study remnants of a past civilization on the Planet Mars?
My project at SecretMars is focussed on exploring this possibility and presenting official space agency images that may already reveal candidates for this study.
The main problem however is that without trained archaeologists (or what might better be referred to as ‘exoarchaeologists’) landing on the surface of Mars and examining closely any potential artefacts, it is problematic. However, a robotic arm from one of the current Mars rovers Curiosity and Perseverance, could get in very close to an interesting or unusual object, flip it over, examine it, and take some samples and highly detailed images for analysis.
Also, from orbit around Mars, high resolution images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) HiRISE camera (which can resolve land-based structures at 25 cm per digital pixel), would be able to help identify any potential, partially buried Martian buildings and sites of previous settlements, in the same way that archaeologists use aerial photography and satellite imaging, to discover and identify such ancient structures and buried sites here on our own planet. For future missions, the use of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology on Mars, would be a powerful aid in identifying any possible structures below the surface.
Possible Evidence of Martian Exoarchaeology Has Not Been Examined by NASA
So the possibility for serious research and examination exists, because on Mars we do have the tools. But as of this date, November, 2023, no attempt to pursue archaeological/exoarchaeological science has been undertaken on Mars by NASA, and no anomalous objects have been examined closely by the Rovers with the objective to identify potential Martian artefacts.
Without close-up examination, this makes it much more difficult to identify realistic candidates, as only far less detailed pictures from the Martian surface are available for study - those that are often several metres or more distant from the cameras, and which inevitably suffer from degradation in the image quality. This situation unfortunately leaves the door wide open for a variety of causes for misinterpretation of potential artefacts: geometrically-shaped geological formations; tricks of light, shadow and perspective; image blurring and distortion; mind tricks and fantasy.
However, despite the fact that most unusual objects can be filtered out by mundane explanations, some very interesting anomalous objects with strong artificial, geometrical signatures have indeed been found in the Mars images, and which by all parameters of reason, should not be ignored or disregarded without closer examination (see figs 5 & 6).
In light of the remarkable geometrical characteristics and enigmatic features of some of these objects, I advocate that the scientific pursuit on Mars should undertake the urgent task of re-evaluating all Mars images for signs of a possible past civilization having inhabited the Red Planet.
Exoarchaeology on Mars Should be a NASA Science Priority
One day soon, science may indeed have to reappraise Mars as a world that was once inhabited, at which point the current theoretical science of exoarchaeology, would then be placed firmly on the planning table for future missions to the Red Planet. The purpose of my research project is to show that such evidence may already exist in the Mars images. The fact that this potential world-shattering data is simply not being assessed or taken seriously by our Mars exploration science bodies, beggars belief and demands the question be asked: if we are not on Mars to search vigorously for signs of life in the universe, then what are we doing there?
Given the tremendous and profound import of such a discovery, you would think that such research would be at the very top of the list for scientific mission priorities to Mars and indeed throughout the solar system.
Professor of Astronomy and Physics, Jason T. Wright, in his paper Prior Indigenous Technological Species, discussed the possibility that a now extinct intelligent space-faring civilization may have existed in our solar system a billion years ago or more, and may have left behind remains of their technology on Mars, or on other planets or moons, noting:
"Artifacts might need to be below the surface to have survived. In particular, large structures or artifacts might have become buried under dust and eventually protected from erosion."
Harvard Professor Avi Loeb, founder of The Galileo Project for the Systematic Scientific Search for Evidence of Extraterrestrial Technological Artifacts, wrote in a recent article:
“If the development of intelligent life on Mars was accelerated by merely a factor of two relative to Earth, there could have been an advanced technological civilization on Mars a few billion years before humans appeared on Earth. Can we easily rule out this possibility?”
Indeed, one might draw attention to NASA's own report commissioned from the Brookings Institute in1959 that quite rationally and soberly discussed what might be discovered during NASA’s exploration of the solar system:
"Artifacts left at some point in time by these life forms might possibly be discovered through our space activities on the Moon, Mars, or Venus."
The Search for Evidence of E.T. on Mars is Ridiculed by Science
And yet strangely, even with the growing scientific realization that our galaxy is likely to be populated extensively with life-bearing planets, and thus potentially, with intelligent space-faring civilizations, the prospect of finding a ruined building, a tool, or even a piece of ancient technology from an extraterrestrial source on Mars - a planet let's remember, that we know was once very Earth-like and capable of sustaining life - remains currently a subject and possibility barely acknowledged by NASA and the scientific mainstream.
Well, time will be the judge of that stance and attitude.
But there is a whiff of change in the air. A rising tide that will not suffer fools or faint hearts, but instead revere common sense and fearless open-mindedness in the search for truth and understanding of our place in the cosmos (see the newly released documentary film “Blue Planet Red”). For what was once the domain of X-Files, UFO hunters and conspiracy theory, is now giving rise to the entirely rational realization that the vast expanse of possibilities in the universe being revealed by our space telescopes, show it is statistically impossible that we are alone, and the sole sentient beings in the cosmos.
And that too, it is only a matter of time and a ticking off of days, before the true history of our solar system, and the life that has emerged from it, will be revealed and understood - despite the efforts of some who, for whatever dark reasons, seek to suppress this march of knowledge.
In the meantime, we hope that researchers, professionals, and scientists, who hold more respect for what the universe may be attempting to unfold before us, will find our research to be of interest, and perhaps worthy of deeper and more serious study than has hitherto been afforded to this fascinating and revelatory possibility.
M. J. Craig
Author of "Secret Mars" and soon to be published “Memories of Mars”
© 2023 M. J. Craig