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?

Fig.1. MYSTERIOUS OBJECT ON MARS; One of many that warrant closer examination, but which were ignored by NASA rovers - image: NASA/JPL/Cornell; for original NASA image link: Secretmars

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.

Fig. 2. THE PERSEVERANCE ROVER on Mars in Jezero Crater - image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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, could be a powerful aid in identifying any possible structures below the surface.

Fig. 3. THE MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (MRO) which hosts the HiRISE high-resolution camera - image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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.

Fig. 4. ILLUSION OF GEOMETRIC SHAPES. the bottom image was taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in 1998, and appears to show geometric shapes to the left of the picture. The top image taken by HiRISE in 2008, much superior in detail, reveals the shapes to be an illusion - Images: composite: SecretMars.com; originals: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona, NASA/JPL/MSSS

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).

Fig. 5. SMALL OBJECTS NOT EXAMINED BY NASA (10-40 cm). A selection of unusual objects taken by the NASA rovers Spirit and Curiosity - images: A-D: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS; E-F: NASA/JPL/Cornell; for original NASA image links and full details of object: Secretmars.com

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.