Boomer on the Ground:

The Faces of Mars: the second in a series of disptches from the colonies

By

Thomas B. Wallace, Editor/Publisher

   As I am sure everyone who reads this WebZine is aware I have already published one article on the findings of the Spirit Rover, our reporter on the home world. What I think our readers may be surprised to learn however is the degree to which the Spirit's panoramic photos are returning evidence of once humanoid inhabitants of this planet. It seems that the people at JPL are more interested in finding water, which is cool, than they are in establishing whether or not these photos reveal evidence of actual, intelligent life right in their viewfinders. By all means find what evidence of water you can, I say, but don't ignore compelling evidence in the rocks and sands that present visual, completely understandable by most people, evidence of intelligent inhabitants once leaving their mark on this world. Such verification is within strolling distance of our reporter, so have him stroll over and look at the images that we have mounted in our previous and current article.

For our reader's sake we will approach each of the following images as a triad. There will be a closeup of the original panoramic picture as released by NASA, a contrast and brightness enhanced closeup, and finally, an overlayed sketch of the image that is drawing our curiosity. As for those images that appear on the Enterprise Mission website, we will not repeat them here as that website provides more than ample explanation and examination of what has piqued their curiosity. So, without further ado we will examine the "faces of Mars":

The photo above is a low resolution panorama that has been annotated to give the reader some idea of the general locations from which the following closeups were extracted from the high resolution panoramas available on the JPL website.

                                    The Original Bust in the Dust

                                   Brightness & Contrast Enhanced  

                                            Rotated 90 Degrees              

                           Outlined using simple outlining in Paint Program 

The next interesting feature is what appears to be a somewhat larger, more distant object located about 15 degrees to the right of the Bust in the Dust but upwards, just beyond a slight sandy depression in the landscape. I have called this:

                                           Stone Head in the Sand

                                           Unenhanced Closeup

                              Enhanced Closeup rotated 90 degrees

          Rotated Enhanced closeup Outline using simple outlining in Paint

As the reader can see this particular image again shows a distinctly feline appearance, as well as the hint of some type of headdress. The next image is truly interesting, as it does not appear to depict a face as much as an entire figure, either sitting or kneeling on some type of device, again, this type with what appears to be a mask. It appears to be as much as a kilometer from the Spirit landing sight and was picked up on an enhanced panorama published by NASA themselves focusing in on the hill structures slightly to the left of the original orientation of the Spirit as it looked over the Martian plain. In the panorama published with this article it will be a little to the right of the arrow that cuts through the middle of the mountains in the distance, about where the arrow terminates.  I have called it:

                                             The Stone Totem

                                            Unenhanced closeup

               Rotated 90 Degrees Brightness & Contrast Enhanced Closeup

Brightness and Contrast enhanced closeup Rotated 90 degrees and color matched using extreme closeup and color matching and filling of pixels in Paint Program.

Rotated & Enhanced Closeup Outlined using closeup color match and outlining technique in Paint program. The internal colors on extreme closeup were color-matched and filled within the outlines as they appeared by outlining distinct changes in pixel colors on extreme closeup.

Continuing to search this panaorama, again this time closer to the lander I found the following. I have called them:

                                     Two More Busts in the Dust?

                                  Unenhanced Closeup - no rotation

Unenhanced - unrotated outlined closeup usinmg simple outlining in Paint Program.

Once again, there are what appear to be two faces, partially buried in the sand, in some kind of fairly consistant relationship to a squared off stone that could appear to be a pedestal. This time the figures appear to be lying on their backs, and the lower left figure again appears to have some indication of a headdress of some type.

Finally, I discovered, within only a few feet of the lander's original position, slightly to the left of the device on the lander that looks like an exhaust pipe the following. I call it:

                                                 The Angry Priest

                                                Unenhanced Closeup

Anry priest - complex closeup outlining in Paint Program outlining using distinct color changes in groups of pixels.

Angry priest Brightness and Contrast enhanced, enlargement using extreme closeup outlining of distinct color changes in pixel groups.

This last image is perhaps the most interesting. Notice the intricate geometry of what appears to be a full, triangular headdress covering the face that remains half buried in the sand. While the simpler outlining in the figure just above it gives a perhaps better impression of the face of the figure.

So, what conclusions can we draw from all of this? Well, nothing definitive, since we have not seen closeups of any of these areas as taken by the rover itself. What we see here are closeups extracted from high resolution photo panoramas sent from the rover.

There are however some very interesting questions being raised by these and other objects in this debris field. First, the context is a stone field covered in an ochre sand. Yet there appears to be at least 5 objects that present the appearance of intelligently and deliberately carved stone faces. That there may be other, equally interesting objects that also appear to have been artificially manufactured will not enter this particular treatment. The point of this treatment is to determine whether or not the appearance of these objects is sufficiently out of the ordinary to warrant a closer look from the rover?

Now, in fields of objects with amorphous and varying shapes it is not unusual to find shapes that will resemble objects with which we are familiar. We often play that game with clouds and rock outcroppings on mountains, etc. What is unusual would be to find more than one or two. In this case, in the space of what looks to be no more than a single square kilometer we have been able, on close and systematic examination of the debris field, to find 5 objects that not only resemble objects with which we are familiar, but actually resemble carved figures of heads and bodies. I will leave it to a statistician to calculate the odds of that happening but am willing to warrant that it certainly will fall outside the realm of the standard deviation from the norm.

I don't think there can be any question that all of these objects needs to be examined with the photographic and scientific instruments of the Spirit Rover. The longer NASA delays in approaching these objects the longer and more uncertain will the speculation regarding them grow. If NASA simply wants to lay this speculation to rest, then closeups would unquestionably do that, one way or the other. I have to ask the people at JPL what they are afraid the people of America won't understand?

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