Holger Isenberg's Mars News


Alternative Areology and Archeology

Candor Chasma, Mars
6°S, 72.5°W

Detail from image above.

Pyramid on Mars
5 km side length
Elysium region
16.6° N, 198.4° W.
See news entry June 6, 2010.

I'm sure you are all aware of the extremely grave potential for
cultural shock and social disorientation contained in this present situation
if the facts were prematurely and suddenly made public
without adequate preparation and conditioning.
[Dr. Heywood Floyd in 2001: A Space Odyssey]

News and Comments
Links to external sites and short news postings.
Comments by Holger Isenberg.

This website is not updated since 2012. Visit my areo.info for recent articles and news. Oct 7, 2023

Perseverance Rover Color Images and archive of previous Mars missions on areo.info April 13, 2021

Comments and News now via Google+ March 31st, 2012
I've started to post news and comments on Google+ which offers not only direct report of changes to subscribed readers but also allows for discussion on each entry. Above you see the last 5 entries. Click on them for complete text with images and feel free to add me in your circles on Google+.
Tenacious water on Mars! August 4th, 2011
Data from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter confirms Research paper by Palermo and England from 2001 about seasonal water-related surface variances on eroded slopes!
News about Great Pyramid Gantenbrink's Door: Pictures from backside! June 24th, 2011
In September 2002 a 15mm hole was drilled through the Gantenbrink Door which was now used for a remote controlled micro camera to take pictures from the backside of the blocking stone. The dead end of the 60m long 20cm wide shaft was discovered in 1993 with the robot Upuaut constructed by German engineer Rudolf Gantenbrink. An important discovery back then were two copper fittings on the frontside of the blocking stone which are the only metal objects ever found in the Pyramid masonry, next to their counterparts later found in the 2nd similar shaft.
The backside pictures now reveal the fixture method used for the metal fittings, but they does not help to solve the mystery about their function. The reason for using a bitumen like sealing on the fittings is still unknown.
The current explorations of the shafts are conducted by the international team Djedi chosen by Zahi Hawass. The robot was constructed by a group from University of Leeds and Dassault Systèmes. The camera and parts of the robot are provided by Scoutek Ltd.
Charles Shults presents his discoveries on WLTX-TV June 1st, 2011
Strange rocks resembling marine life fossils on Mars: shultslaboratories.com
Final command sent to Mars Exploration Rover Spirit May 25th 2011
May the spirit prevail like on this very day 50 years ago!
Color pictures from the 2210 Sols of MER Spirit
The Lightning-Scarred Planet Mars (Video) February 14th 2011
The researchers and scientists of thunderbolts.info give an introduction into the electriccally induced landscape forming on Mars. That does not exclude the existence of water before those events.
The most famous site of areomorphologic landscaping August 1st 2010
Most pictures of current Mars orbiters are taken during local noon which is preferred for some remote sensing analysis but prevents seeing the surface relief like during the low Sun on the famous picture 35A72 taken by Viking Orbiter 1 on July 25th 1976 of the Cydonia region at location 40.7°N 9.5°E.
The most recent picture of this site was taken as PSP_003234_2210 by HiRISE camera on April 5th 2007 and published a few weeks later. On July 30th 2010 that image was picked up again by some online sources: list on news.google.com, list on news.google.de.
For interpretation of this artifact the following facts should be kept in mind:

On the same latitue you find a destroyed or unfinished duplicated platform of same shape and size and same tilt angle.
The orbit parameters of Viking Orbiter 1 had been set long before launch to a periapsis and inclination on 39.3°N to capture that latitude with highest image resolution as Cydonia was the primary landing site for Viking 2 until that very image 35A72 was taken.
The latitude equates with 10km accuracy the angle defined by the two mathematical fundamental constants e and π.
On Earth a similar but smaller platform was created some hundreds years ago: Malik Shah Tepe in todays Iran.
Famous designer and landscape architect Isamo Noguchi conceived in 1947 of a large abstract face sculpture to be seen from space: Memorial to Man.
At the time of the founding of NASA, 1958, famous Comic book artist Jack Kirby created the story The Face on Mars, Harvey Comic book Race for the Moon Issue #2.
In 1999 Daniel Perez saw a strange correlation between the city plan of Washington DC and the Cydonia region on Mars: Washington, District of Cydonia.

Eclectic shapes in Elysium Planitia June 6, 2010
Carl Sagan pointed out these polyhedral bedrock exposures in the flat alluvium via a Mariner 9 image in Cosmos (chapter 5). The base of this one is shaped like a square with 5km side length and the nearby actual "Sagan Pyramids" show equilateral triangles. Maybe the high resolution of 28cm/pixel will solve the mystery of their creation process. The classic geological explanation of eolian erosion processes by wind from mostly steady directions is questionable.
The same image shows in the camera's color channels another mystery: Bluegreen tinted crater floors. See news entry on March 18, 2002.

The image location was selected via the public target suggestion program HiWish and provided by courtesy of NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Many thanks!
Image: ESP_017574_1965, HiRISE, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
JPEG picture (2000x3600): ESP_017574_1965_RED.browse.jpg
Color JPEG (part only): ESP_017574_1965_RGB.nomap.browse.jpg
Original image (28000x47000) for viewing via Java-Webstart: ESP_017574_1965_RED.ias.jp2
Spirit to explore soil secrets February 28, 2010
Sol 2182
The powdery white soil digged from below by the wheels stills shows signs of salt remains by evaporating brine. The outline shape of the new bright white spot on this picture looks like having been caused by a fluvial process.
See also old news entry from May 23, 2007 below.

Opportunity to discover even more strange things February 11 and 28, 2010
A strange blue green loosely coated rock, resembling lichens on Earth.
Sol 2147, 2144 und 2145.
The automatic creation of relativly true color images from the raw data of both MER Rovers is operating again on areo.info.
Update February 28, 2010:

Microscopic picture mosaic of that bluegreen layer
Discussion

What the MER tell us about Mars November 8, 2009
Xenotech Research answers common questions.
MER 3d panorama viewer and archive browser: Midnight Mars Browser August 17, 2008
Midnight Mars Browser is a program used to download Mars Exploration Rover (MER) images and view them in slideshow and panorama format.
You can select the different camera datasets, view Pancam images in raw RGB color and move along the Rovers' tracks from Sol to Sol.
Highly recommended!
Colors at the northern artic circle. June 14, 2008

Data source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
Phoenix Lander dares the horizon May 28 2008

First color picture from Phoenix Lander May 27, 2008

Image sources: University of Arizona and NASA / JPL
First pictures from Phoenix Lander May 26, 2008

Phoenix Mars Mission May 22, 2008

Planned landing time: Sunday May 25, 23:36 UTC

Location: 68°N 233°E

News during landing: Phoenix Landing Blog

RGB color picture, taken with the Surface Stero Imager (SSI)
RGB color picture, taken with the Robotic Arm Camera (RAC)

Brightest ever star explosion observed March 21, 2008
On March 19 2008 4:12 UTC the biggest ever Gamma-Ray Burst was detected. By its after-glow in the visual light spectrum, this burst was the most distant object in space ever visible by the naked human eye. The absolute light intensity was 2.5 million times stronger than any supernova before.
With a count of 4 Gamma-Ray Bursts that day, this was also by number a maximum for the Swift satellite since it observation began in 2004.
TV tip: Gibt es Leben auf dem Mars? (Is there Life on Mars) October 14, 2007
Documentary about the Phoenix Lander which will arrive May 2008 in the Martian north polar region.
ZDF dokukanal, daily repeated October 15 - 19, schedule detail.
Cyanobacteria create spherule colonies May 29, 2007
Some Cyanobacteria on Earth live in colonies of 1cm small gelatinous spherules.
The spherules of that genus (nostoc pruniforme) not only live on or in fresh or salt water,
but can also be seen on soil soon after rain.
Cyanobacteria are sometimes called blue-green algae because of their usual dark blue-green color
and their macroscopic appearance like algae, although they are no algaes (plants).

Cave entrances or "Dark Matter"? May 28, 2007
Temperature data from early morning infrared images (THEMIS-IR) indicate cave entrances,
where the new detail image in visible light (HIRISE) shows
"barrier islands" on the northern rim of the lightabsorbing area. That would mean, the black area was a flat surface.
All "Martian holes" have been discovered near the equator, so the directly visible bright surface is no ice.
Update: On August 9 2007, a 2nd image was taken. This time during afternoon with lower Sun incidence angle. Now a cavern wall is revealed which means it isn't a black surface at all. The diameter of the hole is about 150m with a depth of at least 78m.

Some possible causes for these white soil deposits:
Evaporating salt water, Silica (Silicon salts), Biofilm. May 23, 2007

Slope streaks in Antarctic Dry Valleys similar to those seen on Mars! February 18, 2007
The current doctrine about Martian slope streaks being the result of dry dust avalances isn't verified yet be experiments.
Hence the observation of visual correlation of Martian and Antarctic slope streaks presented in this paper from Brown University
leads to a more realistic approach to that topic. Presented on Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2007.
NASA/Google collaboration on data visualization to be announced December 26, 2006

Discoveries and Reports
by Holger Isenberg

Launch of Phoenix Lander today at 5:26 a.m. EDT August 4, 2007
The northern polar region was chosen as landing site near 67.5°N 240°E to make chemical and microscopic soil analysis. Some of the on-board scientific instruments are a mass spectrometer, an optical microscope and a special type of electric microscope.
The landing is scheduled for May 25, 2008.
Geodetic Nasca Lines? April 14, 2006

Challenge to all researchers having influence on controlling the Mars-Rovers' cameras! March 26, 2006
Find out if this white soil in the wheel tracks builds up within seconds or minutes after driving. Maybe it is salt crystallizing as soon the moisture evaporates from the plowed soil or for lower temperatures, as soon as the water ice sublimates.
See also: Sol 455, Sol 429, Sol 426
The best evidence for a biological creation of the "blueberries" is the fact of their unilayered distribution on the Martian surface.
With an origin by mineral aggregation a random clustering in multiple layers would by observable. January 30, 2006
Infrared Differences near Opportunity November 3, 2005
Marshrooms? March 5, 2004
Daily automatically created Spirit & Opportunity PanCam color pictures February 13, 2004
Giza, Center of Earth 19.Oct.2003
Spaceflight in ancient Indien Mahabharata epos 10.Jun.2002
Original image data of Mariner 9 "Sagan-Pyramids" 17.Feb.2001
Original image data of Mariner 9 "Airport-Terminal" 11.Feb.2001
Articles in Magazin 2000plus 13.Sep.2000
Mars, Planet B (10/2000),
Mars 2001 (9/2001)
Orion Constellation on surface of Mars? 11.Apr 2000
Louis P.McCarty's knowledge about secrets of the Pyramid from 1907, confirmed by Gantenbrink's discoveries 20.Feb 2000, Updated 10.Apr
The Pathfinder ImageFinder Java-Applet 22.Dec 1999
2001: A Mars Odyssey? 27.Nov 1999
It's not quite that Red! Sep 1999
Ancient City found on Mars!
Blue Sky and Life on Mars - An alternative way of colorizing images of Mars
Was the Great Pyramid built in the center of all land-areas?
Plugin for loading EDR-images from NASA-PDS database in The Gimp
The Mahabharata - modern technology in the ancient indian epos Mar 2000

News and comments 2006

German-French search engine Quaero stumped? 26.12.2006 December 26, 2006
Congressional request: Investigation about alleged concealment of NASA science data December 17, 2006
Reason for investigation seems to be a political campaign about socalled "global warming": Scientists reject interference
October 13, 2006
?
pbase.com !
Comments?
High resolution image from HIRISE presents Opportunity (near Victoria Crater) October 7, 2006
First images taken by HIRISE camera on Mars Reconaissance Orbiter October 3, 2006
Snake on a Planet September 17, 2006
Spirit, Sol 960.
The Face on Mars, comic story from 1958! March 11, 2006
In 1947, 29 years before the Face on Mars was photographed by Viking Orbiter 1,
Isamu Noguchi created the model for the unrealized 1km large surface relief Memorial to Man,
later called Sculpture to be Seen from Mars.
Then in 1958 that comic story^* was published about an expedition discovering a giant sculpture
on the Martian surface. (Anybody owning a copy of that book please send scans!)
Again a decade later, another preview. In 1968 the Face appeared
in the movie 2001: a space odyssey: 2001: A Mars Odyssey?.
^* Rediscovered by enterprisemission.com.

News and comments 2005

Infrared Differences near Opportunity November 3, 2005
Japanese probe Hayabusa lands on asteroid Itokawa on November 19th November 13, 2005
Bluegreen colored libyan desert sand shows similarities to "crater spots" on Mars (detail). June 26, 2005
Experiments with electrical discharges create objects similar to Martian Blueberries and domed craters. April 5, 2005
Further scientific research on plasma discharges and electrical effects in the solar system: thunderbolts.info
Subterranean Life On Earth - and Mars? March 5, 2005
Bacteria produce cave pearls on Earth, similar to the Martian Blueberries.

News and comments 2004

Expedition report about the petrified Cart Ruts on Malta December 16, 2004
The article sets new standards for real archeological research and analysis.
On Proving Ancient Megalith Construction by Jim Solley. November 28, 2004
A must read which prevails with logic and multidisciplinary thinking
over some dogmatic and primitive believe systems of Egyptology and Archeology.
All other theories, mostly invented by Egyptologists, are that much hot air, that you could fill a giant hot air ballon to lift a whole pyramid with it!
International Mars Conference, Ischia, September 19-23 August 21, 2004
According to the Lectures Programme the latest results from the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer on Mars Express are discussed, which might be about the possible discovery of ammonia, formaldehyde and other gases indicating biological activity.
New pictures from Spirit August 15, 2004
Mars Express Spectrometer (re)discovers Ammonia (NH₃) in atmosphere August 14, 2004
There are two possible sources of Ammonia which can exist only for a short time under UV-light in the atmosphere:
volcanoes or life.
An opportunity at Fram crater for better colors May 27, 2004

5 MB panorama, 750 kB panorama
This 6m diamater crater was taken by Opportunity's PanCam on sol 88.
A different color interpratation in JPL-corporate-identity-red can be viewed here.
Craterdunes May 17, 2004
Sensational discovery by Mars Express? May 8, 2004
The fourier spectrometer (PFS) on board Mars Express has possibly discovered more organic chemicals, which hint to current life as they are destroyed quickly by UV-light in the atmosphere. Named are: formaldehyde, ammonia and benzene. Because of the low concentration in the thin atmosphere, more measurements are required before the PFS-Team will publish an official statement.
Dried lake in the southern polar region May 5, 2004
Lake at crater bottom? April 23, 2004
Methane and ammonia were assumed by IR-spectra in Mars atmosphere already in 1969 after the Mariner 6 und 7 missions! March 27, 2004
Infrared Imaging Spectroscopy of Martian Volatiles
Maybe more interesting data will be found on the recently rediscovered and not until then calibrated raw data:
1969 Mariner 7 IRS: Data Set Recovery and Calibration

F... Fossils! March 21, 2004
NASA overlooked something important.

A tricky job. Shortly after the NASA "summercamp" a few participants visit the place, where the space agency had hidden the test rover. They were curious, how well it performed. As they determined, the rover had driven around the California desert - nearby of several pieces of petrified wood. But nobody in the control center recognized these on the views through the rover camera. The researchers got frustrated.

[GEO, 05/2003, "Mission Mars", p.56]

The summercamp which is mentioned here by an employee of a NASA contract company to the GEO author is the "FIDO" (Field Integrated Design & Operations) from 9. to 19. August 2002. JPL/NASA-engineers and scientists there simulated with an almost complete replica Spirit/Opportunity rover the remote controlled navigation and scientific analysis: http://fido.jpl.nasa.gov/internal.html, http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/fido/index.html

Petrified wood like this or that was overlooked.

Fossile Crinoids found by Opportunity? March 13, 2004
Marshrooms? March 5, 2004
Daily automatically created Spirit & Opportunity PanCam color pictures February 13, 2004
Strange blue spheres growing on rocks! February 8, 2004
Pic 1: Blue Spherules, Pic 2: spherule in detail, Pic 3: other spherule
These spheres of unknown origin are a few mm in diameter.
It's now to check if they are lifeforms or created by anorganic chemical reactions.
Original data: Opportunity Sol 13 - 15
There are similar objects on Earth known as The Moqui Marbles but these are of very hard smooth rock and not
growing out of a another rock like this one on Mars!.
NASA admits: IR filter used made the planet look more red. January 29, 2004
Mars Express HRSC shows green spots at Spirit landing site January 28, 2004
Similar observations are known since 1978 by Viking Orbiter 1
and were confirmed last year with THEMIS-pictures of the same region by 2001 Mars Odyssey:
Viking 663A23,
THEMIS V04608008,
THEMIS V06468021,
THEMIS V05719013,
THEMIS V05744008
Spirit-Lander in true colors, derived from MAESTRO-data January 28, 2004
Biological Soil Crusts: Martian soil on Earth? January 25, 2004
Total Success with Opportunity January 25, 2004
Pic: Arnold Schwarzenegger at JPL
MGS aquired with new technique image of Spirit on surface January 24, 2004
New pictures and data from Mars Express January 23, 2004
More pictures on www.DLR.de.
How to martianize the skies January 19, 2004
Another view on the "NASA-Colors" January 19, 2004
First color picture from Mars Express January 19, 2004
Europe's Mars is sand colored.
Spirit analyzes strange shaped rock January 18, 2004
image source
Russian Mars Mission in 2014? January 14, 2004
President Bush Announces New Vision for Space Exploration Program January 14, 2004
Visualisation of the Mars Reference Mission: 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Pictures: Towards: Mars by Bob Sauls, taken from NASA-TV
Mars in 3D January 11, 2004
The day, JPL stole the true blue January 9, 2004
First color picture from Spirit Rover January 6, 2004

Source: PIA04995
Interestingly shaped 4km large monolith in Ganges Chasma. January 4, 2004
Noteworthy are also the bright white color and the alignment towards the 4 cardinal points!
It almost looks hypo real!
data source: THEMIS V04359003
Spirit sends first pictures from Mars surface! January 4, 2004
spirit1.jpg spirit2.jpg spirit3.jpg

News and comments 2003

Landing of Beagle 2 and orbit insertion of Mars Express: 12/25 3:00 UTC. December 22, 2003
Internet Live-Stream from ESA-Controlcenter at Darmstadt: http://esa.capcave.com
and via Astra-Digital in Europe with these parameters:
Identifier=ESA, Frequency=10.832, Polarisation=H, Symbolrate=22.000, FEC=5/6, SID=61950, V-Pid=55, A-Pid=56, PCR-P=55, Provider=Astra, Transponder=57
News about Mars Express und Beagle 2: http://mars.esa.int
Installation of RealOne-Player for Linux:
- Select Linux i386 (NOT RPM!) on http://forms.real.com/real/player/unix/unix.html.
- On the following page you find the link to download RealOne Player for Unix - Preview Release at the bottom.
- Install RealOne.
- Then download and install the free RealVideo 9 codec upgrade package
Beagle 2 lander successfully released from Mars Express orbiter! December 19, 2003
Nozomi failed (other source at isas.ac.jp) December 10, 2003
Mars Express: First Picture from 5.5 Million Kilometers December 3, 2003
Mars Odyssey: interesting (almost) true color picture of Melas Chasma November 17, 2003
Japanese Marsorbiter Nozomi (Hope) will arrive on December 14. November 15, 2003
This probe will be the first in Mars orbit with a true-color camera.
Do the Owls want to shut down Richard C. Hoagland? November 12, 2003
The 2002 Cydonia IR story in context. Idolos i vacas de los collasvios. idolosivacas deloscollasvios. carnero negro. (Huaman Poma de Ayala)
More liquid water in Martian soil than previously assumed. (automatic translation) October 28, 2003
Scientists at the DLR (German Space Agency) proved experimentally that the Martian soil has sufficient chemically bound water, to make live possible as in permafrost soil on Earth.
Solving the color calibration problem of Martian lander images (Ron and Gilbert Levin) October 11, 2003
MGS sends new detailed picture of D&M-Pyramid at Cydonia September 17, 2003

For comparison, some pictures from Iran:
- Dadan Rock, Dadan Rock, side view, Dadan Rock, rooms and water basins cut out of stone
- Malik Shah Tepe, Malik Shah Tepe, side view
- Pasargadae, Pasargadae, detail
- Havah
Picture sources:
Persepolis and Ancient Iran, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
THEMIS image of Cydonia, NASA/JPL/Arizona State University.
Ice-Towers on Mars August 4, 2003
Mars Global Surveyor has already taken some pictures of these ice-volcanoes (Abb.3).
Mars Express obtained true color picture of Earth and spectrometer data August 4, 2003
MER-B (Opportunity) launched on July 7, 11:18pm EDT July 8, 2003
The Race to Mars: current placings June 18, 2003
Surprise at Gusev Crater? June 16, 2003
Mars Odyssey took a picture of Spirit's landing site.
Planned arrival time of current missions June 14, 2003 (updated on November 15, 2003)
- Mars Express Orbiter with Beagle 2 Lander: December 25, 02:54 UTC
- Nozomi (Planet-B): December 14
- Spirit (MER-A): January 4, 04:11 UTC
- Opportunity (MER-B): January 25, 04:56 UTC
The first of the two Athena Mars Exploration Rovers (MER 2003) will be launched on Tuesday 1:58 PM EDT from Cape Kennedy (aka Cape Caneveral). June 9, 2003
Test pictures of the Panorama Camera:
- Panorama (B&W)
- Minerals (Color)
- Sundial for color calibration (again, as on Pathfinder, no standardized color chart)
The German participation on this mission:
- Moessbauer Spectrometer for chemical surface analysis
  The same instrument is used on the Beagle 2 Lander and can identify, via chlorophyll-detection, living algaes, lichens of cyanobacteria.
- APXS for chemical soil and rock analysis.
At 19:47 MEST Mars Express will be launched on a Soyuz-Fregat from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. June 2, 2003
The onboard Highres Stereo Camera developed by the German Institut of Space Sensor Technology and Planetary Exploration will transmit the best ever true color pictures when arriving in december.
Also transported onboard will be the Beagle 2 Lander, with life detection experiments and a color camera.
Odyssey 2001 sends with 18m/pixel the highest resolution ever color pictures of Mars' surface! May 1, 2003
The first 806 color pictures are now published by the THEMIS-Team
at Arizona State University on http://themis-data.asu.edu.
Some interesting examples:
V03233002 (White Rock), V01875014, V01657007,
V01518003, V03149001, V02038002, V01751001, V03340004, V01812007
First color picture of White Rock, a 15km longrock in Pollack Crater, presumably consisting of limestone! April 4, 2003
A previously taken synthetic color picture from MGS, show similar colors, where here the green color channel was "guessed" by the red and blue ones.
The new pictures shows a very bright ivory color, which would portend to limestone, if the formation would be found on Earth.
Limestone was created on Earth by sedimentation of clam shells.
The picture was taken with the THEMIS color camera of the Mars Odyssey 2001.
The original data: V03233002
Sir Arthur C.Clarke is wondering about NASA according to his article in the current edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology. March 26, 2003
Clarke: "And talking about stupidity, I feel that a current example is the refusal by everyone to recognize that we've already discovered life on Mars.
How else can you explain the Mars Observer Camera's M08-04688 striking resemblance to banyan trees?
I'm beginning to wonder if there is intelligent life at NASA."
New Odyssey data show moderate radiation levels and interesting Thorium and Potassium distribution over the planetary surface March 18, 2003
The averaged radiation dose in Martian orbit ist about 440 mSv/year.
In comparison to this, the critical value for radiation exposed workers is about 500 mSv/year measured on the skin.
As a consequence, there is a radiation strain for the astronauts, but not really harmful, as it is only 2.5 times larger than in the orbit of the ISS.
Caltech: The Martian polar caps are almost entirely water ice February 14, 2003
LA Times: Nuclear Rocket project Prometheus to get big boost January 17, 2003
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe spoke in an interview with The LA Times about the possible official announcement on 1/28 about the launch of the nuclear rocket project for manned interplanetary space travel as the top research priority. With that propulsion system it would be possible for humans to reach Mars in a two-month journey.
nuclearspace.com: more Information on nuclear engines