April 11, 2000: Cydonia Photos - Richard C. Hoagland & Dr. Tom Van Flandern
The discussion focuses on the Tholus, a mile-wide raised oval structure whose summit now reveals what Hoagland identifies as a ruined tetrahedron positioned at a 19.5-degree angle to another tetrahedral feature on a nearby crater rim. Van Flandern describes features resembling collapsed entrance ways with structural supports visible within the debris. Hoagland points to dome-like objects north of the Tholus that appear highly polished, uniformly sized, and supported by regular arches, though Van Flandern urges caution, noting that large-scale features remain ambiguous without the proven artificiality of the face as a foundation.
The conversation turns political as Hoagland connects the photo release to infighting between NASA and JPL, the revelation that former NSA head Admiral Bobby Inman sat on a JPL oversight committee, and a Time Magazine cover featuring NASA administrator Dan Golden in a spacesuit. Art announces that Mike Siegel will succeed him as host upon his retirement later that month.
Key Moments
Hoagland recounts NASA's original Cydonia dismissal: Richard C. Hoagland describes how Viking program scientist Jerry Soffin presented the 1976 Face on Mars at JPL as a noisy joke and announced that a follow-up frame, hours later, showed it was nothing but a trick of light and shadow.
Mars Observer disappears days after the McDaniel report: Hoagland recounts that the day or two after Stan McDaniel's 300-plus-page indictment of NASA's handling of Cydonia reached the agency, the Mars Observer spacecraft vanished - a coincidence he treats as central to the cover-up narrative.
Hoagland: a ruined tetrahedron on top of the Tholus: Studying the new Mars Global Surveyor strip of the Tholus, Hoagland announces that the high-resolution image reveals a ruined tetrahedron on the summit, eroded but still discernible from albedo and shading.
Latticework, girders, and a collapsed entrance: Examining a feature south of the Tholus apex, Hoagland tells Art he can make out structure, latticework, girders and structural supports in the high-res image - what he interprets as the collapsed entrance to a vast building.
Van Flandern: the face is proven artificial: Astronomer Tom Van Flandern delivers his professional verdict on the new images: while none of the just-released strips contain a fresh smoking gun, in his view the Face itself is already proven artificial beyond a reasonable doubt.