Hoagland explains that the spacecraft's elliptical orbit is about to bring its camera within 150 miles of the controversial face and pyramid structures, offering resolution 40 to 50 times sharper than the 1976 Viking images. However, principal investigator Dr. Michael Malin has announced on his website that the camera may be turned off due to power limitations, just as the geometry becomes ideal for Cydonia imaging. Hoagland argues this contradicts NASA Administrator Dan Goldin's public promise to photograph Cydonia at every available opportunity. Art provides fax numbers for Goldin, Ted Koppel, and CNN's John Holliman, urging listeners to demand the camera remain operational. In the second half, engineer Ted Tweetmeyer joins to reveal that telemetry data from the Challenger launch pad was lost because someone manually disabled a switching system in the blockhouse shortly before liftoff.
A broadcast that combines the Mars imaging controversy with troubling questions about the Challenger disaster and the boundaries between NASA's public mission and its classified operations.
Key Moments
Malin's website notice - the camera will turn off: Hoagland reads verbatim from Dr. Michael Malin's Malin Space Science Systems website: power conservation and increasing spacecraft team workload may require turning the Mars Orbiter Camera off - just before Mars Global Surveyor reaches the Cydonia latitude.
Dan Goldin's broken promise to image Cydonia: Hoagland reminds listeners that NASA Administrator Dan Goldin publicly promised Cydonia would be imaged at every available opportunity. The March pass is the best opportunity - and the camera-off order breaks that promise.
Dr. David Webb - November meeting assurances reversed: Hoagland says Dr. David Webb (now in fragile health after a stroke) confirmed that in a November meeting, the head of solar system exploration and his deputy assured the team power constraints would not impact March Cydonia photography - and now something has changed.
Hoagland reports a death threat: Hoagland tells Bell that he received his first death threat, and that there is simultaneously 'a very despicable effort to take away the Enterprise mission headquarters north of Albuquerque' - framing the camera shutoff as part of a coordinated targeting.