September 1, 1997: Mars Images - Richard C. Hoagland & Ron Nicks
At midnight, Richard C. Hoagland and geologist Ron Nicks join the program to present new findings from Mars Pathfinder images. Nicks, a 35-year veteran of engineering geology, reports that features near the Pathfinder landing site display geometric patterns and orientations difficult to explain through natural geological processes. Hoagland describes what he calls artifacts, broken machines, and geometric debris scattered across the landscape at 19.5 degrees north latitude on Mars.
The team raises concerns that NASA appears to be discarding half the gray-scale information from its publicly released images, with independent analyst Jim Diletoso confirming the observation. Hoagland theorizes the landing site sits within the debris field of ancient structures destroyed by catastrophic flooding.
Key Moments
Diana, Mercedes, and the law of physics: Before turning to Mars, Art reads Hoagland's blunt take on the Princess Diana crash - driver drunk three times the legal limit at incredible speed, and even Mercedes' own website notes that physics dictates what happens when you hit concrete at over a hundred miles an hour.
Hoagland: Pathfinder landed in a junkyard: Hoagland tells Art the Pathfinder site looks like the suburbs of an ancient city complex at 19.5 degrees north - strewn with junk, broken machines, geometric debris. Geologist Ron Nicks confirms it is localized but unmistakable.
Frame 80881: the alleged 'gyro' off the Pathfinder pedal: Hoagland and Nicks walk listeners through the insurance panorama frame 80881, pointing to a toroidal donut-shaped object inches from the rover ramp that Nicks calls a heavy electric motor and Hoagland calls a gyroscope, with mounting brackets and visible armature.
Color frames misregistered to obscure detail: Hoagland claims that on the color panorama from the same data as 80881, NASA misaligned the red, green, and blue channels by a few pixels in exactly the area over the rover pedal - completely obscuring the geometry of the object he and Nicks identify in the black-and-white frame.