The conversation draws parallels to the 1993 loss of the Mars Observer probe and explores Hoagland's theory that a rogue element within NASA may be deliberately sabotaging missions to prevent the public from seeing certain discoveries on Mars. Hoagland reveals that four engineers contacted him after the Mars Observer incident claiming the spacecraft was still operational and had been taken into classified programs.
In a surprise announcement, Hoagland discloses that he and filmmaker Paul Davids have spent six years developing a major motion picture about the Face on Mars, with the script currently under review by Universal Pictures chairman Ron Meyer. He urges listeners to email Universal in support of the film as a means of bringing public pressure to bear on the secrecy surrounding Mars exploration.
Key Moments
Hoagland: orbiter dove 12-15 miles too deep: Hoagland walks through the Mars Climate Orbiter's planned 93-mile insertion altitude and explains the spacecraft instead dove 12 to 15 miles deeper into the Martian atmosphere than intended.
Sabotage hypothesis: deliberate angle change: Hoagland argues the orbiter appears to have been commanded into a sharp attitude change driving it deeper into the atmosphere, which he characterizes as deliberate sabotage rather than error.
Spacecraft may still be alive in 'the black': Hoagland suggests the orbiter may not actually be destroyed but instead taken into a covert program, paralleling claims he made after Mars Observer's 1993 disappearance.
Art Bell pushes back: can't believe NASA conspiracy: Art breaks from his guest, saying the Boy Scout in him cannot accept that NASA would stage a $125 million charade. Hoagland counters that it isn't NASA as a whole but a rogue element, and recounts four NASA engineers telling him Mars Observer was 'alive and well' and taken into the black.