While searching for a possible landing site for the upcoming Viking 2 Lander in the Cydonia region, Dr. Owen noticed a gigantic, human-like face glaring up at him from the barren Martian surface. Soon after its discovery, he brought it to the attention of the Viking program director Dr. Gerry Soffen (Figure 1).

The head shaped formation, which the NASA team simply labeled “head” appeared to have an eye, nose and mouth and wore a tight-fitting helmet (Figure 2). Michael Carr, a geologist with the U. S. Geological Survey who was then head of the Viking Orbiter imaging team, immediately released the unusual image to the press.

 

At an early press briefing NASA’s Project Scientist for the Viking program Dr. Gerry Soffen announced that an image of an odd landform resembling a face had been found on Mars (Figure 3).

 

 

As a result of releasing this odd facial formation to the public, NASA decided not to proceed with the original plan of a Viking 2 landing within the Cydonia region because the entire area was deemed to be “unsafe.” 2 The Viking 2 Lander eventually set down in a rocky plain called Utopia. This last-minute change in plans went virtually unquestioned by the mainstream media. With NASA’s firm and consistent stance that this facial formation was nothing more than a “trick of light and shadows,” the public soon lost interest. From that point on both NASA and a fawning media considered the case closed.3 Unfortunately the “Face on Mars” was banished to the sensational pages of supermarket tabloids and the illusion-filled minds of fringe-science enthusiasts.

Utilizing a new enhancement method that DiPietro and Molenaar had developed called Starburst Pixel Interleaving Technique (SPIT)4 they were able to access more data from the original Viking tapes. This new technique allowed them to reveal more detail and as a result exposed additional facial features suggestive of an eye, nose, mouth and teeth (Figure 5).

 

The results of their studies were published in 1980 in a monograph entitled “Unusual Martian Surface Features.” Although their extensive report suggested an artificial explanation for the Face and some of its surrounding structures, both NASA and the mainstream scientific community silently ignored their groundbreaking work.5

Sometime during the mid 1980s a young image analyst at The Analytical Sciences Corporation, by the name of Dr. Mark Carlotto produced a computer-adjusted “local-contrast-stretch” of NASA’s Viking frame 70A13 (Figure 6). Despite the seemingly poor quality of these early Viking images, Carlotto’s computer enhancements were able to reveal additional structural dimensions within the formation, included such symmetric features as a set of eyes, mouth and hair.6

 

While working with computer enhancements provided by Dr. Carlotto, independent researcher Richard C. Hoagland produced a mirror split of both sides of the Face. He was astonished with the results, which revealed an interesting two-faced, humanoid/feline aspect to the overall design of the facial formation (Figure 7). Notice the flanged headdress, eye, nose and mouth on the left side and the feline aspects on the right side including an eye, muzzle and mane.

 

In response to Hoagland’s "mirroring” technique NASA scientists speculated that if we were to find an actual sculpted face on another planet,  it would be a fully symmetrical face and look something like Elvis (Figure 8). 

Then sometime during the early 1990s Dr. Carlotto took another crack at enhancing the second Face image (Frame 70A13). Again, his results were stunning (Figure 9). Not only did his image bring out more detail of the eye, mouth and helmet,7 it exposed the facial features on the eastern side, providing additional support for Hoagland's proposed two-faced, human/feline model.

 

Footnotes

2. Masursky, H. & Crabill, N. L., Viking site selection and certification, NASA SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS SERIES, NASA-SP-429. 1981. P. 7-9.