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The Society for Planetary SETI Research(SPSR) has been examining images fromMars for over 25 years, focusing onsurface features in the Cydonia region ofthe red planet. Whilst many now believe‘the Face’ has clearly been shown to be anatural rock formation, SPSR’s workcontinues with a wealth of new imagesproduced by current Mars orbiters. Withfour new missions due to arrive in late2003 and early 2004, the head of SPSR DrHorace Crater is seeking to gain greateracceptance amongst the mainstreamscientific community.

Based at the Physics Department,University of Tennessee Space Institute,Tullahoma, USA, Dr Horace Crater heads theSociety for Planetary SETI Research (SPSR),a multi-disciplinary research group includingspace professionals, engineers, physicists,scholars and other specialists located aroundthe USA and overseas.

Historically, SPSR is an organisation ofscientists and scholars from varied disciplines,which formed around a common interest in thesurface anomalies on planets and theirsatellites, the origins of which may result fromintelligent activity. When assessing possibleSPSR membership a variety of criteria areapplied. These include long-term legitimateresearch efforts in the area of Planetary SETIand/or academic expertise in related fields.SPSR conducts its research mostly byindividual efforts or in small groups and there

the SPSR website - http://it.utsi.edu/~spsr/SPSR has contacted a number of the main

proponents of radio SETI but to date they havechosen not to respond to the request fordialogue on areas of common interest, so asyet SPSR does not feel recognised by the“mainstream” SETI community.

Whilst many believed the whole Cydoniaissue was settled by Mars Global Surveyor(MGS) imagery acquired in 1998, Craterbelieves most people simply do not take thetime to read the peer-reviewed literatureproduced, instead being content with public(non peer-reviewed) comments by NASAcontractors on the released images.

According to Crater, these comments tendto be slanted toward debunking the wholeissue and cannot be considered seriousscientific analyses.

“In the case of the April 1998 image, theinitially released version, shot from a 45-degreeangle under poor conditions, was so badlyenhanced that it appeared flat and featureless(in spite of the 1/4 mile height of its midpoint),”he explained.

“Nevertheless, a later analysis of a moreaccurately enhanced version found a numberof the unusual features (eg the ‘eye’) in theoriginal showed more detail. Additionally, alater higher-resolution image shot fromoverhead, allowed the symmetry of the landform and its internal features to be moreaccurately documented. Unexpectedly theywere shown to conform to a specific simple

Planetary SETI craves scientific credibilityby Malcolm Smith

are very few actions by the group as a whole.Exceptions are the 1997 meeting with NASA inWashington DC and the publication of a bookin 1998, The Case for the Face.

SPSR research focuses primarily thesurfaces of Mars and the Moon, characterisedby investigation from both orbiters and landers.Stanley V. McDaniel (a former Sonoma StateUniversity professor of philosophy) foundedthe organisation in 1994, responding to a needhe felt to bring the subject of Planetary SETIwithin the scientific mainstream - until then ithad languished on the outskirts. Rather thanfocusing on speculation, SPSR has aimed topublish research findings in peer-reviewedscientific literature.

To date over 16 such articles haveappeared and copies can be downloaded from

Dr Horace Crater.

Mars Global Surveyor - latest images from the Mars Orbiter CameraA partially-exhumed crater in Northern TerraMeridiani. NASA/JPL

Near the intersection of the Martian equator andprime meridian is Northern Terra Meridiani‘Monument Valley’. NASA/JPL

Erosion of North Polar layers and genesis ofnearby sand dunes. NASA/JPL

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geometrical pattern.“So, as far as SPSR is concerned, there is

still a debate, albeit somewhat one-sided.Strangely, the continued re-imaging of thisfeature by MSSS (the NASA subcontractor incharge of the MGS satellite) belies the point ofthe debate being over.”

However, as a result of the initial imageryrelease, the attitude towards NASA now varieswithin the membership. Originally, NASAagreed to meet with SPSR before the MGSbegan imaging the planet and gave the grouptime to present the case for possible artefactsthen.

institutional barriers these types of journals setup. Consequently SPSR has been forced topublish in less well-known – but rigorouslyrefereed – journals, like the Journal ofScientific Exploration (JSE), The Journal of theBritish Interplanetary Society (JBIS) and morerecently on-line journals like New Frontiers inScience and Marsbugs, the latter anastrobiology newsletter.

The current research the group is pursuingcan be characterised as geometrical/statistical,geological, biological and anthropomorphic.Earlier work on the repeated angularplacements of mound-like features hascontinued. In previous work (Crater andMcDaniel) SPSR found that certain right andisosceles triangles drawn between thepositions of mounds were not only repetitivebut closely related to the geometry of atetrahedron. Their work showed suchredundancies are extremely unlikely to haveoccurred by chance. Now SPSR isinvestigating in a more thorough fashion allpossible geometries to see if chance can befurther ruled out or not.

In recent work published in JBIS two SPSRmembers (Ness and Orme) discovered that thebranching of what NASA researchers havecalled “spider-like” features have signaturescharacteristic not of just geology at work, butalso of biology.

Other members (Crater and Levasseur)recently published work on several face-likesurface areas with unusually distinct eye-likefeatures. This is taking two directions: one is tosee if these areas are placed at significantlocations on the planet; for example Dr TomVan Flandern has shown the Cydonia face isupright north and at the equator relative to anolder north pole. The other approach is to seeif features can be explained purely onreasonable chance appearances of certaingeological phenomena.

Previously, much hostility has been directedtowards the approach taken by SPSR from so-

called “mainstream” scientists, many “scienceeducators” and many amongst the space-interested general public. As far as Crater isconcerned, he feels hostility is directed moretowards excessive speculation, appearingwithout research seriously challenged by apeer-review process with which mostmainstream scientists are familiar. Withseveral exceptions Crater feels this hostility isdue mainly to ignorance, mistaking SPSR’sapproach for those of other groups who do notchoose the process of scientific peer-review.

When asked if too much attention has beenfocused on the meteoritic and microbial side ofthe “life on Mars” debate – to the detriment ofother approaches – Crater responds that, tothe extent that life on Mars in any formbecomes more acceptable, so the concept ofpossible intelligent surface interventionsbecomes less inconceivable. Putting the

This orthorectifed MGS image shows that thefeature possesses a very high degree ofsymmetry in two directions. Shown are theintersecting horizontal and vertical axes ofsymmetry. Courtesy of Dr Mark Carlotto

Furthermore, Crater believes they havebeen less dismissive lately. In fact, a numberof NASA administrators have encouragedSPSR to publish in peer-reviewed journals andpresent their results at conferences. Wheninformed of the group’s success along theselines individuals at NASA have said they wouldthen like to see publication in more mainstreamjournals (such as Science or Nature) butaccording to Crater, they seem unaware of the

The classic 35A72 face image from the VikingMars missions of the 1970s.

Primary mound image: the pentad.Courtesy Dr Horace Crater, SPSR

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Cydonia debate aside, Crater goes on to saythat resolving the issue of possible life of anyform on Mars (past or present) has to be oneof the highest priorities for space agencies.

Aurora, the long-term Mars explorationprogramme of the European Space Agency(ESA), aims to put “a European on Mars by2025”. To those at ESA concerned withAurora, Crater hopes at the very least theybecome aware of the published peer-reviewedliterature on Planetary SETI. Whilst SPSR hasnot yet approached ESA’s Mars Expresscamera team to request additional imagery,they intend to ask for images of the Cydoniaarea at medium resolution (between Viking andMGS), particularly for the mounds and ‘theface’.

For some time now Crater has thoughtprofessional planetary scientists should takeSPSR research seriously. The Society has

been able to present research work atscientific conferences in 1998 and 1999(both at the Spring meeting of the AmericanGeophysical Union). Researcher VanFlandern gave an oral presentation entitled‘Artificial Structures on Mars’ to the June2002 meeting of the American AstronomicalSociety in Albuquerque. SPSR has alsoreceived encouraging comments from high-profile individuals involved with Marsexploration. Astronauts who are believed tobe sympathetic to SPSR research include(possibly) Edgar Mitchell.

Mars Global SurveyorAs the first successful mission to the Red Planet in two decades, Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)was launched on 7 November 1996 and entered orbit on 12 September 1997. After a year anda half trimming its orbit from a looping ellipse to a circular track around the planet, thespacecraft began its prime mapping mission in March 1999. It has observed the planet from alow-altitude, nearly polar orbit over the course of one complete Martian year, the equivalent ofnearly two Earth years. Mars Global Surveyor completed its primary mission in January 2001and is now in an extended mission phase. The mission has studied the entire Martian surface,atmosphere, and interior, and has returned more data about the Red planet than all otherMars missions combined.

Among key science findings so far, Global Surveyor has taken pictures of gullies anddebris flow features that suggest there may be current sources of liquid water, similar to anaquifer, at or near the surface of the planet. Magnetometer readings show that the planet’smagnetic field is not globally generated in the planet’s core, but is localised in particularareas of the crust. New temperature data and closeup images of the Martian moon Phobosshow its surface is composed of powdery material at least one metre thick, caused bymillions of years of meteoroid impacts. Data from the spacecraft’s laser altimeter have givenscientists their first 3D views of Mars’ north polar ice cap.

With regard to ongoing and futureresearch work, perhaps it is best to end witha statement from SPSR’s website: “Despitemany challenges, SPSR is committed tokeeping the Mars investigation as much inthe scientific mainstream as possible. Tothis end, members are encouraged to submittheir papers to peer-review within the groupand to seek publication in appropriate peer-reviewed science journals. In this way wehope, in essence, to broaden the mainstreamsubject matter to include a scientificapproach to Planetary SETI.