Masking Mars : Picketers Say NASA Is Faking Satellite Problems to Hide Gigantic Structures

Two dozen demonstrators picketed the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Tuesday, charging that NASA wants to cover up evidence that extraterrestrial creatures built faces and other structures on Mars.

Space agency officials and other scientists said the protesters’ claims are groundless.

“NASA Face Up to It,” said picket signs that also carried a photo, made by one of the Viking orbiters in 1976, showing what looks like a mile-long face gazing skyward from Mars’ surface.

Scientists have said for years it is simply an unusual land form. They also have pointed out that other geological features resemble a smiling face and the “Sesame Street” character Kermit the Frog.

The space agency, which struggled Tuesday to regain contact with the Mars Observer, has said it planned to have the spacecraft take more detailed pictures of the so-called face photographed by Viking.

Protesters charged that NASA hasn’t put high enough priority on getting such photographs and plans to withhold them from the public. Some even said NASA faked Mars Observer’s problems to hide evidence that aliens built faces, pyramids and other structures on Mars.

“They’re afraid of political upheaval because, if this is verified, it will be the most important scientific discovery of all time,” said picketer Don Hodges, a college student from Glendale.

“It’s absolutely the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Mars Observer project manager Glenn Cunningham said. “There is absolutely no conspiracy. Everything about this mission is open to the public.”