September 5, 2002: Cydonia Region Of Mars - Richard C. Hoagland
September 5, 2002: Cydonia Region Of Mars - Richard C. Hoagland  
Podcast: The Art Bell Archive
Published On: Tue May 06 2025
Description: Art Bell welcomes Richard C. Hoagland, former NASA consultant and science advisor to Walter Cronkite during the Apollo missions, to present what he calls overwhelming evidence of ancient artificial structures on Mars. Using newly released daytime infrared imaging from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, Hoagland and his team claim to have uncovered a massive city-like grid beneath the dusty surface of the Cydonia region, with individual buildings the size of city blocks visible through thermal imaging.The discussion centers on how the THEMIS infrared camera can see through layers of fine Martian dust to reveal subsurface structures. Hoagland explains that MOLA laser data confirms a basin beneath Cydonia nearly as deep as the Grand Canyon, filled with ultra-fine dust that is transparent to infrared wavelengths. Image processing specialist Keith Laney joins the program to describe how he obtained and processed the multispectral data using professional imaging software.Controversy erupts when a NASA-affiliated programmer is accused of both guiding Laney to the pristine data and then publicly calling his results fraudulent. Art and Hoagland compare official website imagery with Laney's version, noting significant differences in quality and detail that raise questions about whether NASA may have degraded the publicly available data.