Date: 05-04-91 00:55
From: John Finney
Subj: interesting stuff


This afternoon (5-3-91) on the For The People radio talk show,
Dr. Richard Hoagland (I hope I spelled his name right) made a
fairly strong case - abet on circumstantial evidence - that
there has been a super-secret US launch of a non-manned craft
towards Mars. His speculation is that the last Novermber
launch of shuttle ATLANTIS was the time of the start of the
mission and that there could be results coming back within a
month. He said that off-the-shelf hardware could easily be
used and would provide exellent results, of much better
quality that that of the last Mars missions. The reason for a
launch?
To steal a march on the public to see if there really is
something to the reports of ruins on the surface of Mars.
Please note that MY notes on his discussion were made on the
back of a lunch sack in an often moving vehicle.... There was
limited ability on my part to get a lot of what he said
down...and to read it later.
His speculations were based on a number of items...not all of
them are listed here:

1) the US government could not stand not knowing if there is
actually some kind of base or ruins on Mars. They would
consider it a matter of national security if there was
actually some kind of artifacts on the surface of Mars

2) that if WE didn't get there quickly the USSR would

3) that if the pics to be sent back in 1993 by the Mars
Observer (see further speculations on this later) actually
showed some kind of ruins the citizens might have a problem of
some kind with the knowledge. As an aside, he mentioned that
the Observer would be "expendable" (just as the Galieo (sp?)
telescope seems to have been expendable) if there really is
something there.

4) That there are a number of curious happenings involving the
Mars Observer (due for a mid to late 1992 launch and 1993
arrival date) such as the continued refusal of NASA to launch
the probe. EXAMPLE: Claims of no money for a booster (the
company that produces Titan boosters offerred a FREE booster
if NASA would just get the Observer off on its original
schedule).

5) He asked some interesting questions about the current
shuttle mission... Why is it that all previous military
missions involving what was supposed to be Star Wars
technology have been so security controlled that they did
not even give out the astronauts names but this time they not
only tell all but show all with live pics showing the interior
of the cargo bay with all the equipment being tested??
Possibly to distract from signals to/from Mars?

He pointed out that our government has a huge fund of "secret"
money that could be used to fund this launch. A launch of
this type only costs maybe $200 million, which would be pocket
change out of what some of his sources say is perhaps a $35
billion fund of non-Congressionally supervised money. He
mentioned a book called Blank Check as a source...I didn't get
the author's name.
The technology is, as mentioned earlier, off-the-shelf stuff.
With minor modifications, spy satilites of the same type as
those now orbiting Earth could be used to take pics of the
ruins and transmit them back home. These birds are able to
take pics of auto licence tags if the operators wanted them
to and with good enough resolution to read them, says
Hoagland. Regular Xband and Maser transmission methods can
easily get the information back, but it would likely be
encripted. The Deepspace Network (receiving stations operated
by NASA?) that were used to easedrop on and assist the
navigation of the Russian PHOBOS probes could act as receiving
stations. Hoagland was not, in my mind, doing a "Well, it
could be happening" Radio Talk Show. He appeared to be
extremely serious about this. He has also set up a Mars
Mission organization that is trying to get information out
about the pics that are already available and about this
possiable new secret mission.

Jerry
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