Mars

One of the main locations concerning X-COM is Mars, particularly the area of Cydonia Mensae, where the main alien base is located on UFO Defense. This page does not contain any information regarding the game but will provide a brief overview of why the Red Planet and Cydonia were chosen to play such an important part on the plot

The Viking Photograph

On July 1976 the Viking 1 Orbiter was conducting a photographic survey of the surface of Mars when it took several photos of the Cydonia Mensae area (check map for its location on Mars).

When one of the photos was released it carried the mention that it resembled a human face but NASA stated that the 'human' appearance was due to a trick of light and shadow (and also for the propensity of people to recognize 'common' patterns into nature, such as seeing figures on clouds).

UFOlogists discover the 'Face'

For years the 'Face', along with the rest of the pictures was forgotten until 1991 when two scientists went over the Viking photographs and found more another picture , together with a shot of the area that revealed other unusual figures such as 'pyramids'.

The rerelease of the pictures sent off a debate regarding their possible artificiality. NASA kept its earlier position that the 'Face' and the other features were nothing more than the result of erosion on natural formations, while the UFO community claimed that a major conspiracy was taking place to keep secret the existence of artificial formations on Mars. In support of their claims, arguments were presented that, besides their appearance, there was a geometrical relationship between the several formations and that Cydonia Mensae was once the shore of an ancient ocean on Mars (the Acidalia Planitia).

The Mars Surveyor Mission

To end the discussion, on 1995 NASA announced that its new probe, Mars Surveyor, would conduct a reshooting of Cydonia. And so, on 1998, NASA released a new picture of the 'Face', which hoped would settle the controversy.

The new picture effectively dispelled any idea of it representing a human face, looking instead more as drawings on a cat's litter box, and the media reproduced NASA's interpretation of it. That should have ended the question, but it was later discovered that NASA had edited that photograph and had kept from publication an overhead image (unlike the previous one, which had been taken at a 45º angle), much more alike the previous Viking photos.

Although the new picture wasn't the proverbial 'smoking gun', NASA's behaviour concerning it has kept the suspicions of a coverup alive. And the new images have arisen claims that the right side of the 'Face', which until then hadn't been photographed with the same quality represents a 'Lion', with the structure having two sides, Human and Lion, a design found in some cultures on our planet.