The Mars Conspiracies! Bizarre and Unsettling Claims from the Red Planet!

While Venus might be the brightest object in our skies (outside of the Moon and the Sun), there is little doubt that Mars has held humanity’s collective fascination for eons, arguably since the dawn of civilization and even before that. Its red glow sets it aside from other planets visible to the naked eye, and it has been incorporated into myths and legends of antiquity around the world. It is also a planet with multiple claims and conspiracies associated with it, conspiracies that reach back into pre-history and permeate our modern world.

Of course, as advancements progress, we might, at some point in the near future, see humans set foot on Mars – and if that were to happen, then it would be a safe bet that further conspiracies would surface and swirl around such missions, and the planet itself. What might they find, for example? Would it be confirmed that many of the anomalies of Mars are indeed the leftover ruins of an ancient Martian civilization? Might they even find signs of life existing on the red planet today? We will return to these questions a little later, but we will begin our exploration of some of the most bizarre and thought-provoking conspiracies that swirl around our cosmic planetary neighbor with claims that human beings have already been to Mars – and, in some cases, have traveled there in a most peculiar and mind-bending way.  

Undoubtedly, one of the most intriguing and outlandish claims concerning Mars surfaced in 2011 courtesy of Italian UFO researcher Luca Scantamburlo, who claimed to have uncovered several secret NASA missions to Mars dating back to the early 1970s. He claimed the information had arrived with him courtesy of a whistleblower, who happened to be a pilot on one of the missions, William Rutledge.

Rutledge claimed there had been several joint “information gathering” missions featuring American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts to the red planet between 1970 and 1972, each launching from highly secret locations in South America. In 1973, though, the mission was to land its crew – Rutledge, Commander Elliot See, and Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Ilyushin - on the Martian surface. Not long after, a video surfaced on the Internet claiming to be leaked footage of the mission taken from aboard the ISV Columbus. While the footage is almost certainly a hoax, it captivated many, with some suggesting it had been recreated from the actual mission. Whatever the truth, the claims of a previous human presence on Mars are not the only ones.

Several years later, in 2014, a woman identifying herself only as “Jackie” called into Coast To Coast radio and made some equally remarkable claims. She stated in no uncertain terms that she had witnessed “humans on Mars in 1979” with her own eyes while she had worked for NASA. She claimed she was part of NASA’s “downstairs team” and that her job was to download and process streaming data. It was as she was doing this one evening that she witnessed several men in “space suits” walking on the Martian surface via a live video feed. Moreover, she insisted she wasn’t alone and that at least six other NASA employees witnessed the same feed (although none have since come forward to corroborate her claims).

While claims of secret missions to Mars in the 1970s are outrageous enough, claims of secret missions to Mars in the future are even more so. And while these should clearly be taken with a large helping of salt, they are intriguing nonetheless and certainly worth contemplating, if only temporarily.

Without a doubt, one of the most controversial figures to claim to have taken part in these time-travel missions to Mars in the future is Randy Cramer, who began speaking of his alleged experiences in the 2000s. He claimed that one evening in 1987 when he was only 17 years old, he was awoken suddenly when a bright light suddenly appeared out of nowhere in his bedroom. As his eyesight adjusted, he could see that the light was in the shape of a doorway. More than that, it appeared as if some kind of portal had opened right in the middle of his bedroom. It was at this point that he noticed two men standing in front of the glowing doorway. One of them gestured that he should join them, and not quite sure why he was doing so, he left his bed and walked toward the pair.

The next memory he had was of standing in a large, hangar-type room. Moreover, he wasn’t alone, seeing around 50 other young men of a similar age, each of them looking, almost transfixed, at a large, black, triangular craft in the middle of the room. A command came for them to get on board, which they did obediently. The craft then presumably took off, as the next thing Cramer could remember was one of the military men telling the group of young men to “look upwards!” They did, almost in unison. There above them was a large, glass window through which they could see Earth. The more they looked at it, the more it became apparent they were moving away from it. Then, one of the military men spoke up once more, telling them that everything they were about to do was “defend” their home planet. Cramer’s account would get even stranger.

He claimed that they landed on the surface of the Moon, describing huge, glass, dome-like buildings all around. Following this, they were transferred to a different spacecraft, and from there, they set off to Mars. Ultimately, Cramer stated that he spent the next 20 years in a “specialized off-planet military unit!” He claimed that he, like the others, had been specifically “selected,” elaborating that this was due to them having “very specific genetic makeup!”

Following the two decades of active service on Mars, Cramer was returned to Earth. Not only that, he was then age-reversed to 17 years of age and, through the portal that he had stepped into from his bedroom, was returned to his bed “within 15 minutes” of his “abduction!” As such, no one had even been aware that he had been missing. Cramer himself had no memory of the 20-year service due to mind-control procedures that essentially wiped his memory. However, over the coming years, he would suffer from strange, intense dreams – and these dreams eventually progressed into recovered memories. Eventually, he began to recall the events in full and began speaking of them publicly shortly after. We should note that many people – even those who are open to such suggestions – have been highly critical of Cramer, with some even having body language experts analyze some of his interviews and public talks to highlight the fact that he is, essentially, not being truthful.  

As bizarre and even preposterous to some as Randy Cramer’s claims are, however, he is not the only person to have offered such revelations. Dr. Andrew Basiago, for example, made remarkably similar claims around the same time. He claimed that in the late 1960s, he was one of a select group of specially “selected gifted children” from right across the United States by the CIA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) who would receive advanced training in preparation for a highly secretive time travel mission (almost identical to the claims made by Cramer, incidentally). Basiago offered that children and young adults made ideal candidates for time-travel projects, largely due to their lack of preconceived view of reality, adding that many adults had “gone insane” following their involvement with such missions.

Basiago continued that the missions operated under Project Pegasus and that he was not only sent into the future but also into the past to witness and research some of the most famous incidents in history. He claimed, for example, to have gone back in time to the Ford’s Theatre in Washington on the evening of April 14th, 1865, witnessing the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. He also claimed to have been sent to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19th, 1863, to witness the Gettysburg Address, a mission that he further claimed resulted in a photograph being taken in which he was captured by pure chance. The picture – which has been widely circulated online – does appear to show a strange figure standing alone from the crowd with President Lincoln speaking in the background. The figure appears to be wearing oversized clothing, apparently the result of an attempt to make the young man appear more adult-like. Of course, the exact reasons for these time travel missions to the past remain a mystery.

He went on so many of these time travel missions, Basiago claimed, that he began to be in danger of meeting himself. Moreover, he suggested that he, on occasion, went back in time and visited alternative timelines of past events, a result, he elaborated, of previous time travel missions.

Basiago also claimed to have been privy to future events long before they happened. He claimed, for example, that as far back as 1971, he witnessed pictures – brought back from the future – of the 9/11 attacks, adding that these pictures had been brought back from the (then) future for “research purposes” – make of that what you will. These time travel missions to the future, at least according to Basiago, also provided those in charge of the project with information on future Presidents of the United States, with certain individuals even being briefed of these future events before their presidencies. In fact, Basiago claimed to have been sat at a table along with George Bush Sr. and George Bush Jr. when they were informed of their future presidencies. Basiago also claimed that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were both told beforehand what the future held for them.

Without a doubt, one of the most outlandish claims from Basiago was that former United States President Barack Obama was also involved in the program in the same capacity that he was, adding that he had even met the future president in the early 1980s when he was only 19 years old. What is interesting to note here is that many people who attended UCLA with Barack Obama have since attested that he would often return to campus from “parties” where he would state his absolute certainty that he would be President of the United States in the future. And it is around this meeting that some of Basiago’s wildest claims surface, and ones that are of particular interest to us here.

He claimed that this meeting with the future president took place when both were part of a selected group for a branch-off mission from the Pegasus project. This time, though, rather than being transported elsewhere in time, they would be teleported to another planet altogether, specifically, Mars. He claimed that the pair were part of a reconnaissance team on the red planet, with one of their main tasks being to build a relationship with the locals – essentially, Martian entities. Basiago insists that intelligent life exists on Mars, and, like human beings, some of them are friendly while others are anything but. Perhaps even more amazing, his “whistleblowing” and Obama’s alleged connection to the ultra-secret mission is an attempt, he claims, by the authorities to lay the groundwork for the eventual revelation of such projects and intelligent Martian life to the public.

Of course, whether we should treat Basiago’s claims with a pinch of salt or not is open to debate. However, Basiago also claims that in 2028, having already run for President of the United States in 2016, he would be elected either President or Vice President of America, something he claims that he has been given prior notice of. And when he does, he insists he will release all the files of such secretive projects to the public.

Yet another person who has claimed to have been involved in teleportation missions to Mars is Michael Relfe, a former member of the United States military, who claimed that he was recruited in 1976 while serving in the military and then going on a 20-year mission at one of the two United States colonies on Mars. Furthermore, much the same as Cramer and Basiago, Relfe claims that following his 20 years of service, he was “age-reversed and cast back in time!” He elaborated that this was “usual procedure,” adding that some people involved in the project “have some memories blocked or erased before being discharged!”

Interestingly, Relfe claimed that he was transported to Mars via some kind of portal and that the missions, which were research-gathering operations, took place in the future to ensure absolute secrecy. Interestingly, and also tying in with the claims of Basiago, the United States government activated their time travel technology as early as 1967 (around the same time that “recruits” were being sought), which had been built on quantum physics researched by Nikola Tesla (it is worth noting that Tesla’s files and research papers went missing from the New York hotel room where he died, with many suspecting the intelligence agencies being behind the theft, and perhaps even more). This technology has been utilized for several reasons, not least to “provide political and economic advantages by way of knowing what the future holds!”

Perhaps some of the most thought-provoking claims regarding secret missions to Mars came from a leading physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Arthur Neumann, known to many people as “Henry Deacon.” He stated that members of “the elite” were not only aware of “free energy” but that they were actively suppressing such knowledge. What’s more, it was almost certain that civilizations of antiquity were aware of and utilized free energy thousands of years ago. Of interest to us here, though, were top-secret projects – overseen by the same elites – that used portals to transport people to Mars to work at human-controlled bases on the red planet.

To begin with, “Henry Deacon” spoke to small audiences from the UFO community, maintaining his anonymity. However, after several years, he decided to speak as Arthur Neumann at an exopolitics conference in Barcelona, Spain. During this talk, he spoke not only of bases on the Martian surface but that there was a thriving human colony there. Moreover, members of these human colonies had already made contact with representatives of an alien race there. His speech was well received, with many pointing to his background as a sign of his credibility. Indeed, it appeared Neumann made bigger waves than he could have imagined, as not long after the speech in Barcelona, he simply vanished into thin air and has not been heard from or seen since.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons to entertain the possibility that there is more to Mars than our collective understanding of it suggests, with, as we mentioned earlier, many anomalies have been spotted and highlighted over the years.

Arguably one of the first anomalies of the modern era is the so-called Face on Mars, which was first seen by the world in 1976 following the first Viking mission, one of many photographs taken from above the Martian surface. Almost as soon as it was viewed by the general public, theories began to swirl that the face was an artificially created structure and was proof of an ancient civilization on the red planet. However, subsequent flybys in 1998 and 2001 also photographed the same region and, at least according to the photographs offered by NASA, show that the initial picture was nothing more than a trick of the light. However, as we might imagine, not everyone subscribes to such an explanation, and, at least in theory, there is good reason to remain open to the fact that the Face on Mars could very well be an artificial structure, not least because of the seemingly ultra-precise angles in it, something rarely, if ever, created by nature.

It isn’t just the Face on Mars, though, that has led many people to conclude that there are genuine remains of an ancient civilization on the red planet. The entire region of Cydonia, particularly the immediate vicinity around the face, appears, to some, to be the remains of an ancient city. Researchers have pointed out that the sheer number of precise anomalous “structures” in this region is too many to be coincidence or naturally forming, and instead suggest the remains of a purposely and intricately designed city, one that now lies in ruins, whether through the ravages of time or due to some other catastrophic or deadly event (something we will return to shortly). There have even been suggestions that before the last pole shift on Mars, the face and the city complex would have resided on the Martian equator, something which, once more, is suggestive of purposeful planning. It is also worth mentioning that respected researchers, investigators, and authors Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, and John Grigsby also examined suggestions of the remains of a Martian city in the Cydonia region in their book The Mars Mystery – A Tale of the End of Two Worlds, concluding that there is at least reason to support the suggestion.  

As well as the Face on Mars, there are other particularly intriguing anomalies on the Martian surface, not least a rocky object, albeit in ruins, that looks identical to the Sphinx of Giza in Egypt. Moreover, behind this alleged sphinx sits pyramids, exactly in the same location to the sphinx as they are on the Giza Plateau. Clearly, if there were such ruins on the Martian surface, then it would mean that at some point during its history, intelligent life existed on the red planet. We should note that the suggestion that the structures could be nothing more than volcanoes is also unlikely, given that the only volcanic region of Mars is over 2000 miles away in the Tharsis region. Moreover, at least according to some eagle-eyed viewers of the region, there appears to be an excessive amount of rocks and stones in the area in front of the pyramid structures, perhaps suggesting rubble, either left by the builders of the artificial structures, are the leftovers of their destruction.

What is perhaps even more thought-provoking is that the layout and dimensions of the apparent Martian Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza are an identical match. What is further interesting, is that we can find further apparent connections between Mars and the civilization of ancient Egypt. While it is important to note it is open to interpretation, some writings and research regarding the Sphinx of Giza, for example, are of particular interest to us here. It is said that the Sphinx – of which there remains intense debate as to its real age – once glowed a shining red color, just like the red of Mars as seen from Earth. Even more remarkable, Cairo – the modern capital just a stone’s throw away from the Giza plateau – translates to The Place of Mars when using its Arabic name, Al Qahirah. And we might also note that many people who have had close encounters with UFOs (including cases of alien abduction) have claimed to have seen strange ancient Egyptian-style symbols and signs onboard these futuristic vehicles.

Could there really be some kind of connection between the civilization of ancient Egypt and an ancient civilization on Mars? We will return to this suggestion shortly.

Before we do, though, it is worth mentioning just some of the many other anomalies that have been spotted on Mars. In September 2015, for example, claims surfaced from several researchers who claimed to have spotted an anomaly that became dubbed the Martian Stargate. The apparent structure appeared to be half-buried in the ground and had seemingly straight and precise angles and lines. Although the structure appeared to be damaged, there was what appeared to be a circular opening visible, very similar to how we might imagine a portal-like entrance.

In the same year, another photograph surfaced online claiming to show the ruins of what looked like a huge stone pillar. What’s more, this pillar appeared to have ancient Egyptian-type symbols and petroglyphs carved into it. There have been many similar pictures showing similar stone ruins with similar ancient Egyptian-type symbols. Even stranger, and perhaps more unsettling, are pictures that seem to show humanoid figures on the Martian surface, with a particularly well-known picture appearing once more in 2015 showing what looked like a woman standing on one of the Martian mountains. There have also been pictures that seem to show human bones and even skulls on the surface of Mars, as well as strange lizard-like animals.

With the idea that human beings may have migrated to Earth from Mars many thousands, perhaps even millions, of years ago in mind, it is worth our time to turn our attention to a declassified CIA document that detailed a remarkable remote viewing experiment in the early 1980s. The files were part of a huge data dump in 2017, with one particularly interesting remote viewing mission taking place in 1984 with a viewer known only as “The Subject,” although it is widely believed that this “subject” was the renowned remote viewer, Joe McMoneagle. The manuscript of the remote viewing mission contained some of the most intriguing, if disturbing, details ever recorded.  

The cover letter for the transcript made for fascinating reading in itself. It stated:

“Method of site acquisition: Sealed envelope with geographic coordinates. The sealed envelope was given to the subject immediately prior to the interview. The envelope was not opened until after the interview. In the envelope was a 3x5 card with the following information: The Planet Mars. Time of interest approximately 1 million years B.C. Selected geographic coordinates, provided by the parties requesting the information, were verbally given to the subject during the interview.”

Once we delve into the manuscript, the account takes an even more amazing turn.

The Subject was given the coordinates, 40.89 north, and 9.55 west, and he was completely unaware of his destination upon receiving them. He soon found himself in a desolate, red world. He stated that he could see “a pyramid, or pyramid form. It’s very high. It’s kind of sitting in a large, depressed area!” He continued that he could see signs of civilization on the planet, and an advanced one at that, with evidence of advanced technology. He saw cities that were comprised of “large, flat surfaces” with “very smooth angles” which were “megalithic!” He also described some kind of destabilization of the planet, offering he was “tracking severe, severe clouds, more like (a) dust storm – it’s a geological problem!”

The Subject was then given a series of different coordinates and was asked each time to describe what he saw. He described huge structures that made up equally huge cities that were hidden away inside canyons that were “like rabbit warrens (with) very high walls!” He further described “strange intersecting roads that are dug into the valleys” and even something that appeared like the obelisk in Washington DC.

This mind-bending remote viewing session continued for a considerable time. However, the longer it progressed, the Subject found it increasingly difficult to focus on the coordinates given to him. Those running the session decided to allow him to go to whatever interested him as long as he reported what he saw. Some of his descriptions are truly fascinating. He described seeing huge pyramid structures that were designed to provide “shelter from storms!” He went inside one of these pyramids, stating he could see many different chambers, most of which had been “almost stripped of any kinds of furnishings” and that was not a “strictly functional place for sleeping or some form of hibernation!”

He was then asked who was using the pyramids for shelter, to which he responded, “Very large people, but they’re thin! They look thin because of their height, and they dress in real light silk, but it’s not a flowing type of clothing, it’s like cutting to fit! They’re ancient people. They’re dying, it’s past their time or age!” He continued that they were “waiting for something to return, or (on) something coming with an answer!” The Subject was asked what exactly these ancient people were waiting for. He replied, “A group or party of them went to find a new place to live” due to “the corruption of their environment! It’s failing rapidly, and this group went somewhere a long way to find another place to live!” In response to being asked how this group left, he replied they left in a vehicle that “looks like the inside of a large boat (with) very rounded walls and shiny metal!”

The most remarkable revelations, though, were still to come.      

He began describing a journey through space and then entering the atmosphere of another planet. He stated, “…(I get the) impression of a really crazy place, with volcanoes and gas pockets and strange plants, (a) very volatile place!” He continued that although this place was similar to the planet they had just left, there were differences, mainly “there seems to be a lot of vegetation where the other place did not have it, and (a) different kind of storm!”

The session was then brought to a close. While it doesn’t state as such in the report, we might imagine that the place The Subject was describing was Earth 1.5 million years ago.

It is also interesting to note that the coordinates initially given to The Subject fall into the Cydonia region of Mars – an intriguing and possibly controversial location on the red planet, as we have already seen. We might ask, then, if there was a civilization on Mars, one that quite possibly embarked on a cosmic migration to Earth over a million years ago, then what caused this necessary transplantation? Was it something naturally occurring, such as a meteor strike? Or could it have been the result of something much more ominous?

Here, it is worth exploring the research and theories of propulsion scientist John Brandenburg, who in 2014 claimed that Mars had very likely suffered a catastrophic nuclear incident at some point in the distant past. Interestingly, the location of this nuclear fallout was in the Cydonia and Utopia regions of the planet. Brandenburg, who made the claims in his book Death on Mars: The Discovery of a Planetary Nuclear Massacre, was already alert to the possibility that the remains of an ancient, advanced civilization existed in these regions, suggesting that this nuclear event was not a naturally occurring one, elaborating that, “If the reactions weren’t natural, the implication is that intelligent beings artificially caused them!” In short, Brandenburg put forward that an alien race, possibly indigenous to Mars, possibly from elsewhere, launched a blistering attack on the civilization of the Cydonia and Utopia regions.

Brandenburg put forward that there were greatly enhanced levels of uranium and thorium in the Martian soil, as well as increased amounts of Xenon 129 in the atmosphere, all indicators of some kind of nuclear incident. Moreover, the two sites affected, Brandenburg offered, showed clear signs of an ancient civilization, with alleged remains of artificial structures – remains, incidentally, he was certain would be discovered if ever a manned mission to the red planet went ahead.

Of course, we detailed earlier some of the claims of pyramid-like structures and an apparent sphinx on Mars. There have, though, been many claims of anomalies on the Martian surface over the years, not least since the rollout of Google Mars, which allows a person to view the surface of the red planet from the comfort of their living room. What is also of interest is that other legends, creation stories, and ancient writings all appear to tell of a civilization arriving on Earth in the distant past and, essentially, ruling over humanity as “the gods.”

What if these creation stories have some partial truths to them, and what if they all come from the same source? Given that many people, even those who believe in the authenticity of UFOs and the genuine probability of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe, insist that the distance to travel between solar systems and galaxies would be almost certainly too great for any space-faring civilization, we might consider that if an alien race did arrive on Earth in antiquity, they might have arrived from a nearby planet – perhaps Mars. And maybe that alien race was, ultimately, human in nature – they are essentially our ancestors. Could these transplanted Martians have been responsible not only for the human race but also for legends such as Atlantis, as well as the great civilizations of the past, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley?

As crazy as his ideas might be to many, there are other reasons to believe that human beings might not have originated on Earth but might have arrived here from another planet. While he didn’t specifically state Mars as the origin, Dr. Ellis Silver put together a compelling argument that human beings – or something very close before they interbred with Neanderthals - were not indigenous to Earth and had, in fact, been brought here from elsewhere in deep antiquity in his book Humans Are Not from Earth: A Scientific Evaluation of the Evidence.

The thrust of Silver’s argument revolves around the notion that while Earth is certainly an adequate home for human beings and offers it all it needs and more, it is not as “ideal as whoever brought us here initially thought!” As Silver argues, we might assume that if we had evolved here, then our environment would suit us perfectly, or more to the point, we would suit our environment.

Silver compares human beings to other Indigenous animals and how we seem to suffer multiple ill effects of living on Earth. He highlights, for example, how human beings are, generally and relatively speaking, chronically ill, particularly with chronic back pain, something that genuinely inhabits the lives of millions, if not billions of people around the world as just one detail that suggests human beings are out of sync with Earth. He elaborates that this could indicate that the gravity on our “home planet” – wherever that might be – is likely much lower than on Earth. Due to the relative tallness of humans, this higher gravity results in strain on the back and ultimately, chronic back pain. Even our tallness compared to most animals’ low center of gravity, as well as the fact we have flat feet yet hands with opposable thumbs and a lack of body hair (or fur) despite requiring clothes for warmth, are all details that put humanity at odds with the environment on Earth.

Silver also highlights human childbirth, which, in part because of the oversized nature of a baby’s head, is a great cause of pain and distress for the mother. We might keep in mind that before the era of modern medicine, the number of women and children who died during childbirth was horrifically high compared to our contemporary era. As Silver writes, “No other truly native species on this planet has this problem!” Even the fact that human offspring are “completely helpless” for years after birth is at odds with almost every other species on the planet, with maturity still being years away following muscle development and basic learned skills. Does this suggest that the human gestation period is much shorter than it should be, and if so, is that the result of some kind of genetic alteration? It is certainly an interesting notion, but Silver has more ammunition for his argument.

He points out that even how human beings react to sunlight – the very thing we need to remain alive – is unlike almost all other animals on the planet. While most humans will suffer from sunburn or heatstroke if they remain out in the sun for long periods, most other animals on the planet are unaffected by sustained exposure to sunlight. Even the fact that we squint our eyes to see the face of the sun is something unique only to human beings. Perhaps what is of most interest to us here, though, is the fact that the human body clock is more in synch with a 25-hour day than a 24-hour day – much more in sympathy with a Martian day (approximately 24 hours and 39 minutes) than one on Earth.

Of course, whether life exists or once existed on Mars has been a question that has been asked for generations. The fact is, though, at least according to the person behind one of the tests for life on Mars that was part of the 1976 Viking landing, that question has already been answered, and what’s more, at least according to some, NASA covered up that answer. Gilbert Levin designed the test that would look for signs of organic life in soil samples. This experiment, including the methods and testing devices, had all been preapproved by NASA and was a huge part of the mission.

Following the landing, Levin’s test was carried out, and much to his shock, the data showed organic molecules in the Martian soil. However, rather than being joyous about such a momentous discovery, NASA essentially dismissed the findings as nothing more than an anomaly, putting forward that two other devices had also tested for organic molecules and had failed to find anything out of the ordinary. Many were critical of NASA’s approach, not least Levin himself. One NASA employee, though, has publicly backed Levin’s device and experiment. Chris McKay from NASA’s Ames Research Center claimed that not only was Levin’s test likely accurate but that the other two models used by NASA were flawed. To prove his point, he conducted experiments with NASA’s other two models in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Once more, they suggested there were no organic molecules in the soil, even though it was clear such molecules were present.

It is also worth quickly noting conspiracies connected to the Mars’ moons, particularly Phobos, and the claims of Russian astrophysicist Dr. Iosif Shklovsky that not only is it hollow, but that it very well could be an artificial structure, highlighting its highly unusual and uneven orbit. While many dismissed Shklovsky’s claims, which he made as far back as the late 1960s, in more recent years, studies from the European Space Agency came to similar conclusions, at least about its potentially hollow nature, perhaps the result of trapped water or another liquid inside the cosmic satellite, they offered.

As we might imagine, over the years since Shklovsky’s claims, many researchers have put forward their own suggestions, with one of the most interesting if outlandish being that the Martian moon was placed into an intentional orbit and was, in fact, an ancient space station, perhaps once used as an early warning of sorts for incoming asteroids or comets, or even as a jumping off point for missions into deeper space. What perhaps makes the suggestion that Phobos is an unnatural, artificial structure even more compelling are the many missions to send probes to explore it, all of which have encountered strange and largely unexplained system failures. While there could be many explanations for this, those who subscribe to the artificial Martian moon theories suggest that these failures are not coincidence and are some kind of defense mechanism to prevent closer approaches.

The fact is, Mars will continue to fascinate humanity for years to come, at least until traveling, there is something open to everybody in the same way a person can jump on a plane and travel abroad here on Earth. Until then, conspiracies – both reasonable and outrageous – will continue to swirl. And, as time goes by and humanity does manage to establish a presence on the red planet, we just might find that at least some of these conspiracies and wild claims have more truth to them than many of us might think. Moreover, potential discoveries on Mars could very well alter not only how we view our own history, but also our collective origins, perhaps even altering how we view the universe and how we collectively fit into it. For now, we must continue to watch the red planet from here on Earth, contemplating what secrets it might hold.