# Man (or alien?) made structure on Mars? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 7, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578 "2011-06-07T01:53:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/21 "2011-07-16T11:13:31Z")
> [@](#): > > However, the fact remains that the canals did exist. No they did not. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/22 "2011-07-16T14:50:13Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Richard Hoagland has claimed that there are non-geological alien structures on Mars and the Moon, including a glass dome, towers, bridges and pyramids, for many moons (heh). > > Although all of these “objects” are of vastly different sizes, they share one characteristic. Each is just slightly beyond the resolution necessary to verify they are what Hoagland says they are. We must substitute his imagination for reality. > > And in the few cases where sharper, higher-resolution pix become available, such as the “face” on Mars, they show…nothing but natural features. That doesn’t prevent the conspiracy nuts from claiming that NASA is covering something up. Maybe he read _The Martian Chronicles_ one too many times and started to think it was non-fiction? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/23 "2011-07-16T15:33:47Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > …And in the few cases where sharper, higher-resolution pix become available, such as the “face” on Mars, they show…nothing but natural features. That doesn’t prevent the conspiracy nuts from claiming that NASA is covering something up. Because NASA would be ever so eager to cover up something guaranteed to get them all the funding they want for pretty much ever. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/24 "2011-07-16T15:46:56Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Just wait until they find a “C” rock. Personally, I think that all this “alien artifacts” talk is a C-rock. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/25 "2011-07-16T15:48:46Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Because NASA would be ever so eager to cover up something guaranteed to get them all the funding they want for pretty much ever. :rolleyes: How’d that work out for them? :rolleyes: which gets more funding: “We have pictures of Mars with no life, but pretty rocks that only scientists care about” versus “We have pictuers of aliens on Mars. We think they have oil.” ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/26 "2011-07-16T16:32:36Z")
> [@Foggy](#): > > No they did not. Now hang on a minute: there is a fact here. let’s rephrase that to be: “The fact remains that I saw what I believed to be canals on Mars.” It’s definitely not a fact until a person goes there, and spends X numbers of days digging around in Martian sand, looks at all kinds of stuff, digs some more, publishes his findings in a peer reviewed journal, gets laughed at, goes back home to drink away his sorrows, and then sobers up when years later somebody else gets the credit for his work. \*Then \*it’ll be a fact that there were canals on Mars. Not a minute before. 😃 Everyone agrees something was there, it’s just difficult to determine without being there whether it was blurry blobs of nothing or an actual irrigation system on a planet inhospitable to life. 🙂 The more unconvincing part of his post was where he said that they were “visible to the naked eye”. That’s pretty easy to debunk right there. To the naked eye - mars is just a dot of light. I don’t care how good your eyes are. Or how naked. ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/27 "2011-07-16T16:35:50Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > How’d that work out for them? :rolleyes: which gets more funding: “We have pictures of Mars with no life, but pretty rocks that only scientists care about” versus “We have pictuers of aliens on Mars. We think they have oil.” You make so little sense here that I am intrigued, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. Perhaps you could rephrase? Alphaboi was being sarcastic…clearly. And his point was a very good one. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/28 "2011-07-17T18:43:09Z")
> [@echo6160](#): > > You make so little sense here that I am intrigued, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. > > Perhaps you could rephrase? Alphaboi was being sarcastic…clearly. And his point was a very good one. The point I failed to make effectively was that if NASA was covering up evidence of alien life, they completely shot themselves in the foot. The real world, with no evidence of alien life on Mars or anywhere else, had the manned space program budget cut out of existence. If NASA had any such evidence, they were fools to hide it - releasing the evidence would have guaranteed NASA’s budget for ever. That was **alphaboi867** ’s point also. I’m going back to reading comprehension school now. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/29 "2011-07-17T19:19:36Z")
Hey that’s where I left that thing! Mars, go figure, that’s the last place I would have looked. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2011, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/30 "2011-07-17T20:25:12Z")
> [@oton](#): > > The canals on Mars had always been visible to many through small telescopes and sometime even with the naked eye. False. Mars appears as nothing more than a big bright star to the naked eye. And if any such thing had appeared through small telescopes, someone would have simply taken a picture of them. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/31 "2011-07-18T15:17:00Z")
If they serve booze there would that be a Mars Bar? ---
**Author:** ![oton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/41988e/32.png) [@oton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oton)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/32 "2011-07-19T01:28:57Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Quick! Someone alert NASA about this! One of their rovers might fall into a canal and drown! If these features were covered in by dust storms I imagine they wouldn’t “Fall” in !!! ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578/33 "2011-07-19T16:58:35Z")
I was more impressed with the link on that page that shows [Charles Schulz drew Batman!](http://www.neatorama.com/2011/07/18/charles-schulz-of-peanuts-drew-batman/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-or-alien-made-structure-on-mars/584578.md?page=1)