Alexey Kuzmin at IKI in Moscow. Photo taken by Mrs. Natalie Russ from the Institute of Planetary Exploration, DLR , Germany.

In my quest for answers to the akwardness surrounding the two Mars-probes that the USSR had taking pictures of Mars, an its two Moons, and some strange cigarr-shaped shadows a.s.o. at the end of the 80's, where finally one probe mysteriously disappeared, finally led me to the man that was responsable to handling of the information during the mission. At the RSSI department of High Energy Astrophysics department at the IKI, Moscow, I found - Alexey Kuzmin. By Jorgen Westman

The shadow

Picture1 - the shadow      Alexey Kuzmin was responsable of the process with photo-information that was gathered in 1988 during the "Phobos International Space Project", that later has been used as support by conspiracy-followers to the idea of previous/still life on Mars. A number of TV-shows were produced in Russia about Alexey Kuzmin and the Phobus-project, but none of these managed to cross the western border. I started out by asking Alexey Kuzmin how the cigarr-shaped shadow (se picture to the left) did appear. This picture was taken by the Phobus-2 probe just before groundcontrol lost contact with it and it was lost. Alexey speaks, almost, fluid English, so I have kept his word intact. ­ The cigar shape shadow is the probe shadow on the martian surface. It has such shape and size because of the scanning mode of the instrument produced by. The instrument is the scanner with the slow scanning rate and it scans the surface with using a probe moving. Therefore the cigare is so big. ­ Most of the people consider the Phobos-2 was lost because of the mistake in the control and because of inperfect intellegence of the on-board computer. I think the same. But there are the persons who consider the probe was lost because of UFO influence. There is no complete conclusion.      Who belived that a UFO was the reason to the loss of the Phobus-2 probe? ­ I don't know the belivers in UFO around Mars in IKI, there were the guys, but they are not in IKI now.

"The pole" by Dejmos.

Picture 2 - "the pole" by Dejmos.      So what about the pole-shaped object by the other Mars-moon Dejmos (see picture to the left)? ­ I have an explanation to your picture with Phobos, because it's me who produce it. The light vertical line is a defect of CCD matrix - the sensor for the used TV system. One bright point is the hot pixel the CCD element with the wrong sensetivity. The other bright dot could be Dejmos (the scientists calculate it should be somethere at this place). ­ I have no explanations for the other strange effects, it could be artificial UFO, but they can be the other kind of things. The situation in IKI (our institute) is difficult enouth (as well as for the whole space research in Russia) to work on the problems without the cocrect results. Some of Russian probes were lost in the Earth orbit without detailed explanation, but it's normal for the incidents with the complex devices.

Richard C. Hoagland

Cydonia      In the USA there is a man named Richard C. Hoagland who claims, in lectures and books, that there are artificial structures on Mars. Have you heard of him or the issue? ­ I didn't heard about C. Hoagland book before, I'll try to get it via Internet!      Have the USSR/Russia taken any puctures of the Cydonia-area on Mars? ­ Not that I know of.     This is a news telegram from the incident: THE FOLLOWING NEWS ITEM APPEARED ON AP (ASSOCIATED PRESS) AT 4:41 PM EST MARCH 30, 1989: "SOVIET RESEARCH CENTERS ARE NOW TRYING TO INTERPRET SO FAR 'UNEXPLAINED OPTICAL PHONOMENA' ON THE PICTURES OF THE MARTIAN SURFACE. THE PICTURES SHOW AN INIGMATIC STRIP 23-25 MILES WIDE AND A LARGE SPINDLE-SHAPED FORMATION." According to NASA liason spokepersons in Moscow, the Soviets had not turned on their camera and WERE NOT even taking pictures of the Martian surface. This is the information which was relayed only a few weeks ago. AP also stated that the Soviet news program "Vremya" showed a detailed map of Mars "compiled from photos taken during the mission." It DOES now appear that the Soviets WERE taking pictures and furthermore, it looks like they may have found something in those photographs which is quite interesting.