By Mike Bara
© 2003 The Enterprise Mission
 

Word has leaked out – and from none other than the current head of NASA, Administrator Sean O’Keefe, quoted in a formal interview in the prestigious Los Angeles Times a few days ago -- of President Bush's upcoming January 28^th State of The Union Address. O’Keefe strongly hints that, under the “cover” of an expanded technology program, the President plans to tacitly announce an aggressive plan ultimately designed to send humans to Mars.

Although it reportedly will not set a “Kennedy-esque deadline,” rumors are swirling that the radically expanded program announcement, ultimately required to get humans to the Red Planet with sufficient gear to make the trip worthwhile, will center around not only an already existing program (initiated last year), called “NEP” (nuclear electric propulsion), but a refocus on another critical nuclear technology  -- once called "NERVA" -- but now intriguingly re-christened  (according to O’Keefe) "Prometheus."

The implications of such a significantly accelerated NASA program are staggering  -- albeit confusing -- especially considering the current economic and budgetary climate. The latest budget estimates assume that deficits in the $200-$330 billion dollar range are projected for the next several years at least, caused by a bloated domestic budget, the increased defense costs of the War on Terror, and a sluggish economy top heavy with an excessive tax burden. How, against this political background and with only a narrow majority in Congress, does President Bush expect to get the ~$60 billion in funding such an Enterprise will require? In fact, such an overtly frivolous expenditure of our diminishing budgetary resources seems downright suicidal politically… unless of course, you take into account the possibility that the political landscape is altogether different than what you are told on CNN and Fox News, and far closer to the reality we have been asserting for more than a decade.

And unless there is a lot more to this story -- and this President -- than meets the eye of Horus ….

A little recounting of history is in order here.

The "NERVA" concept was first proposed back in the 1950's, as the most efficient method to get humans into interplanetary space and to a permanent manned Moon base. The NERVA engine would not use nuclear fission as a propulsive mechanism per-se, but rather would expel super-heated hydrogen, flowing through a nuclear fission reactor, as an ultra-high-speed exhaust. The idea was shelved at NASA in 1973  [though, with thanks to Rick Sterling for locating them, documents available on the Internet reveal the Department of Defense continued development of nuclear propulsion technologies well into the 1990s … where Sean O’Keefe, as former Secretary of the Navy, undoubtedly became familiar with them].

Ostensibly, NASA’s cancellation of its thermal nuclear rocket program was due to “excessive development costs” -- even though a fully functioning prototype (above) had already been continuously test fired for several hours (orders of magnitude beyond the ~8 minutes for the current Shuttle engine burn time) in the late 1960’s.  In fact, NERVA seems to have been terminated for the same reason that NASA hasn’t returned to the Moon in over thirty years: such a quantum leap in deep space capabilities was, for some reason, quietly considered at that time “premature.”

NERVA therefore stayed on the NASA “scrap heap,” along with all its other developed but curiously unused space technologies, for over three decades … until "Bush happened."

Now, the nuclear rocket idea seems to once again be en-vogue. According to another story on space.com, the Bush administration is suddenly pushing forward, not only with the old nuclear rocket concept, but (behind the scenes) the larger notion of using it to send humans to Mars “within the decade.”

This dramatic turn of events should not in anyway be surprising to the readers of these pages.

The Bush family, with their ties to various secret societies (like The Order of the Knights of Malta) and deep roots in the Republican Party, is a political dynasty perhaps unmatched in American history. So far, it can boast of twice holding the presidency, and at one time held sway over the governor’s mansions in two of the Nations most populous states, Texas and Florida. It is also a family that seems to have an ongoing fascination, if not affinity, for the planet Mars ….

As we have previously documented, the first President Bush (41), had quite an interest in not only in Mars, but in Cydonia … and the ongoing research of Enterprise principal investigator, Richard C. Hoagland.

Bush Senior, you will recall, made headlines in 1989 when he called for a new program to send humans to Mars. Dubbed the "Space Exploration Initiative," it was squashed under the weight of its excessive costs ($450 billion, according to NASA) and a hostile Congress controlled by his political opponents. Yet the SEI had some very interesting political agendas in place from the beginning, which almost seemed designed to give Hoagland's work a heightened level of recognition.

Readers will recall that in early 1990, Hoagland had begun an educational project in Washington D.C., at Dunbar Senior High. Drawing unabashedly upon the Star Trek motif of his friend, Gene Roddenberry, the "U.S.S. Dunbar" was designed by Hoagland and colleagues to stimulate interest in science among the students at this 99% black inner city school by focusing their research on various real space science issues and arguments within NASA, such as Hubble, the Magellen Venus Mission, Galileo to Jupiter … and Mars.

The prototype Dunbar experiment, successful template for a projected “Enterprise Mission” national educational program, ended by tackling the thorny issues swirling around the Face and "Cydonia" itself!

This pioneering educational endeavor, with the able contributions of both national corporations and local community volunteers (including Keith Morgan, of ABC news), eventually received a nomination for a "point of light" award from the President's own Point of Light Foundation. The program also caught the attention of the White House itself, and after several months of negotiating, the student “crew” not only got a chance to “pipe an Admiral of the fleet (then NASA Administrator, Admiral Richard Truly) aboard the U.S.S. Dunbar,” it eventually was able to officially welcome its most important visitor: none other than First Lady, Barbara Bush (above)!

All this, paralleling an extraordinary period of official NASA interest in Mars … Cydonia … and Hoagland.

When Dr. John Klineberg, Director of NASA-Lewis, introduced Hoagland to the assembled employees at the facility for his March 20th, 1991 invited address to this major NASA Center, the Director revealed that Hoagland's work had been a “major influence” on then President George Bush's decision to launch the Space Exploration Initiative in the first place!

As Kleinberg phrased it, "Richard Hoagland is also the man who managed to convince the President to state that a return to Mars is one of our goals ...", apparently, for the direct benefit and “morale” of the NASA-Lewis Center’s 4000 scientists and engineers watching live and on closed-circuit NASA television that afternoon. 

“Coincidentally,” NASA-Lewis in this precise time frame was quietly working on NASA’s only remaining nuclear reactor program – the “Snap 100” – quietly designed (according to later Congressional testimony) to provide electrical power for, among other uses—

A manned mission to Mars.

Were Hoagland’s NASA-Lewis invitations (he was invited back three times …) only a clever means of “warming up the troops?” Of quietly showing the NASA engineers most responsible for the means of getting there (yet, with total “plausible deniability”) vis a vis “Cydonia,” why the President was really so determined to send a crew to Mars?

Indeed, even an official promotional poster for the Bush Mars program (below), issued by Boeing and distributed widely within the aerospace community in order to drum up interest in the Project, made it quite clear that the primary reason to go to Mars was the discovery not of water, or even life -- but of intelligently-designed artifacts … ruins from the civilization that once thrived there ….

Click on thumbnail for full size image

The poster also includes a personal quote from the first President Bush -- explaining "Why Mars?" In actuality, the illustration says it better than the words ….

The ruins are a series of partially buried, stacked stones with a variety of Egyptian or Sumerian appearing symbols and glyphs on them. But the image is dominated by the face of what appears to be a black man in an Egyptian styled hat. It is obvious that Bush was as interested in Hoagland's work as Klineberg had suggested.

But the Hoagland/Bush connection seems to go even farther ….

Months before his "red carpet treatment" at NASA/Lewis, on the very day of Bush's astonishing announcement (July 20, 1989) regarding the President's dramatic 30-year plan for a Space Exploration Initiative culminating in a manned Mars landing (in the tradition of Apollo), CNN suddenly called Hoagland for an interview that evening. The producers of the political program "Crossfire" specifically wanted Hoagland -- of all the possible NASA Mars experts they could have called upon -- to present "the case for Mars," following the President's surprise initiative on the steps of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum that morning.

Now, just who do you suppose recommended Hoagland to defend the President's controversial "Moon/Mars Initiative?" And, what do you imagine they thought he'd talk about on CNN?

In an historical twist whose consequences we will probably never fully realize, it just so happened that Hoagland at that moment was in the middle of Yosemite National Park, in northern California -- about as far from a television studio as you can get in North America! The proposed CNN Mars "Crossfire" for that evening, with Hoagland literally defending the President of the United States, for reasons of practical logistics simply couldn't happen. But, some of us will always wonder if ….

Fast forward now to 2001.

The second President George W. Bush (43) has just taken office, passed his first major piece of legislation, and is now looking forward to his next major initiative. Our White House source, "Deep Space," has told us that Bush is quietly moving forward on an ambitious plan to get humans to Mars. The means to secure funding will involve generating political pressure by getting the public to recognize the value of going to Mars. To do this we are told, the work of the Cydonia researchers -- and of Richard C. Hoagland in particular -- will be "elevated" with the general public in a series of "revelations" designed to create critical "political mass."

The first sign of this program actually moving forward comes in May, 2001, when on the explicit orders of Vice President Dick Cheney, JPL belatedly publishes a new April, 2001 image of the Face on Mars -- in full lighting and high resolution. The image clearly confirms the “hominid/feline” model advocated by Hoagland for over ten years, while competing theories -- to the effect that the Face is/was symmetrical – are shown to be seriously flawed.

NASA struggles to maintain its position that the new image "proves" the face is a natural formation, but only by blatantly ignoring the previous predictions of the independent researchers strikingly confirmed by the new data. NASA also resorts to an intensely political disinformation campaign to suppress press interest in the new image, by making spurious comparisons to terrestrial landforms and creating fallacious images, using erroneous MOLA-generated data.

Word from "Deep Space" is that the White House is not at all pleased with the way the NASA spin machine has decided to release the image they had been forced to take six weeks earlier, and within a few months NASA director Dan (silence is) Goldin is ousted  -- in favor of Sean O'Keefe. A few months later, Hoagland and Peter Gersten get a surprising call from NASA's Mars program scientist, Jim Garvin, promising unprecedented levels of cooperation in the future. This is then followed (in mid-2002) by the intensely controversial release of the first daytime thermal infrared image of Cydonia, from NASA's Mars Odyssey 2001 THEMIS instrument. 

Processed by Keith Laney (with the behind the scenes help of THEMIS principal investigator Dr. Phillip Christensen through his lapdog Noel Gorelick, aka "Bamf"), the stunning images reveal irrefutable confirmation of similar images released (briefly!) by the Russians in 1989 -- strongly supporting not only the existence of artifacts beneath a thin layer of ice at Cydonia and elsewhere on Mars, but also of the Enterprise Mission's "Mars Tidal Model."

Christensen and his ASU team continue to deny that the THEMIS image is legitimate, despite numerous "proofs" which show it to be entirely consistent with the data from THEMIS, and well beyond the capability of all but the most sophisticated artists to fabricate.

This of course, brings us pretty much up to the present, with Bush's pending “mystery announcement.”

Is it just us … or is there a pattern here?

Clearly, there is a major disconnect between the (old and new) Bush Administrations’ desires to launch a Mars exploration program, and NASA's clear reluctance to cooperate in such an effort. NASA's willingness to resort to propaganda, and even the publication of a their own doctored version of the real THEMIS Cydonia IR image, shows that there is little love inside any division of the Agency for coming clean on Cydonia. As far back as the first President Bush's SEI, when NASA Headquarters deliberately scuttled the idea by submitting a ridiculously bloated budget for the Project, NASA has clearly been against any political agenda that would reveal the truth about the Planet Mars. Again, this reflects the behind the scenes battle we have been writing about for years, significantly extended by recent information from "Deep Space."

But we get the sense this time that, maybe … just maybe … the train has finally left the station.

As we have asserted for years, we suspect that "they" have a specific timetable for getting to Mars. Later in this "year of Mars" – as it approaches closer to Earth (August 27) than it has been for almost 75,000 years (!) -- we will share additional information about this crucial "timetable." But suffice it to say, this latest Mars initiative is "dead on" where it should be if we are right … right now.

And quite obviously, since these folks are never shy about incorporating a little symbolism in their endeavors, the significance of NASA’s chosen name for this fascinating new initiative – Project Prometheus -- must also not be overlooked.

* * *

Prometheus was one of the Titans (literally, “a giant, elder god”), who – besides being credited in Greek mythology with the creation of Mankind – had another unique distinction: he gave away the literal power of the other gods -- the knowledge of how to make fire -- to his created “children.” For this, he was eternally punished by Zeus and made to suffer horribly, for allowing “lowly man” to discover the key to potentially equal knowledge, power and civilization … equal to “the gods.”

It shouldn’t take a rocket scientist (sorry) to see the obvious: that the ultimate intent of NASA’s new "Prometheus" – under the guise of being “merely an expanded nuclear rocket program” -- is to use it one day to “steal” for Mankind  (or, at least some portion of us …) the same kind of “revolutionary” knowledge known heretofore only to “the gods” -- now awaiting us amid the ruins of the planet Mars ….

And how will the current “Prometheus” accomplish this?

A major clue is to be found once again in the ancient story of Prometheus. For Prometheus, the revealer of the secret power of the gods, had a mother (also a Titan) who went by another, by now quite familiar “NASA” name--

Her name was "Themis."

Depicted as “the goddess of cosmic law, holding a golden scales,” Themis had another, key identity in Greek mythology; it was Themis who (according to the oldest myths) was the mother of the Moires -- “the goddesses of the fates.”  Themis was also the first priestess of the famous oracle at Delphi (which she ultimately gave to Apollo). ) In addition, she’s credited with writing the Tablets of Destiny, inventing agriculture, building, weaving, pottery, writing, poetry, graphic arts, music, calendars, and mathematics.

Yet, in spite of this extraordinary resume, NASA’s logo for Themis (currently aboard Mars Odyssey) depicts her only as the traditional “goddess of justice.” There is no mention of her myriad other contributions to the welfare of Mankind … or, her most significant “connections” to the Future….

However, in keeping with her ancient role of “prophecy,” it is now blatantly apparent that NASA’s version of the goddess – in the persona of the pivotal THEMIS IR camera – has been assigned nothing less than the unique and crucial task of “foretelling,” via Mars Odyssey, precisely “why” and “where” the new Prometheus will follow!

The symbolism could hardly be more overt.

THEMIS, with her ability to “see into tomorrow,” has/will begat Prometheus, who “will fly away … and present to Man the knowledge and power of the gods themselves”--

Locked in the vaults of a fabled Martian city called … Cydonia.

*     *     *

So, how does “Cydonia” relate to ancient Greek mythology – and on an entirely different planet?

Remarkably (with thanks to Nick Skouras for digging out some of the details) -- there was an ancient, terrestrial “Cydonia!” It was established (according to the myths so obviously dear to NASA) by the son of Apollo -- Cydon.

In the stories, Cydon emigrates from Arcadia (on mainland Greece) to Crete (a major island in the Mediterranean, southeast of the peninsula) – where, upon becoming king, he founds the first “city of Cydonia,” now known as “Canea” … thus completing the first level of “connections” -- Themis … Apollo … Cydon … whose city was called “Cydonia,” on Earth!

“Cydonia,” in terms of modern maps of Mars, occurs MUCH later.

According to the official records of the International Astronomical Union:

“The requirements for extraterrestrial nomenclature were dramatically changed in 1957 when the age of space exploration was inaugurated by the successful flight of Sputnik ….

“The Martian nomenclature was clarified in 1958 … based on a system of nomenclature developed in the late 19th century by the Italian astronomer G.V. Schiaparelli (1879) and expanded in the early 20th century by E. M. Antoniadi (1929), an Greek-born astronomer working at Meudon, France.”

“Cydonia,” as one of the key cities of the ancient Mediterranean officially “transferred” to Mars in 1958, was on Schiaparelli’s list … the same Schiaparelli, by the way, who introduced the world to the idea of “canals on Mars.”

This “first” Cydonia on Earth also has another, remarkably symbolic claim to fame: Cydonia, on Crete, turns out to be the home to a special variety of fruit … a quince … known as “Malus Cydonia”: the Cydonia Apple.

The “Golden Apples of Cydonia” were a fundamental focus for the ancient Greeks, a fruit whose mere existence set in motion a cascading series of events – from the legendary superhuman feats of Heracles (Hercules), to the infamous Trojan War of Homer’s lliad -- ultimately destined to affect the fate of all Mankind

It was this seemingly innocent wedding gift, which would one day trigger the most catastrophic, long-term conflict in all of ancient Greece.  Literally, a “gift of the gods” -- given to Zeus (the chief god of the Olympians) by Hera (his chief consort). Zeus treasured these “Cydonia Apples” so much, it is written, that he placed them in a “special garden” where they could forever bear more fruit … “the Garden of Hesperides.”

Given that we are dealing with extremely ancient mythological beliefs, demonstrably (if inexplicably) well entrenched in both the international astronomical community as well as the Masonic membership of “modern” NASA, an example of how “Masons” view these arcane mythologies is critical.  The following is from MASONIC FORUM Magazine – an on-line discussion group devoted to Masonic beliefs world-wide:   

“To Themis was also attributed the birth of the Hesperides, who, like Pegas, were born and were living in the Extreme Occident, at the foot of the Mount Atlas. The Hesperides were watching the golden apples, the fruits of immortality, from the Gods' Orchard. A common point of the symbolic interpretations is the equivalence between apple and knowledge. In the medieval and Renaissance times the apple was thought to contain the symbolic image of the knowledge, because cut in two across one can see a pentagram in it, the symbol of the science in the initiatic schools.”

So, the “Cydonian Apples,” like their Biblical counterparts, when consumed gave one Eternal Life … AND “the knowledge of the gods.”

“A common point of the symbolic interpretations is the equivalence between apple and knowledge ….”

Sounds an awful lot like an extremely distorted, ancient metaphor for the transcendental knowledge and almost unimaginable power latent in  Hyperdimensional Physics … which – just “coincidentally?” – now lies geometrically encoded at another  “Cydonia” … on Mars. 

This astonishing connection -- between an ancient Grecian city and its modern Martian counterpart -- begins in ancient Greece … in none other than Homer’s recitation in “The Iliad” of the infamous Trojan War.

A War initiated, some have claimed by … Themis--

"Zeus plans with Themis to bring about the Trojan war." -The Cypria Frag 1 (from Proclus, Chretomathy i)

A War ultimately triggered, NOT by the “Face of Helen” and her “thousand ships” (as we all learned in school) … but by Eris -- the goddess of Discord, daughter of Hera and Zeus, twin sister of Ares … the Martian God of War. 

Eris … who, in a fit on anger at not being invited to another wedding banquet, throws one of the Golden Cydonia Apples (redundant Mars connection number two…) into the wedding feast, seeking to create some major “Discord.” She succeeds … and the rest is Greek mythology, ending ten years later in the fall of Troy.

Following “the Illiad,” Homer writes his epic sequel to his original tragic tale: what occurred after this defining War: “The Odyssey.” 

There is a fascinating arc here: from Homer’s epic Odyssey … through Arthur Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s classic adaptation, “2001: A Space Odyssey”… to NASA’s current Mars Odyssey, which (“coincidentally?”) arrived in 2001 ….

Themis –  “NASA’s electronic oracle on Odyssey” --  “the mother of Prometheus” herself, is also “the mother of the Hesperides”—

The same group of goddesses (below) charged by Zeus with guarding this “highest secret” of the gods – a fruit (the “Apple of Cydonia”) endowed with immortality itself …. In other words, through Themis’s daughters – the Hesperides – a third remarkable connection to “Cydonia!”

In the mythology, Heracles (Hercules) – the superhuman hero representative of  “mortals” -- ultimately is asked (as part of his twelve labors) to steal three “Cydonia Apples” from the “the Garden of Hesperides.”  To do so, he first has to free Prometheus from his unending pain, by killing the vulture (eagle?) that has been tormenting the chained Titan.  Prometheus, when freed, reveals to Heracles a foolproof plan for successfully bringing back three “Apples”-- thus culminating his agenda to make Man equal to the gods, by arranging for the ultimate gift of Immortality!

A gift, once again, inextricably linked to “Cydonia” … by name.

*    *    *

So, is all this, NASA’s convoluted, ritually symbolic way of acknowledging ("nudge, nudge, wink, wink … say no more") that which THEMIS has already found – namely, the stunning revelation of a "City underneath the ice," waiting at Cydonia … and what it has preserved?

Or, is this melding of ancient myths and modern NASA programs a promise of additional wonders yet to come … unimaginable wonders … that, through THEMIS “powers of the oracle,” are yet to be confirmed … before Prometheus can “liberate” their gifts?

What was it O’Keefe said to the Los Angeles Times--

“…with the new technology, where we go next will only be limited by our imagination.”

Time will tell. 2003, the “year of Mars” ….

It should be an interesting year.

Support to continue this Investigation may be sent to the following address.  Any amount helps us continue to pursue the truth:

The Enterprise Mission
P.O. Box 3550
Edgewood, New Mexico,
FAX (505) 286-6130