From: jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Josh 'K' Hopkins)
Subject: Re: Rumor!! Is it true?!!?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 20:04:56 GMT

joseph.daniels%hombas@homebase.com (Joseph Daniels)  writes:


>   I found the following file on a board in London, Ontario called
>   InfoNet. I'm sure it mentions that incident.

>                     The Phobos II Incident
>                  Hostile Aliens Based on Mars

>On  July  12,  1988  the USSR  launched  Phobos  II  an  unmanned
>satellite  to  Mars. It arrived in January 1989  and  entered  an
>orbit   around  Mars  as  the  first  phase  towards  it's   real
>destination, a small Martian moon called Phobos. The mission  was
>flawless  until the craft aligned itself with the moon. On  March
>28,  1989  an  elliptical object was detect  moving  towards  the
>satellite seconds before it failed. All indications were that the
>elliptical  object had attacked the satellite which was now  dead
>and left spinning out of control.

Phobos II had no way of telling which direction this object was moving 
(assuming it really existed) unless it took multiple photos of said 
object.  Where are these?  I have yet to see any reason to believe that
this object (again stipulating that it existed) attacked Phobos II.  Why
do people come to this conclusion?

>On  March 28, 1989 Tass, the official Soviet news agency  stated:
>"Phobos  II failed to communicate with Earth as  scheduled  after
>completing  and  operation  yesterday  around  the  Martian  moon
>Phobos.  Scientists  at  mission  control  have  been  unable  to
>establish stable radio contact."

>But  the  next  day a top official of  the  Soviet  Space  Agency
>(Glavkosmos)  said:  "Phobos  II is 99% lost for  good."   It  is
>important  to note that he stated the entire satellite  was  gone
>and not just contact with it.

Puhleeeez.  This is the a very silly conclusion.  He said it was "lost"
meaning we can't talk to it, not that it was vaporized.

>One  controller at the Kaliningrad control center concluded  that
>the  probe  was now spinning out of control. It would  seem  that
>something struck or shot the Phobos II Probe.

There is no reason to think that it had to be hit to start spinning.
Phobos was commanded to spin to point its antenna at Earth.  It almost 
certainly just messed up.  The Soviets were famous for screwing up Mars
probes.

>It has long been rumored that Mars and it's moon Phobos are alien
>colonies.   The   surface  of  Mars  is  covered   with   strange
>shapes/buildings  that  do not appear to be natural such  as  the
>pyramids,  square  buildings, runways, etc.  etc.  One  structure
>shows the face of a man with a helmet looking into space.

You have a very impressive imagination if you can see all this in Viking
pictures.  There is no reason to think that anything on the surface of Mars
is artificial except for Vikings 1 and 2 and the remains of early Soviet
landers.

> . SLMR 2.1a . My reality check just bounced.

The most appropriate .sig I've seen all day.
-- 
Josh Hopkins                                          jbh55289@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu

"We can lick gravity, but the paperwork's a bit tougher."  Wernher von Braun