The Face on Mars was not created by aliens, and does not prove that there is alien life on Mars. The Face was created simply by poor camera quality and an optical illusion. The later pictures of the Face taken in 1998 and 2001 prove this theory even further. If you look at the later pictures, you can clearly see that the Face is nothing more than a natural formation. NASA is also in support of finding alien life, so they would have no reason in trying to disprove that aliens are not real. So, the face is nothing more than an optical illusion, and not something created by aliens.

The Face on Mars is nothing more than an optical illusion and a natural formation working together. If you look at the picture of the Face from 1976, then it is very convincing proof that the face was the work of aliens. However, the picture of the Face that was taken in 2001 shows that the Face is simply a rock formation with shadows where the eyes and mouth should be. This is also proven with the picture that was taken in 1998. Even though there is clouds over the Face, you can still tell that there is no alien creation in the picture. Garvin brings up a comparison of the Face to a "Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain of Idaho," which is a "lava dome that takes the form of an isolated mesa about the same height as the Face on Mars." By drawing this comparison, it gives us something we can easily compare the Face to on Earth. People don't claim that the "Middle Butte in the Snake River Plain" was created by aliens, yet it is easily comparable to the Face.

Alien life on Mars would support NASA. It would bring great attention to the space program, and more funding. If NASA were to find aliens, they wouldn't hide it from the public. Whenever the picture was first taken in 1976, NASA released it to the public only a few days after it was taken. Although the picture had a theory to disprove that it was the creation of aliens along with it, NASA still released it almost immediatly. This is proof that NASA is in support of finding alien life becuase they were not afraid to release something that could possibly prove it. Even after NASA ended the Viking missions, they still went back to take more photos of the Face. This would either prove the conspiracy theorists even more, due to advancments in technology which would allow for higher resolution photos, or it would prove NASA's theory that shadows were creating the optical illusion. The pictures helped the case of the latter. Because of how much clearer the picture taken in 1998 is compared to the picture taken in 1976, you are able to see much more detail of the Face, and can easily tell that it is just a mesa. Conspiricy theorists claimed that the alien markings were hidden by the haze in the picture, which would later be disproved by the very clear picture taken in 2001. So, if NASA were not in support of finding alien life, why would they release three pictures that could possibly prove alien life?

In conclusion, the face was not created by aliens. NASA is also not trying to hide any evidence for alien life on Mars, so if this were the creation of aliens, NASA would fully support it. NASA released three photos of the Face, all which had the possibility of proving that it was the creation of aliens, yet they still released them. So, if NASA wanted to hide alien life, why would they release anything to hint at it?