title: After the Martian Apocalypse: Extraterrestrial Artifacts and the Case for Mars Exploration
author:  Mac Tonnies 
description: Was there once intelligent life on Mars? Consider the Face, a remarkably human-like image located in the Cydonia Mensae region of the Red Planet. NASA says its just a natural formation but, as science fiction writer Tonnies points out, it does look spookily human. He describes other findings on Mars that could be the remains of a pre-cataclysmic civilization: grids that recall a "metropolitan infrastructure"; and the Fort, a seemingly artificial structure located a few miles from the Face. While Tonnies claims scientific objectivity, his breathless tone in considering the magnitude of these discoveries is directed at believers, not skeptics. He rhetorically exploits contemporary fears, citing the possibility of an "ecological 9/11" in support of the idea that humans must colonize space. He also calls for a manned mission to Mars to examine the Face and other phenomena to determine if they are natural or artificial formations. The value of reviving manned space missions is hotly debated in the scientific community; for those who feel its necessity is a given, Tonnies offers more fuel for the argument. Photos.<br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: Destroyer 125: The Wrong Stuff ����������������������
  
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  Destroyer 125: The Wrong Stuff
  
  By Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
  
  Chapter 1
  
  Life Discovered on Mars!
  
  That blaring headline, seen all around the world, had been one of Clark
  Beemer's. To this day it remained the public-relations man's personal
  favorite.
  
  The "meteorite" in which the fossilized bacteria had been discovered was a
  chunk of ordinary concrete Clark had found at a building demolition site on
  his way into work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Buffed,
  shellacked and dusted with an appropriate amount of space-age glitter from a
  local party-supply store, the rock had looked great for newspapers, networks
  and magazines. And, most importantly of all, it had gotten the tightwads in
  Washington to cough up an extra nine hundred million bucks for the United
  States space agency. Not bad for a piece of rock salvaged from the ruins of an
  old Piggly-Wiggly.
  
  When the truth was learned-that 