CHAPTER 8
LIFE ON THE MOON

Before we move onto the idea of a current alien presence on the Moon, we need to look more closely at the idea of a former alien presence on the Moon. The latter goes hand in hand with the notion of alien artifacts--a notion which, surprisingly, has been receiving some mainstream attention of late. Professor Paul Davies and Robert Wagner of Arizona State University suggest, in a 2011 paper, that alien artifacts might exist on the Moon. They even recommend that we search for evidence of such artifacts among the huge database of images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which at the time of this writing is still in orbit around the Moon.

“Although there is only a tiny probability that alien technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artefact or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of being close, and of preserving traces for an immense duration,” explain Davies and Wagner. The scientists list four possible types of alien artifacts that might exist on the Moon: A message, instruments, trash, and large scale changes to the lunar surface. An ideal place to look for “alien trash,” they suggest, would be inside one of the Moon’s lava tubes. They explain further:

Lava tubes have been proposed as an ideal location to establish a human base, as they would provide protection from radiation and meteorites; perhaps aliens would come to the same conclusion. Furthermore, the same factors that make lava tubes attractive as a habitat imply that any artefacts left behind would endure almost indefinitely, undamaged and unburied. The downside is that there is no way to really investigate this possibility from orbit, so any confirmation or refutation will require a new robotic or human mission to the surface.

It’s encouraging to know that at least two mainstream scientists take seriously the idea of alien artifacts on the Moon. Now, by suggesting that we search through LRO images for evidence of alien artifacts, Davies and Wagoner are presupposing that those images are entirely “untouched.” But of course, if the images have been secretly tampered with by NASA to remove evidence of alien artifacts, then there’d be absolutely no value in such a project.

What constitutes an alien artifact? And if we came across an alien artifact, would we recognize it for what it is? Such questions arise in the case of the Blair Cuspids, an unusual arrangement of seven spire-like objects of varying heights located on the western edge of Mare Tranquillitatis, not far from the crater Aeriadaeus B. The objects were photographed by Lunar Orbiter 2 on November 20, 1966, at an altitude of approximately twenty-nine miles above the lunar surface. Two days later, on November 22, NASA released an image of the objects. In this image, the objects are shown casting long shadows, giving an impression of great height, while there seems to be a definite order as to their arrangement. As far as I know, the Washington Post was the only newspaper to cover the story, announcing on November 23, 1966, that “six statuesque and mysterious shadows on the Moon were photographed . . . by Lunar Orbiter 2.” The article continues: “Ranging from one about 20 feet long to another as long as 75 feet, the six shadows were hailed by scientists as one of the most unusual features of the Moon ever photographed.”

After seeing the NASA photo of the “Moon spires,” William Blair, an anthropologist at Boeing, began to scrutinize the image. In his previous job as a specialist in physical anthropology and archaeology, Blair had used aerial survey maps--coupled with his knowledge of geometry--to identify potential archaeological sites. It’s an obvious fact that artificial structures tend to be built according to geometric principles, whereas natural structures are generally devoid of geometric significance. With this principle in mind, Blair went over the image with a compass and protractor and was amazed to discover a number of interesting geometric relationships with regard to the arrangement of the “spires,” including--to quote from an article that appeared in Boeing News in 1967--“a basic x, y and z right angle coordinate system, six isosceles triangles and two axes consisting of three points each.” An isosceles triangle is one that has two equal sides (and two equal angles). This is rarer to find in nature than a scalene triangle, which has three sides of different length. Also discovered by Blair was a feature with the appearance of a rectangular-shaped depression, located directly west of the largest “spire.”

Asked during an interview whether he thought the “spires” were the work of non-human intelligence, Blair responded: “Whoa! Do you want them to put me away? But I will say this: If such a complex of structures were photographed on Earth, the archaeologist’s first order of business would be to inspect and excavate test trenches and thus validate whether the prospective site has archaeological significance.”

The Blair Cuspids, as they became known, eventually caught the attention of Russian space engineer and Egyptology enthusiast Alexander Abramov. Abramov conducted his own analysis of the NASA image, concluding, like Blair, that the objects were arranged not randomly but in a geometric pattern. “The distribution of these lunar objects,” he claimed, “is similar to the plan of the Egyptian pyramids constructed by Pharaohs Cheops, Chephren, and Menkaura at Gizeh, near Cairo. The centers of the spires of this lunar ‘abaka’ are arranged in precisely the same way as the apices of the three great pyramids.”