Phobos used to be one of two moons that surround Mars, and it has been thought of as being something of a mysterious object. It was once said that Phobos must be hollow and this led to the question of whether it was a huge space station that had been hollowed out.

Russia launched two satellite probes that were unmanned in July 1988. These were Phobos 1 and 2 and headed in the direction of Mars. Their chief intention was to investigate the mysterious moon of the planet but was said to be lost while making their way there just two months later. It was said that Phobos 1 was lost due to an error with radio command. The reason for the loss of Phobos 2 has been intriguing, but it did manage to beam some information and images from Mars.

Things were going well with Phobos 2 until it came to align with Phobos. On March 28, the mission control center said they suddenly encountered communication issues with Phobos 2. It was said that Phobos 2 had not communicated with Earth as it had been scheduled to do so after it completed an operation going around Phobos, the Martian moon. So what was behind the loss of Phobos 2? Was it a malfunction as suggested?

Spindle Shaped Mysterious Object Picked Up In Photos

Boris Bolitsky, Moscow science correspondent, said that shortly before the loss of radio contact with Phobos 2 many images that were unusual had been sent back to Earth and were said to have shown features that were remarkable. A report said that the features were either on the surface of Mars or in the lower atmosphere. They were 20 to 25 kilometers in width and did not look like any geological formation that was known. They were said to be of a spindle type shape and were puzzling.

The surface of Mars had a dark and clearly defined shape on it that looked like a thin ellipse. This was different from the Phobos shadow that had been recorded some 18 years previously by Mariner 9. The ellipse seen in the photos showed an ellipse that had rounded points, with fuzzy edges that stood out against the surface. It was described as being something between Mars and the spacecraft as the surface could be seen below. Also stressed was the fact that the object could be seen by the infrared and optical camera. This is one of the reasons why it has not been said that the shape could have been the shadow of the moonlet. It was said that the photograph had been taken when the spacecraft was aligning with Phobos.

This brings about the question of just what collided with Phobos 2. Was it possible that the space probe might have been shot from space as it captured too much information? Another question is what the last frame captured show?

The chairperson of the equivalent of NASA in Russia said that an image seems to show an object that is an odd shape between Mars and the spacecraft. The photograph was shown to Colonel Dr. Marina Popovich, an astronaut and pilot from Russia with an interest in UFOs. Popovich gave information that is interesting at a UFO conference in 1991. Part of the information was said to be “the first ever leaked accounts of an alien mothership in the solar system”.

The last photograph that came from Phobos 2 showed a huge cylindrical spaceship around 20km in length and 1.5km in width hanging around close to the Martian moon. When the last frame was transmitted back to Earth the probe disappeared mysteriously, and the Russians said it had been destroyed.

The cigar-shaped spacecraft is said to be the penultimate frame that was taken by Phobos 2, and it is the object that cast the oblong shadow onto the surface of Mars in a photograph taken earlier.

Brian Crowley, the science writer from Australia, said that the convex cat’s eyeshadow, which due to the overhead solar inclination stopped a shadow being cast by the surface features of Mars and implies a shadow, was on the surface from something that was orbiting beyond Phobos 2. The spindle-shaped object is not consistent with a shadow that would be cast by the moon Phobos, as it is an irregular potato shape.

Another photo that was sent back by Phobos 2 was an infrared scan of the surface of Mars showing rectangular regions that were clearly defined. They seemed to be latticework of straight channels that resembled a city block. It was said that it might have been underground caverns too geometrically regular to be natural. The Russians have been pressed to release data that is more definitive, and they have released a television transmission that Phobos 2 sent during the last moments. However, they had not released the last frames, which were taken shortly before the spacecraft lost contact.

The final photograph that Phobos 2 took before it was said to have been shot out of orbit was tracked down.

This photograph was said to have been shown during a closed meeting between British and US officials.

We can only assume that it is not just NASA that suppresses photographs along with knowledge about planets; it seems that the Russian space program does too.

Phobos Chain Craters

An article was published in Astronomy magazine with the title Chain of Craters of Phobos. The author of the article talked about the many strange craters and grooves of Phobos. It was said that Viking had found a mystery in one of the most unexpected places, on one of two small Martian moons.

The mapping of Phobos by Mariner 9 revealed many craters and many investigators said that they were just rock chunks with scars of meteorite impacts. A few analysts noticed a puzzling feature, but as they did not have better data, there was little that could be said about it. A few crater pits looked as though they aligned in one or two chains. This was something unusual because crater chains on the moon were usually explained as being volcanic pits. They were said to be small eruption sites strung along fracture lines. However, Phobos was too small to be able to generate the heat along with the conventional volcanic activity.

Scientists are at a loss to be able to explain them. One of the last attempts to photograph Mars along with the Moons was by the Mars Observer of NASA, which was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force. However, NASA also lost contact with the spacecraft.

Could it be that someone or something does not want people capturing footage of whatever is on Mars or its Moons?