by Mike Bara
Coverage of the Mare Crisium “bridge” from The Illustrated in 1954.
Later (I’m unable to determine the exact date but it may have been December 23rd of 1953 or 1954), Wilkins stated in a BBC radio interview that he had confirmed a man-made (or alien-made, to be more accurate) “bridge” stretching across a significant portion of Mare Crisium. “It looks artificial. It’s almost incredible that such a thing could have been formed in the first instance, or if it was formed, could have lasted during the ages in which the moon has been in existence,” Wilkins was quoted as saying about the 12-mile long structure he sighted.5
Some subsequent reports have sought to downplay these comments by Wilkins, and to assert that he was quite reserved about the possible artificial nature of the bridge that he and O’Neill both observed. But, a review of the transcript of the interview shows that is not the case and he was quite forceful about the probable artificial nature of the structure:
Illustration of the “Crisium Bridge” by H.P. Wilkins.
[Brian Forbes —Host] “Since the beginning of this Century, astronomers have been observing features on the surface of the Moon which have not been noticed before. During the last few years, many dome-like swellings have been seen through powerful modern telescopes. And only a few months ago, astronomers detected what is perhaps the most curious feature of all. It looks like a gigantic bridge. The Director of the British Astronomical Association— Dr. H.P. Wilkins—when interviewed, discussed this new discovery.
[Wilkins] If you look through the eyepiece, you will see one of the most interesting regions on the Moon… called the Mare Crisium. It’s that comparatively small, dark oval marking.
[Forbes] Yes… I can see it now.
[Wilkins] I’ve mentioned this gap in the mountain barrier… but there now exists what looks like a bridge across this gap.
[Forbes] That’s most extraordinary.
[Wilkins] Now this is a real bridge. Its span is about 20 miles from one side to the other. And it’s probably at least 5,000 feet-or-so from the surface beneath.
[Forbes] It must be a most gigantic arch if it’s 5,000 feet high.
[Wilkins] It certainly is.
[Forbes] How wide is it?
[Wilkins] The width is about a mile-and-a-half to 2 miles. It tapers —narrows, rather—in the center.
[Forbes] Are you quite certain that you haven’t mistaken it for some other object?
[Wilkins] Oh no, there’s no mistake at all. It’s been confirmed by other observers. It looks artificial. It’s almost incredible that such a thing could have been formed in the first instance or—if it was formed—could have lasted during the ages in which the Moon has been in existence. You would have expected it either to be disintegrated by temperature variations or by meteor impact.
[Forbes] And when you say it looks ‘artificial’, what do you mean exactly by that?
[Wilkins] Well, it looks almost like an engineering job.
[Forbes] {exclamation of astonishment}
[Wilkins] Yes, it is more extraordinary.
[Forbes] And is it more-or-less ‘regular’ in outline?
[Wilkins] Absolutely regular in outline. That makes it all the more remarkable.
[Forbes] And does it cast a shadow?
[Wilkins] Yes, it casts a shadow under a low Sun. You can see the sunlight streaming in beneath it.”6
The next day, brief cable reports on Wilkins’ broadcast appeared in U.S. papers, but other than that it was apparently ignored. However, scientific sentiment against Wilkins quickly turned form curiosity to ridicule and he was eventually forced to resign from the British Astronomical Association because of his support of O’Neill’s claims. He died a few years later in 1960, having never withdrawn his claims about the bridge in Mare Crisium.
Today, the general consensus is that both O’Neill and Wilkins were mistaken in their observations, the victims of an optical illusion that was never confirmed by other sources. This however ignores Wilkins own statements made in the BBC interview that “It’s been confirmed by other observers.” Meaning that, others besides himself and O’Neill had seen the structure too. Given the way in which Wilkins career was destroyed by his assertions, it’s easy to see why these “other observers” have never come forward publically.
All of this serves as background for a number of more substantial discussions of other, far more interesting anomalies through the Crisium region. Most specifically those on NASA frame AS16-121-19438.
Area thought to be the Mare Crisium Bridge today.
AS16-121-19438.
At first glance, AS16-121-19438 doesn’t seem all that unusual or even interesting. Like a lot of shots of the Moon from orbit, it seems to show a fairly normal display the usual craters and highlands, dark maria and mountains. But then you start to notice the details.
For one thing, this Apollo 16 shot (the “AS16” in the frame number means it is an Apollo-16 photograph) contains a remarkable object right next to the crater Picard; a shimmering, vertical spire of glass very similar to the “Tower” in Sinus Medii. But there are also differences between the two objects.
First off, this “Crisium spire” is not only hundreds of miles it height, it is clearly (and obviously) supported by what appear to be guy wire like beams attached to it at several points along the vertical structure of the object. These luminescent support struts not only attach to the spire in logical places along its vertical axis, but they do so evenly on both sides. This symmetry is a tell-tale sign of engineering design intent, rather than some sort of optical illusion or natural phenomenon. The Crisium Spire also differs from the Shard and Tower in Sinus Medii in that is not, like them, anchored to a spot on the surface but rather appears to be suspended miles-high above the Mare Crisium plane, much like the Castle in Sinus Medii.
The “Crisium Spire” from AS16-121-19438 (inset).
Further inspection in close up implies that the Spire is a corner post of what may be a large, box shaped structure stretching miles above the Mare Crisium plane. It looks very similar to the complex, box-like scaffolding seen in Sinus Medii in NASA frame AS10-32-4816.
But the goodies in this image of Mare Crisium hardly stop there. A closer inspection of the Spire shows that right next to it is the crater Picard, a distinctive feature in its own right. In most images, Picard looks for all the world like a perfectly normal impact crater (except for possibly the lack of a visible ejecta blanket). But in this image, it takes on the stark appearance of having a shattered glass dome partially covering it.
The Spire and the Tower side-by-side.
This unmistakable, pie-slice shaped structure glows in the sunlight, illuminating what must be the last remaining piece of a solid, watch-crystal like dome over the crater itself. Under intense enhancement, the wedge-shaped pie piece is even more obvious.
Also visible in the original enhancement are a series of parallel, dark striations along the northern rim of the crater itself. What these could be caused by is a bit of a geologic mystery.
Support wires emanating from the Spire at 90° angles.
Comparison of box-like structures above the lunar surface.
Unfortunately, there are precious few other photos of Picard at the correct angle to provide comparison. One research group calling itself VGL (for Verified Gullible LUNAtics) has found one shot taken at an oblique angle—AS10-30-4421. In this image, Picard is seen from the side in a photo taken from a low angle by the Apollo 10 crew as the command module Charlie Brown flew past (not over) Mare Crisium in May, 1969. The first thing that is notable to me about the photo is a sort of gauzy haze which seems to be between the camera and the crater, much like Apollo 15 commander Al Worden’s describes at the beginning of the chapter. According to VGL’s analysis, they also noticed this odd haze. According to their report7 “This could be an illusion caused by the similarity of brightness and texture between the mare surface at the rim and the inner wall of the crater behind this indistinct section of the rim… It mig
ht, however, be a true obscuration of the rim by debris suspended above the mare surface between the camera and the rim of Picard.”
Pie-shaped partial dome over the crater Picard from AS16-121-19438.
High contrast version of crater Picard from AS16-121-19438.
While the standing, pie-shaped section is not visible in this image, close up enhancement of the area around the crater itself reveals what appear to be dark, structural arches rising over the crater rim. They would certainly account for the dark, striped markings seen on the rim of the crater from the orbital photo AS16-121-19438.
close-up of Picard from AS16-121-19438 showing glass-like reflections and odd striations on northern lip.
Picard crater from Apollo frame AS10-30-4421. Note the hazy appearance and the dark arches on the farside crater rim.
So how to explain these discrepancies? For one, it is not necessarily expected that we’d be able to clearly see a partially intact watch crystal type dome over a crater from every angle. Remember, these objects and the scaffolding are transparent, and they will reflect light only under ideal circumstances and when the camera is pointed at the reflection at just the right angle. Also, a glass structure such as this would need reinforcement, rebar if you will, to hold up the sections of pie shaped wedges to make such a dome. If these had collapsed, we’d expect them to fold over, in which case they’d tend to form arches just like the ones barely visible in AS10-30-4421. If only we could get a sharp, unobscured view of the crater, we might be able to see enough to resolve the question of whether Picard once had a glass dome over it. But neither of the two images seem to be all that clear. The reason for this and the gauzy haze that astronaut Worden talked about is obvious; there is some type of nearly transparent medium between the camera and the crater in both images. And that medium is our immense scaffolding type crystal towers.
Close-up of dark arches over northern lip of Picard crater from AS10-30-4421.
AS16-121-19438.
Let’s take another look at NASA frame AS16-121-19438.
Besides the presence of the Spire, there are several other things “wrong” with this picture. At the bottom of the frame, you’ll notice two oddly lighter hexagonal shaped areas of the photo over the lower part of Crisium. These are actually lens flares from the hand held 70mm Hasselblad cameras that the astronauts used and are fairly common on all the hand held photography. But once you get past that, there is still something not quite right about the lower half of this photograph which is not related to the Hasselblad lens flares.
If you look in the lower left hand corner, you can see a distinct darkening, as if something were obscuring the craters and features below. This odd darkening spreads all across the lower portion of the photo and can only be accounted for by the presence of a semi-transparent intervening medium—like glass—being between the camera and the lunar surface below. This intervening medium— our crystal towers, are bending and obscuring the light just like an atmosphere would under the same circumstances. The result is a kind of “Levolor blinds” effect that is reducing the amount of light in the lower part of the image. Given the altitude of the spacecraft, these “blinds” must be truly immense, just as the images we’ve seen so far imply.
Enhanced version of AS16-121-19438. Note odd darkening in lower portion of image.
Satellite dish like crater Asada in the Mare Crisium region. Note the supporting structure under the “dish.”
And there are other bizarre anomalies all over this image. As we look northward to the highlands, some of the most distinctive features, like the craters Asada and Proclus, actually look more like satellite dishes than craters.
Now, this could all be chalked up to an optical illusion, but upon further enhancement you can plainly see an engineering structure under the “crater” holding Asada up. It has vertical struts and horizontal members which appear to be the underlying support for the dish.
Notice also that there are regularly spaced dark areas under the dish where there are gaps in the girders holding the dish up. The dark shadow in the center of the dish is probably cast by the central mast of the dish subreflector. Unfortunately this cannot be made out at the resolution of the photograph. The point is, all radio telescopes and satellite dishes have the same basic components; a parabolic reflector dish, a subreflector mounted on a mast over the dish, and an underlying subsctructure of griders and supports that not only hold up the dish, they also house the mechanism that rotates and aims the dish in a specific direction. Asada seems to have all of these distictive features.
Contrast enhanced version.
Supporting substructure of a radio telescope here on Earth.
Somewhat less distinct (because it is also somewhat farther away from the camera) but still impressive is the crater Proclus. Located just to the east of the Crisium basin at 16.1°N/46.8°E, Proclus is considered a fairly run-of-the-mill impact crater. Still, it has an unusual hexagonal shape and an extensive ray system emanating from it. Next to Aristarchus, it is the brightest crater on the Moon.
It is also one of the most colorful. Using techniques similar to the ones we discussed in the last chapter, amateur astronomers have captured the true colors of Proclus and the entire Crisium region quite successfully. Again, these color tone variations can only be explained by the presence of a glass-like medium bending and scattering light all over the lunar surface, creating multicolored hues and all of the various tones in between. It implies that the entire Crisium basin lies beneath an extensive lattice work of glass structures.
But what makes Proclus stand out in AS16-121-19438 is its incredible resemblance—just like Asada—to a radio telescope or satellite dish. As we zoom up on it, even though the haze that astronaut Al Worden talked about, we can see that it has at least six regularly spaced support struts jutting out underneath it. Also visible are the regularly spaced dark gaps in between the struts, where it appears that access could be gained to whatever lies underneath the “crater.” While it is true that very few images of Proclus show what we see here, this is the most oblique angle of the crater we have, giving us a rare side-on look at the formation.
Crater Proclus from NASA frame AS16-121-19438.
And it looks like a satellite dish.
A quick side-by-side comparison of Asada and Proclus shows that we aren’t simply seeing things. Both objects look exactly like you’d expect a radio telescope to look edge on and from a distance. Yet there are still some mysteries of the Mare Crisium region that remain unresolved.
In an effort to confirm these findings, I took to the web to find the latest high resolution scans of both NASA frames AS16-121-19438, and the more oblique AS10-30-4421. But what was found only deepened the mystery. In doing a side-by-side comparison of the version of AS16-121-19438 that I had obtained through Richard C. Hoagland to the one I had downloaded from the NASA official sites, I began to notice some very disturbing differences. For one thing, the Spire wasn’t there.
Asada and Proclus side-by-side.
Official version of AS16-121-19438 with Spire optically removed.
It was gone. Completely whitewashed. The wispy support wires are still somewhat visible, but the “Spire” itself has been completely and effectively removed. A quick comparison shows that in the officially released NASA version, the Spire simply ceases to exist.
Other features, like Asada and Proclus, seem to hold up better. They both retain their satellite dish characteristics and in fact some features can even be seen more clearly than in the official NASA scans.
Apollo 16 frame AS16-121-19438 . (Left) and Hoagland (Right).
Craters Asada and Proclus from the Hoagland version of AS16-121-19438.
These discrepancies raise an interesting question. What if the Spire hadn’t been digitally white washed from the official NASA version of frame AS16-121-19438? What if they weren’t actually two different versions of the same photo, but rather two different photos altogether, both filed under the same official NASA frame number? Rem
ember the 4822 Lunar Orbiter image of Sinus Medii? What if this was the same kind of skullduggery at work?
In order to clarify the possibilities here, a quick review of just where Richard C. Hoagland got his copy of AS16-121-19438 is worth repeating. As we told the story in Dark Mission, the image was obtained by a very lucky turn of events:
“The ‘source’ was well-known to NASA and (according to his account), ‘regularly visited’ at NASA Headquarters. He had been there, in the Administrator’s office, a few days after Apollo 16 returned to Earth from its successful visit to ‘the highlands of the Moon’—April 27, 1972. For some reason he was left alone in the Administrators office between meetings; he looked over and saw a massive bunch of Apollo photographs lying on the Administrator’s desk. Bored, he casually leafed through a few… and was shocked by what he saw.
On impulse (he said later…) he quickly slipped one of the prints into his briefcase and—before the Administrator could return— abruptly left.”
