Plasma physicist John Brandenburg, Ph.D. has worked in defense, energy, and space research. In the first half, he revealed evidence for a thermonuclear event occurring on Mars, as well as the progress being made on a crewed mission to Mars. Studying the Cydonia region on the Red Planet, he and researchers such as Richard C. Hoagland, looked at the "Face on Mars" and nearby pyramids, and concluded that a long-gone humanoid civilization once inhabited the area. Later, new images from another location on Mars called Galaxias Chaos revealed two more "faces," and what looked like ruins, he reported. According to Brandenburg, the Martian atmosphere contains the chemical element xenon 129, indicating a massive nuclear explosion took place, which he estimates occurred around 500,000 years ago.

He believes a nuclear device was detonated from space, and after the event, the planet went into a deep nuclear winter, changing from an Earth-like environment to its current state, though it still maintains some residual life. Brandenburg advocates for an emergency mission to Mars with astronauts to investigate. He suggested that a one-way journey to Mars is safer than a return trip because taking off from the Martian surface using a rocket is far more dangerous than landing with a big parachute. While as a general principle, he thinks we should become a space-faring civilization, one reason he wants us to travel to Mars is to see the destruction firsthand, which can serve as a warning of what might happen to our planet.