ehBeth wrote:gunga - did you read the NASA releases from this month, that I linked above?
NASA is a big part of the problem here, as is also the division of funding between NASA and the JPL and between manned and unmanned space projects.
Given standard theories as to the history of our solar system, there is no way to picture Mars ever having been habitable, nonetheless the evidence is unmistakable and, not surprisingly, NASA and the JPL are about evenly divided on the issue. About half of them don't want to deal with the issue of having to devise an entirely new theory of the history of our system from the one we have, and simply do not want to go there. Those are the ones claiming that the Cydonia formations are either natural formations or tricks of light and shadow. The other half are more or less willling to believe their own eyes.
