One of the more controversial guests on Timeless Voyager Radio (circa 1990) with host, Bruce Stephen Holms, Richard C. Hoagland first appeared as a relatively unknown author with some provocative statements regarding evidence of life on the planet mars. Hoagland claimed that NASA was covering up the architectural ruins in the Cydonia region of Mars.

Hoagland claimed the source of a so-called NASA "coverup", with relation to the "Face on Mars" and other related structures, is the result of a report commissioned by NASA authored by the Brookings Institution, the so-called Brookings Report. The 1960 report, entitled "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs", is claimed by Hoagland, on page 216 of the report, to instruct NASA to deliberately withhold from the public any evidence it may find of extraterrestrial activity, specifically, on the moon, Mars or Venus.

Hoagland claims the "Face on Mars" is part of a city built on Cydonia Planitia consisting of very large pyramids and mounds arranged in a geometric pattern. To Hoagland, this is evidence that an advanced civilization might once have existed on Mars. In the years since its discovery, the "face" has been near-universally accepted as an optical illusion, an example of the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia. Similar optical illusions can be found in the geology of Earth.

Hoagland authored the book The Monuments of Mars: A City on the Edge of Forever (published in 1987), and co-authored the book Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, which was ranked 21st on November 18, 2007, on The New York Times Best Seller list for paperback nonfiction.

WARNING: Many of the statements made by Richard C. Hoagland are regarded as non-factual by many from the academic and scientific communities. That doesn’t mean, however that his statements are false.