In 1979 a prominent palaeohydrologist, Dr. Eugene Taylor , began a study using satellite images to look for evidence of ancient water flows in the now arid regions of Southwest Nevada . His work involved the detailed examination of several hundred Landsat satellite images and data modeling through computer simulations. Dr. Taylor's research continued until 1981, when he died of lung cancer.

In 1992 a former theater major, Luise London , was a graduate student in palaeohydrology at UNLV. Ms. Landon was granted access to Dr. Taylor's original study materials for her dissertation research. In the margin of two pages of Dr Taylor's notes from 1981 she found reference to "irregular surface structures inconsistent with known natural formations." On close examination of the associated images, she discovered two small formations located within the Mercury Zone of the Nevada Test Site (NTS) nuclear testing grounds.

There were no records of man-made formations within that NTS Zone. Although early pioneers were known to have inhabited the region, no archaeological remains had ever been found. Direct examination of the area was also not possible, as the formations were located within a contaminated region known as XH-4, saturated with high level radiation from the fallout from several nearby ICBM payload tests which failed in the early 1960s.

Recently declassified footage of the tests are now available.

Aircraft and satellite surveillance provided detailed images of XH-4. One site was sufficiently unusual that a panel of scientific experts agreed that it warranted further investigation.

In January of 1993, an interdisciplinary team of anthropologists and computer scientists was awarded an NCFF grant to study the location, dubbed "Mercury Site" The team used an ROA-11 drone with remote camera to obtain detailed images of the site. Initial photos revealed a number of small objects and/or object fragments, partially exposed within a fissile rock layer of fine-grained sediments. These objects had no correlation with known archaelogical data from geographically proximal excavations. Based on this data, NCFF broadened the project mandate to include the design and construction of a robotic system to allow scientists to excavate the site remotely. The extended mandate stipulated that the technology and data from the study must eventually "be made widely available to the broadest community of scholars."

With additional support from the Laika Foundation (also one of Dr. Taylor's original sponsors) a prototype robot, REU-1, was installed at Mercury Site in late 1993. REU-1 includes a 4-DOF robotic arm, mounted with an XC-77 camera and a pneumatic system that allows scientists to deliver short bursts of compressed air to clear sediment from the area under the camera. Archaeologists began studying the REU-1 data soon after its installation, and made several startling discoveries earlier this year. Although some of the photographic data was immediately classified by NTS officials, scientists have been unable to agree on a coherent theory that explains the available findings.

SAMPLE PHOTO: QUADRANT 6, AR1.253.b

REU-2 is now operating at the site, and, in accordance with the NCFF mandate, the Project Team requested permission to make REU-1 available to the broad scientific community via the World Wide Web. REU-1 is currently stationed at a previously excavated quadrant within Mercury Site, and as of September 1994 has been activated for use through the Web. You will now have the opportunity to excavate the quadrant and postulate your theories regarding the objects located there. (Additional information may also be made available to users, contingent upon declassification by the archaeological research team.) Although several existing servers allow users to magnify and crop "virtual" images from an existing library, we believe this is the first system on WWW that allows remote operators to actually manipulate and explore a physical (i.e., non-virtual) environment.