Roving Mars (Imax) in the UK, Finally..it has happened Options

[djellison]

Right, British UMSFers..

Roving Mars starts at the Birmingham Think Tank Imax theatre next weekend...but hold your horses
http://www.imax.ac/schedule.htm

1200, 1515 and 1830 are the showings.

Anyone fancy a get-together on April 21st? I can't make any promises, but it should be more than your usual showing - and it's on 3 times in the one day. Think Tank is about 3/4 mile from Birmingham New Street (I will travel by train from Leicester and I would aim to get there before the first of the three showings on the day - about 11ish

Once I know more details, I'll let you know

Doug

[ngunn]

I'm definitely interested and Angie, my wife, is also keen (possibly daughter Elanor too but she may be otherwise engaged). We would probably travel from North Wales by train, arriving in time for the second showing if not the first. Is advance booking advisable? Hope to see you there, and with luck some other members too.
regards,
Nigel.

[djellison]

Helen's said she wants to come as well, so there can be something of a Mars widows get together at the same time

Hopefully within a few days I'll know a few more details - then I would say yes, booking will probably make sense. If we get enough numbers, perhaps we can do a bulk booking (minimum would probably be 10)

Doug

[ngunn]

Actually, I don't believe Helen isn't interested in Mars!

Angie in fact had her primary school kids making 'Mars rovers' out of motorised Lego way back in Pathfinder days. Elanor attended my GCSE Astronomy class last year and achieved an A grade - so I'm pretty lucky that way all in all.

I'll watch this space - hope a good meeting materialises.

[ngunn]

Almost 24 hours and no more responses?. I'm surprised. I think you need to move this to the front page or flag it up somewhere in the MER section. Remember how long it took some members to find the 'barbecue'?

[djellison]

Bloody good idea.

[ElkGroveDan]

My wife and I would be happy to join you all but after checking the train schedules there doesn't appear to be a convenient route for us right now. I was told that we really need to wait until this bridge is completed.

[Stu]

DEFINITELY interested! Just have to sort out time off work and getting to/from there... any UMSFers heading down from Scotland and passing thru Kendal? Just a thought...

[nprev]

Can I hitch a ride with you, Dan? I can just drive up to Elk Grove from LA...

[helvick]

I missed this because I've been in Prague for the weekend walking myself into the ground. Anyway you can definitely count me in as I've just booked the flight to Birmingham on the 21st. Carpe diem and all that.

[djellison]

You Ryanair slut Top stuff.

As for the Scot-ash contingent - I've ping the Lifeboat Yahoo group to see if Bob can make it.

Nico - no excuses - get your Belgian arse on the Eurostar.

D

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Would this become available on DVD by any chance?

[djellison]

Supposedly it's going to be a DVD release - I've seen it listed ( as well as the soundtrack on CD ) but not yet released.

Would be an ideal candidate for a WMVHD release imho.

Doug

[hendric]

Just a recommendation, it's better if you see it twice!

[nprev]

OT, but is Bob having connection difficulties again? Been wondering where he's been.

[djellison]

Yes he is - hence why I copied this into the Yahoo group and he's emailed me back to say he's read it.

Doug

[Alex Chapman]

Well I am certainly interested. I just had a look at www.thinktank.ac and it seems there is a lot on offer on the 21st including two question and answer sessions with Jim Bell. The details from the web site are as follow:

To celebrate the UK premier of the new Walt Disney film ‘Roving Mars’, IMAX Cinema and Thinktank are holding a special SPACE DAY on Saturday 21 April 2007 full of cosmic activities and events.

Jim Bell, Associate Professor in the Astronomy Department of Cornell University, New York will be flying in to talk about his involvement in the Mars mission captured in ‘Roving Mars’, and share his thoughts on the future of space travel. Visitors will also be invited to see an immersive ‘Night Sky’ show in the digital Planetarium and explore the amazing exhibits on space travel and technologies of the future within Thinktank.

Tickets for SPACE DAY are still available for the morning (10.00am - 1.10pm) and afternoon (1.30pm - 4.30pm) sessions, and priced at just £15.55 for adults and £11.85 for children. Ticket price includes; refreshments on arrival, presenter-led Planetarium show, special screening of Roving Mars followed by discussion with Professor Jim Bell PLUS access to all 4 floors of exhibits at Thinktank.

Roving Mars follows an incredible journey to the red planet, as the heroic Mars Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity) help scientists answer the eternal question – is there life on Mars? Through amazing animation, realistic views of the early moments of the rover flights are revealed. Overcoming obstacles to explore this foreign world, the mission of the rovers provides never-before-seen photos of the surface of Mars.

Equipping the Rovers with IMAX-quality cameras was a priority for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission from the beginning. "We set for ourselves the goal of making two robot field geologists," says Steve Squyres, Cornell's Goldwin Smith professor of astronomy and the mission's principal investigator. Cornell astronomy Associate Professor Jim Bell, leader of the panoramic camera (Pancam) team for the mission, says that meant giving the rover cameras 20/20 stereo vision- "the first time we've had human resolution on Mars."

To book your place call our Ticket Hotline now on 0121 202 2222

Doug is this what you intended to go to or were u just thinking about Roving Mars itself?

Alex Chapman

[djellison]

No - that's what I was thinking of, but I didn't have a 100% nod from Jim about the times involved - I knew he was coming, but didn't want to say anything until I had had confirmation about times, prices etc....

That's what we now have

Might I suggest the afternoon session for everyone - I might do both - but the PM session would be late enough for people who have to travel to get there in time.

So yeah - lets all go to see Roving Mars..Jim'll be there

Doug

[helvick]

So just to be clear about this as I'm not 100% sure what the plan is right now.

I'm going to be there from the start too since I arrive in Birmingham at the ungodly hour of 7:30 AM and will go to both AM and PM sessions but are you (Doug) saying that the official plan for UMSF is to go to the PM SPACE DAY session starting at 1:30PM:

Tickets for SPACE DAY are still available for the morning (10.00am - 1.10pm) and afternoon (1.30pm - 4.30pm) sessions, and priced at just £15.55 for adults and £11.85 for children. Ticket price includes; refreshments on arrival, presenter-led Planetarium show, special screening of Roving Mars followed by discussion with Professor Jim Bell PLUS access to all 4 floors of exhibits at Thinktank.

[djellison]

Yes - the plan is that anyone who's going should make sure they're going to the PM session - so we can all meet up, and watch RM together and heckle Jim afterwards

Anyone who's going early enough and wants to do the first session as well - all the better - but it makes sense to pick one and go "we'll all do THAT one" - so that we're all on the same page, at the same time.

D

[ngunn]

Doug, you mentioned block booking before. I take it there aren't enough for that (so far) and we should all book independently?

[djellison]

That would be best - I think it's fair to say that we don't have enough numbers with enough confidence to go for a bulk booking ( minimum of which is likely to he 10+)

Doug

[Alex Chapman]

Booked my tickets

[djellison]

With three posts to your name, you're officially obliged to have the words "Newbie" painted onto your forehead

I will be wearing a small, special edition UMSF badge with yellow, not blue, on the logo

Doug

[ngunn]

Angie and I have now booked. Not sure what we'll be wearing but in my case it will definitely include a scruffy beard.

[helvick]

Well I'll be sporting a scruffy beard, small UMSF badge and medium UMSF T-Shirt.

[Alex Chapman]

As its four posts now I think I'll pass on painting Newbie on my forehead but I think I might wear my Planitary Radio t-shirt just so u can't mis me.

[djellison]

Some of you may find these usefull

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&...11c19329bee59b0

Attached File(s)

 directions.doc ( 531K ) Number of downloads: 1627

 

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

And how was the IMAX show?

[djellison]

After April 21st I'll tell you

[djellison]

As an attempt at an iota of organisation- Helvick and I will hopefully bump into one another in the morning but shall we all try and meet up at 1300-1330 somewhere near the ticket desk before the afternoon session starts?

Doug

[helvick]

That sounds like a good plan to me.

Be on the lookout for a gray haired, gray bearded bloke wearing a UMSF T-Shirt.

[Stu]

Have a great time guys... sorry I couldn't join you, but work wouldn't give me the holiday...

[nprev]

Yeah, enjoy...I got the time off, ain't got the money to fly to the UK! We expect pics, of course...

[dvandorn]

I have what I believe to be a little news about "Roving Mars." However, it has the potential to annoy some of y'all over on that side of the pond.

Ya see, the Discovery Science Channel runs what they call "Space Week" once or twice a year. At those times, they premiere several new space documentaries (which they then re-run, once or twice a month, for a year or more). Sometimes these are new documentaries produced by Discovery, sometimes they're programming originally developed for Australian or British audiences (like slightly re-edited episodes of "Horizons," for example).

The ads for the upcoming Space Week, which starts in a couple of weeks or so, are listing titles of new programs that will be airing then on Discovery Science.

One of the titles listed was "Roving Mars."

I dunno if they're just going to run the IMAX piece, reformatted for a much smaller screen, or even if it's an entirely different project. But somehow I doubt it.

So... the annoying thing for y'all is that you're finally getting to see the thing all of about two weeks before it appears on cable TV here in the States.

The redeeming fact is that you'll be able to watch it in IMAX, which is a really great experience in and of itself.

-the other Doug

[mcaplinger]

I dunno if they're just going to run the IMAX piece, reformatted for a much smaller screen, or even if it's an entirely different project. But somehow I doubt it.

http://www.press.discovery.com/ekits/space...ge=pressrelease

Yes, it's just the IMAX movie on TV. Premiere is Thursday, May 10, at 9 PM (ET/PT).

[djellison]

May 10th...Pah - I'll have seen it on Imax screens three times by then

Doug

[djellison]

What a great day.... met Helvick on the way in, saw a nice Planetarium presentation ( with the infamous APOD / Aviation Week colourised Navcam mosaic in the middle of it! ), a quick swish around the museum bit, then in for the first Imax showing.

It was exactly what I was hoping it would be - lots of stunning shots of building them at KSC and JPL. The launch sequence was very good indeed - as well as two fantastic EDL sequences which I believe used the actual data to reconstruct the bounces. Not enough surface imagery - but then, not enough movie...twice as long would have been 100 times too short really This was followed by a short update lecture by Jim - bringing us right up to date including his current take on the dark streaks ( dust being cleared away and polishing the berries as it goes )

Then met up with the others for the second time around. The second Imax showing was almost ruined by the sound running about 1.5s ahead of the video - I felt really sorry for those that hadn't seen it in the morning - the bouncing sequences were just a little bit comical with the bounce noise happening almost a full bounce before the bounce on screen. Same again with an update by Jim afterwards - then retired to the back of the Imax theatre for a casual Q'n'A before retiring to a bar downstairs to put the world of space science to rights for an hour

Fantastic day all round - glad for those that could make it - so sorry for those that couldn't - hopefully we'll be able to do it again at some point (maybe tie in a group visit to the Science Museum's new space wing with a trip to the Imax at Waterloo).

Attached - a few pics of Jim and us lot having a chat after the second showing (me=behind camera lens )

Doug

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[Alex Chapman]

So that’s where you guys went! After the second IMAX showing I stayed to listen to Jim Bell’s Q & A and I had to constantly stop myself from laughing. The poor guy was harangued by the public with engineering suggestions like, ‘Why didn’t you put retractable plates on the wheels so they won’t get stuck in the sand?” or “Will the next rover have retractable wheels so that when one stops working you can just pull it out of the way?” Jim just had a look of mild desperation on his face.

Interestingly he directly said that the next rover is going to be ‘nuclear powered’ and I thought everyone was trying not to mention the RTGs or is that only JPL staff? He also had some good news for all you imaging guys and gals out there, MSL will send back as much data back in 3-4 weeks as both rovers have sent back to date. That is assuming MRO is still capable of acting as a relay.

Alex

[centsworth_II]

... good news for all you imaging guys and gals out there, MSL will send back as much data back in 3-4 weeks as both rovers have sent back to date...

Good news for those that are retired, with plenty of time on their hands!

[helvick]

Jim made an interesting comment when asked about MSL's power source - he said that the RTG's power output would be similar to the power levels that the MER's were capable of generating under optimal conditions - that's about 1 kilowatt hour per Sol. I thought that was strange as the Boeing MMRTG design that I'm pretty sure has been selected for MSL should generate around 2.5 x that amount of power per sol.

[nprev]

Glad to hear it went well, and thanks for the pics!

[djellison]

OK - So I cheated - I saw RM another two times today (And I'd happily watch it another 4 times in 2 days...just to watch those two EDL sequences, and the brief moments of Pancam imagery, as nature intended, full screen, slowly panning across.

I think Jims comment re: MSL power was worded to mean that at MER's peak power - it's producing as many Watts ( not Whrs ) as MSL's MMRTG. Something like 110 Watts is the figure. Over a normal day, I'm expecting MSL to be something like 2500 Whrs, that sort of thing.

Doug

[helvick]

Doh! Well that makes sense.

[dilo]

At the end, I saw it!
I took advantage of a family trip to Paris, I went to the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie where RM is projected in the "Geode" IMAX cinema (a beautifull structure) twice a day.
Like others, I liked very much the sequences of MER construction\testing (hey, there is also a scene with SS in cow-boy version! ). But what I prefere is the movie of the launch and the CG sequences of landings, the realism is fabulous and the impact of very high definition super-wide angle picture is breathtaking... in a particular sequence, I had the strong feeling to be an ant looking to a giant rover over me...
Audience applauded at the end of projection and my sad thinkng was: why ESA do not makes something like this about Titan\Huygens?"...

[dvandorn]

When I first saw Roving Mars, while I was totally entranced by the whole thing, it was the first landing sequence (at Gusev) that brought tears to my eyes. It was, specifically, the point where I was watching Spirit rolling to a stop, and I suddenly said (out loud,as I recall) "Hey! That's Sleepy Hollow!" When I fully realized that we were seeing an event that was never visually recorded, I nearly lost it.

I was more prepared when it came time to watch Oppy make its hole in one, but that nearly brought me to tears, as well...

-the other Doug

[Guest_3488_*]

..Deleted.

[djellison]

Ahh - were you the chap I met in the Imax foyer between the two showings?

Doug

[ngunn]

What was the audience turnout like in London? Was it any better advertised than in Birmingham?

[djellison]

What was the audience turnout like in London? Was it any better advertised than in Birmingham?

Actually - yeah - it wasn't too bad. The theatre was a similar size to the B'ham one - and the middle bank of seats was probably half full and a few stragglers on each 'flank' of seats.

Doug

[CosmicRocker]

I'm still waiting for the DVD to come out. I noticed this review of a "screener copy" of the disk in the news today. It can be pre-ordered from Amazon, and probably other sources. Amazon said it was a Blu-ray DVD, which will not play on standard DVD players. I loved Roving Mars at the IMAX, and was looking forward to seeing it at home, but I am not ready to purchase a new device to play this DVD. Am I behind the technology curve?

[MouseOnMars]

There are various Blueray "convertors" that will allow you to convert this format to a DVD / HD video that you can burn.
Hope that helps.

mouseonmars

[fredk]

Roving Mars now available in both DVD and bluray formats. I'd love to hear from anyone who watches the bluray on the picture quality. I think bluray is definitely the way to go here, considering the resolution of the IMAX original, and I'll certainly go high-def at some point in the future and wouldn't want to be stuck with a std def dvd then. The only potential worry is if bluray goes the way of beta and hddvd becomes the next vhs...

[MouseOnMars]

Good, I'll be able to play on my normal 'ol DVD player

Which I'll stick with until this comes out. Initially I thought it was some kind of hoax, but then the concept had me slapping my hand to my forehead. You can construct, in theory, the whole disk from a small portion of the hologram, just like an image hologram. The potential for storing important space data is obvious.

MouseOnMars

[djellison]

I have the DVD on order from the US - a review of the bonus content once it's here.

Doug

[marswalker]

I'm afraid it would be a bit of a commute for me... lol..

It's an excellent movie. If it's playing near you, please do go see it. I highly recommend it.

Watching the movie brings back many memories of everything from the day Glenn called to tell me he was putting the group back together, to go back to Mars, through to the present.

It's very exciting to see recent developments. Though it's nearly heartbreak to have MSL miss her launch date, the extra time for testing and finding the "best spot" to put her down on will be put to good use. With the recent news about the methane plumes, perhaps MSL will be placed somewhere near one, where she might discover the nature of the source of that methane.

Any way, it's a very nice film, and I do recommend it.

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Hey Marswalker, welcome to the UMSF!

It seems you have been involved in work at the JPL, can you tell more? *Should we know you?*

I'm sure you'll enjoy these forums, great for space buffs and with a superb signal-to-noise ratio (I personally am not contributing to upholding the latter though!).