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Q. Isn't this just a remake of The Mars Show? Why can't I just get some new slides for it?
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First, a short parable.
A guy went shopping for a new car. He went around to all the dealers, looked at all the vehicles, but kept coming back to this shiny new Lincoln Continental. He found a salesperson and said, "I'd really like to buy this Lincoln Continental, but I can't believe what cars cost these days! This one looks a lot like the 13-year-old Lincoln I have at home, and that one didn't cost me nearly as much. Now I notice this new one has an engine, and wheels and doors and mirrors, and so does my old car. So how about if you sell me this new car at a huge discount, and leave off the doors and wheels and mirrors, and I'll pull the ones off my old car and put them on this new one?"
It would never happen, right? Yet, here we are in the FAQ, because we are getting these very same kinds of questions asked — about whether MarsQuest somehow is "just a re-hash" of the program we produced in 1988, The Mars Show — and why can't we provide an update package for some extremely low cost?
The truth is, MarsQuest is a new show based on the old. We kept the basic framework — it still has wheels and doors and an engine — but it's redesigned with new technology, and now has anti-lock brakes, air bags, GPS, computer controls, new upholstery, new carpeting....
Many of our customers have told us The Mars Show was the best planetarium program we (and they) have ever done. We appreciate it! That's a tough act to follow. When you do it so well the first time around, how do you improve on it?
It was quite a challenge to remake such a beloved old show. We knew we had to retain some of the flavor of its predecessor, because that's what made the show so successful in the first place.
So, we analyzed what worked well in the old show, and what we could do better — and then we did it. With the cooperation and input of our partners at the Space Science Institute, we created a vibrant new program that keeps the best elements of the old show, but still presents a fresh experience for today's audiences, who don't really care what we all did in 1988 — and who may not have even been born then!
Over the span of two years, Carolyn researched Mars science, with input from several Mars science exploration teams. We combed through archives of thousands of images from Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder. There are more than 110 images from Mars missions in the show — and all but a couple dozen simply didn't exist the first time around. Even for the reprised Viking images, we went back and spent a great deal of time in Adobe Photoshop to "clean up" the original pictures from their aging NASA publications. Some have been colorized (in cooperation with Mars scientists, who themselves struggle with the color palette the planet presents), so Mars remains a relatively constant shade of red through the entire program.
We feel confident in saying that every image used in this show is "new" in some way. Every image has been digitally reworked; we've tweaked color, contrast, balance, and generated new masks. For example, there are no simple gelled Kodaliths in the show; all the graphics slides are 3-D and full color. Instead of providing just a single Earth chord and only one Mars chord to use repeatedly thought the show, we provide four different views — of each! And unlike the 1988 show, for those ordering slides, they come individually masked and mounted in Wess glass mounts, providing "first-generation" quality to the images. Now that panoramas can be rendered seamlessly using dome-mapping software like DigiDome, we can provide pans in digital form — something else which didn't exist at the time of The Mars Show.
We commissioned more than $10,000 of new original artwork, graphics, and models to illustrate MarsQuest, comprising more than a third of the show's visuals. And just as the other images have benefited from the enhancements made available by digital image editing software, our artists have added today's computer tools to their palettes, to create a level of visual sophistication that far exceeds what was possible in the past.
We feel Patrick Stewart's narrating talents are apparent to anyone who's heard him. His elegant style is never out of date, and was a key element in making The Mars Show soundtrack so memorable. Fortunately, he agreed to narrate our new soundtrack. His voice has deepened and mellowed in the intervening years, yet he still effectively and beautifully brings the wonders of Mars exploration to us all. We refined the illustrative wording to be even more technically precise, and were able to fix at last the occasional subtle nuances in the text that had bothered no one else but us for the last decade!
The computer enhancements didn't apply only to the visuals; the soundtrack was assembled digitally with automated mixdown. The limitations of the old analog 8-track were left by the wayside; instead of multi-channel mono tracks, Mark was able to record stereo tracks — in some spots, 30 tracks deep.
 We still have the "gods" incantation at the beginning (though with all new artwork this time around, if the planetarium didn't get the 1995 update package we offered). "Morning Star" finally makes his onscreen appearance, having been omitted from the visuals list the first time around. We dropped the Lowell oration, the radio play, and the "Willis" quote, to tighten up the pacing. Even where the text hasn't changed much from the predecessor show, you can see the improved visualization in the sample of Page 4. And of course, the Pathfinder section on Page 16 features all new music, narration, and visuals, including a magnificent 3-panel landing sequence by Michael Carroll. The inspiring "Rhapsody On A Red Planet" ending endures, but we've enhanced it with all new panoramas and additional new text; you can see and hear some of the changes on Page 28.
And in between, there are volcanoes, dust storms, dust devils, polar ice, craters, canyons, riverbeds, rovers, clouds, Martian meteorites, and more.
In short, MarsQuest is a vastly updated show, based on a tried and true format, for a new time and modern audiences. We think they'll enjoy riding in the shiny new car for years to come.
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