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Spaceship Earth is an attraction at Walt Disney World's Epcot. One of the most recognizable structures at the Walt Disney World Resort, the ride has been partially remodeled and updated twice. Originally, the attraction featured actor Vic Perrin as the narrator and a very simple and quiet orchestral ending. In May of 1986 it was remodeled and famous news journalist Walter Cronkite now provided the detailed narration audio of the ride and a new ending featuring the song, Tomorrow's Child was added. Finally, in August 1994 it was again revamped with actor Jeremy Irons narrating and again, the ending was redone to provide a more modernized look at today's technology. During the 1994 remodeling, a few scenes were changed drastically and the theme song Tomorrow's Child was removed from the ending of the ride. The ride re-opened on November 23, 1994. The 18-story geosphere houses a 12-minute dark ride using the Omnimover system that explores the progression of human communications from cavemen to the dawn of the internet (see ride scenes below). Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a pentakis dodecahedron, with each of the 60 equilateral triangle faces divided into 16 smaller equilateral triangles (with a bit of fudging to make it rounder). Each of those 960 flat panels is sub-divided into four triangles, each of which is divided into three isosceles triangles to form each point. In theory, there are 11,520 total isosceles triangles forming 3840 points. In reality, some of those triangles are partially or fully nonexistent due to supports and doors; there are actually only 11,324 of them, with 954 partial or full flat panels.
Attraction facts VIP Room A VIP room exists in the back of the building that is attached to the geosphere. This room is used for employees of the sponsoring company to relax away from crowds in an air conditioned room. When Spaceship Earth was without sponsorship, it was also utilized for private events such as weddings and conventions. The room is small and curved in shape, with one wall consisting of large windows where visitors can look out into the park below. Construction facts The building was designed with the help of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who also wrote the original story treatment for the ride . The sphere itself and the attraction's name was inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller, but wasn't given credit. It was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. (All water is "absorbed" through one inch gaps in the facets and is collected in a gutter system - and finally channeled into World Showcase Lagoon.) Construction took 26 months and 40,800 labor hours to build. The interior steel structure consists of a massive "table" formed by deep trusses and 6 legs, none of which are directly under the sphere. This was done to give the illusion of the ball floating in air. Extending upwards from the table are "quadropod" structures which support the smaller beams which form the actual shell of the steel skeleton. Pipes stand the aluminum skin panels away from the skeleton and provide space for utilities. A small service car is parked at the top of the steel structure and can carry a prone technician down the sides to access repair locations. The sphere is wider at the bottom than at the top. The shop fabrication of the steel (done in nearby Tampa, Florida) was an early instance of computer aided drafting and materials processing. Ride scenes The ride starts with cavemen, who developed the first spoken languages. Then viewers see the Egyptians, who invented a system of hieroglyphs and made papyrus on which to record them; Phoenician merchants, who developed a written alphabet (the Phoenician alphabet); Ancient Greece, where the theatre was a popular form of entertainment; and Ancient Rome, whose leaders built a vast system of roads all over Europe. After the sacking of Rome by invaders, viewers see scenes of the Middle Ages, when Jewish and Islamic scholars (Jewish scholars added during the November 23, 1994 update) continued to progress in science, and when monks copied Bibles by hand. The ride then moves on to the European Renaissance, the development of the movable-type printing press, and the 20th century communications revolution—newspapers, telegraphs, radio, telephones, movies, television, and videoconferencing. This is the end of the historical segment of the ride; the remainder is split between abstract depictions of Earth and the communications that take place upon it, and the possible communications technologies that will be developed in the future. Show Scenes: Attraction Time line October 1, 1982: May 26, 1986: August 15, 1994: November 23, 1994: November 24, 1999: September 29, 1999: May 2001: January 1, 2003: April 2004: November 2005: See also | ||||||||
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