|
Wallpaper pictures of "Mission: SPACE" space flight simulator ride in Future World in Epcot - presented in 4:3 regular and 16:10 widescreen formats!
The Disney theme park guests have always had a fascination with space travel and a voyage to Mars, one of our neighbor planets in the solar system. We saw that initial space craze in the old Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom. Park guests used to be able to take a simulated trip to Mars on "Mission to Mars" as well as racing through outer space on "Space Mountain." 
"Mission to Mars" is lone gone and "Space Mountain" is currently going through an extended refurbishment, but guests will be able to once again race through outer space in the Magic Kingdom in late 2009 or early 2010.The space craze is still alive in Disney's Hollywood Studios on "Star Tours," though that can be viewed as more of a fascination with the fantasy world of Star Wars than with actual space travel and exploration. As far as a more realistic view of space travel, that takes us back to Epcot. 
Fans of the original EPCOT Center still remember "Horizons" and talk of it brings back memories of a truely outstanding and innovating dark ride. "Horizons" took guests along on a journey into the near future and presented the "normal" lives of people as they lived in the desert, under the sea in an underwater community, and of course, out in space aboard a space station orbiting the Earth. The ride's main theme was "If we can dream it, we can do it."Sadly, the more modern park guests thought less of "Horizons," many of them seeing the ride as too slow and boring, and the loss of G.E. as the ride's sponsor was the final death blow to the classic ride. Epcot needed something new to capture the attention of the current generation of guests. Something thrilling like "Test Track." Something exotic and adventureous like a trip into space, maybe even to a distant planet. Combine the two and you get "Mission: SPACE," a thrilling ride that simulates a trip to Mars. 
"Horizons" closed its doors for the last time in 1999 and that entire site was completely demolished to make way for the new attraction. It's not like they took an existing building and modified it severely like they did for the conversion of "World of Motion" to "Test Track." No, this new ride was going to require a completely new building. 
When "Mission: SPACE" was first announced, there were a few wild rumors about what the new ride was going to be like. One of the more interesting rumors was that the ride was going to have a grand finale more like a roller coaster, launching small coaster trains out of the building and then up a massive tower, simulating the high G-forces and speeds associated with liftoff followed by a zero-G experience as the cars fell straight down along the track and back inside of the building. The tower would have been light up at night and even have giant rockets on the side of it, making it look like a rocket launch pad.As we all know, this concept was nothing more than a concept and the final ride uses a system of capsules or "pods" attached to centrifuges to produce the more thrilling aspects. The pods themselves are mini-simulators that can tilt and roll while the centrifuges can make the riders feel high G-forces at the appropriate times. This itself is an innovative ride system and creates a personal ride experience for each of the four riders per pod. While inside of the pod, you're completely unaware of the other nine pods attached to your centrifuge, each one filled with riders all experiencing the exact same ride that you are. 
When the ride first opened in 2003, there was only the high G-force, spinning version of the ride. If you couldn't handle it, then you didn't go on the ride. The problem that Disney encountered was that many people were not able to handle the ride, and for a lot of guests this was a ride where they only went on it once. People did get sick and those motion sickness bags were put to use. The solution to making this experience more rider friendly was rather simple: Make part of the ride tamer. 
In May of 2006, the new version of "Mission: SPACE" opened with two of the centrifuges being tame and the other two still intense. Now guests had the choice of riding the Orange Team version (the original, spinning version of the ride with the high G-forces) or the Green Team (the same ride but no spinning and without the high G-forces). Instead of spinning to create the intense feelings, the Green Team side simply leans you backwards to simulate the G-forces. It sounds lame but it's still a pretty convincing experience.
"Mission: SPACE" is still a fairly popular ride and a must visit for anybody interested in space travel and can handle being restrained in a moving simulator pod. The simulator movements are quite tame and just a notch above "Soarin'" in intensity, nothing nearly as instense as "Star Tours," "Dinosaur," or "The Simpsons Ride" over in Universal Studios Florida. "Mission: SPACE" is a FASTPASS ride, but FASTPASS really isn't needed unless you want to ride on the Orange Team side on a busy day. The Green Team typically has a short wait time in the ten to twenty minute range, while Orange Team can have wait times between thirty and forty-five minutes during the middle of the day. "Mission: SPACE" is one of the Future World attractions that normally stays open until park closing, and at night the ride is usually deserted with only about a five minute wait. 
Note - Each picture can be opened in one of two styles - regular (4:3 ratio) and widescreen (16:10 ratio). You may download and share these pictures, but please, do not modify or alter them in any way!The above Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios guidebook and guidemap pictures are (c) The Walt Disney Company.
The
regular
4:3 pictures all have a resolution of 1600x1200 (960x1280 for vertical pictures), unless it's otherwise
noted. They can also easily fit monitor resolutions of 1280x960 or
even 2133x1600 without needing any special modifications. Just select
the image and have Windows stretch and fit it to the other 4:3
resolution.The
widescreen
16:10 pictures all have a resolution of 1440x900, unless it's otherwise
noted. They can also easily fit a resolution of 2560x1600 without
needing any special modifications. Just select the image and
have Windows stretch and fit it to the other 16:10 resolution.
Warning - There will be some slight variations between the regular and widescreen pictures!
To
help save bandwidth for the other visitors, please open each picture
only once. If you like it, save it to your hard drive. You can also
right click on the link and select "save as" instead of manually
loading each picture.
 - Epcot - Future World - "Innoventions" - "Mission: SPACE" preview / launch center - January 2002 - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Innoventions" - "Mission: SPACE" preview / launch center - 02 - regular
 - "Innoventions" - "Mission: SPACE" preview / launch center - 03 - regular
 - Walt Disney World - World Drive - "Mission: SPACE" sign - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - Epcot - Future World - "Mission: SPACE" - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - 01 - storm clouds - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - globe & X-2 rocket - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - globe & X-2 rocket - 07 - regular
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - entrance area - 04 - regular
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - Mars rovers Spirit & Opportunity tribute - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - the Moon - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - entrance area - the Moon - 02 - regular
 - entrance area - the Moon - 03 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - Charles Lindbergh - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - Galileo - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - Neil Armstrong - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - entrance area - International Space Training Center (ISTC) - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - night - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - "Mission: SPACE" - night - globe & X-2 rocket - 01 - regular, widescreen
 - night - globe & X-2 rocket - 02 - regular, widescreen
 - night - globe & X-2 rocket - 03 - regular, widescreen
Continue on to the line queue, pre-show, and post-show activities in "Mission: SPACE" as well as a few more vintage photos!
|
|
|
|
- "Mission: SPACE" - 02 - 
- "Mission: SPACE" - 03 - 
- "Mission: SPACE" - 04 - 
- "Mission: SPACE" - 05 - 
- "Mission: SPACE" - 06 - 
- globe & X-2 rocket - 02 - 
- globe & X-2 rocket - 03 - 
- globe & X-2 rocket - 04 - 
- globe & X-2 rocket - 05 - 
- globe & X-2 rocket - 06 - 
- entrance area - 02 - 
- entrance area - 03 - 
- night - 02 - 
- night - 03 - 
