Spaceship Earth (Epcot)

Spaceship Earth
Epcot Area Future World Coordinates 28°22′31″N 81°32′58″W / 28.375321°N 81.549408°W / 28.375321; -81.549408Coordinates: 28°22′31″N 81°32′58″W / 28.375321°N 81.549408°W / 28.375321; -81.549408 Status Operating Opening date October 1, 1982
General statistics
Attraction type	Dark ride
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Music	Bruce Broughton
Site area	109,375 sq ft (10,161.3 m2)
Vehicle type	Omnimover
Riders per vehicle	4
Rows	2
Riders per row	2
Duration	15:00
Host	Lawrence Dobkin (1982-1986)(Citation "Dream It! Do It! My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms" by Marty Sklar) Walter Cronkite (1986-1994) Jeremy Irons (1994-2007) Judi Dench (2008–present)
Diameter	165 ft (50 m)
Circumference	518.1 ft (158 m)
Volume	2,350,000 ft3 (716,280 m3)
Weight	15,520,000 lbs (7,040,000 kg)
Number of tiles	11,324
Notes	The sphere is raised 18 ft (5 m) off the ground by pylons sunk more than 120 ft (37 m) into the ground
Sponsor	Bell System (1982-1984) AT&T (1984-2004) Siemens (2005-present)
Must transfer from wheelchair

Spaceship Earth is the iconic and symbolic structure of Epcot, the second of four theme parks built at the Walt Disney World Resort. One of the most recognizable structures of any theme park, it is also the name of the attraction that is housed within the 18-story geodesic sphere that takes guests on a time machine-themed experience using the Omnimover system. The 15-minute dark ride demonstrates to guests how advancements in human communication have helped to create the future one step at a time. Passengers journey back in time to witness the origins of prehistoric man, then travel forward in time to witness important breakthroughs in communication throughout history—from the invention of the alphabet to the creation of the printing press to today's modern communication advancements, including telecommunication and mass communication. At the conclusion of the ride, passengers have the chance to design their own future using touch screens that are embedded into the ride cars.

Structure

Close-up of Spaceship Earth's Alucobond tiles.

The structure is similar in texture to the United States pavilion from Expo 67 in Montreal, but unlike that structure, Spaceship Earth is a complete sphere, supported by three pairs of legs. The structural designs of both Expo 67 and Spaceship Earth were completed by Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts.

Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a derivative of a pentakis dodecahedron. It is a Class 2 Frequency 16 Icosahedron, with each of the 60 isosceles triangle faces divided into 16 smaller triangles (with a bit of fudging to make it rounder).^{[citation needed]} 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 silvered facets, with 954 partial or full flat triangular panels.^[1]

The appearance of being a monolithic sphere is an architectural goal that was achieved through a structural trick. Spaceship Earth is in fact two structural domes. Six legs are supported on pile groups that are driven up to 160 feet into Central Florida's soft earth. Those legs support a steel box-shaped ring at the sphere's perimeter, at about 30 degrees south latitude in earth-terms.^[2] The upper structural dome sits on this ring. A grid of trusses inside the ring supports two helical structures of the ride and show system. Below the ring, a second dome is hung from the bottom, completing the spherical shape. The ring and trusses form a table-like structure which separates the upper dome from the lower. Supported by and about three feet off of the structural domes is a cladding sphere to which the shiny Alucobond panels and drainage system are mounted.

The cladding was designed so that when it rains, no water pours off the sides onto the ground. All water is collected through one-inch gaps in the facets into a gutter system, and finally channeled into the World Showcase Lagoon.

History

Spaceship Earth with the Mickey Mouse wand, added in 2000 and removed in 2007.

The structure was designed with the help of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who also helped write the original storyline for the attraction.^[3][4][5] The term 'Spaceship Earth' was coined by Buckminster Fuller,^[6] who also developed the structural mathematics of the geodesic dome.

The Alucobond construction took over two years.

Construction took 26 months and 40,800 labor hours to build. Extending upwards from the table are "quadropod" structures, which support smaller beams which form the 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 in the interstitial space between the structural and cladding surfaces, and can carry a prone technician down the sides to access repair locations. The shop fabrication of the steel (done in nearby Tampa, Florida) was an early instance of computer-aided drafting and materials processing. Spaceship Earth was originally sponsored by the Bell System from 1982 until 1984, when it was broken into smaller companies in 1984, and its parent company, AT&T, became an independent company. AT&T sponsored Spaceship Earth from 1984 until 2004. From 2005 onwards, the German company Siemens has been the sponsor of Spaceship Earth.

In October 1982, the attraction experience began as the ride vehicles moved up into the structure through a lighted tunnel enhanced by a fog machine, and then ascended on a spiraling track up through dark spaces featuring a series of lighted historic vignettes. The attraction featured actor Lawrence Dobkin as the narrator along with a very simple and quiet orchestral composition throughout the attraction. The theme of communication through the ages is presented in chronological order in settings peopled with Audio-Animatronics figures. Actors are seen (and heard quietly) declaiming in a Greek theater. Charioteers carry messages from a Roman court, and Jewish and Islamic scholars discuss texts. With typical Disney whimsy, a monk is seen having fallen asleep on a manuscript he was inscribing. Michelangelo, overhead, paints the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, and Gutenberg mans his printing press. Suggesting the rush of 20th-century technology, subsequent scenes meld together, overlapping each other as the circumference of the ride track narrows. A newsboy hawks papers, a movie marquee and film clips represent motion pictures, and radio and television are represented. As the vehicles reach the large space at the apex of the ride system, guests see, on the planetarium ceiling of the sphere, projections of stars, planets, the Milky Way, and, closest and largest, "spaceship earth." The Omnimover vehicles then revolve 180 degrees, so that the passengers lie backward facing the "sky" as they begin their descent on a relatively straight track. The ride stops intermittently as wheelchairs are loaded or unloaded.

Spaceship Earth in 2009.

In May 1986, the attraction was given a slight remodel. This second version of the attraction started off with the lighted tunnel enhanced by twinkling lights, meant to depict stars, with the fog machine removed. News journalist Walter Cronkite was the new narrator, reading from an updated script. A theme song called Tomorrow's Child was composed for the ending of the attraction, which was redesigned with projected images of children on screens to help fit with the theme of "Tomorrow's Child". On August 15, 1994, the attraction was closed to receive a major remodel. This third version of the attraction kept the lighted tunnel as it was in 1986, and maintained the majority of the scenes depicted in the beginning and middle of the attraction. Three scenes toward the end of the attraction that showed a computer in a boy's bedroom of the 1980s, a woman's office of the 1980s, and a network operations center of the 1990s, were all removed and replaced with one scene depicting a boy and girl using the Internet to communicate between America and Asia. Actor Jeremy Irons was the new narrator, reading from an updated script. A new orchestral composition was composed for the beginning, middle, and end of the attraction. The ending itself was completely redone, with the removal of the Space Station scene located in the attraction's planetarium (the astronauts from the scene subsequently turned up in Space Mountain's post-show, where they were used until 2009), replacement of an old projected image of Earth in the planetarium with a new image, and replacement of the 1982 and 1986 ending scenes of the ride with miniature architectural settings connected by color-changing fiber optic cables and arrays of blinking lights representing electronic communication pathways. The attraction re-opened on November 23, 1994.

Spaceship Earth at night.

In celebration of the year 2000, a large 25-story "magic wand" held by a representation of Mickey Mouse's hand was built next to the sphere. Inspiration for it came from the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence of Fantasia (although Mickey did not actually use a magic wand in that sequence). At the top of the structure was a large cut-out of the number 2000. While the structure wasn't intended to be permanent, it was constructed to have a lifetime of about 10 years. After the Millennium Celebration ended, the structure was left standing. In 2001, the number 2000 was replaced with the word "Epcot" in a script font that differs from the park's logotype. On the morning of July 5, 2007, Epcot Vice President Jim MacPhee announced that Spaceship Earth would be restored to its original appearance and that the "magic wand" structure would be removed in time for the park's 25th anniversary on October 1, 2007. Siemens, the sponsor of Spaceship Earth, is rumored to have requested the wand removed as it did not fit their corporate image.^{[citation needed]} By October 1, the wand structure, the stars, and the star supports had been removed, and added palm trees and other plants that originally stood where the structure was prior to 2000. Components of the structure were later auctioned on eBay.^{[citation needed]}

On July 9, 2007, the attraction was again closed for another remodel that included a number of updates to the attraction. The attraction opened again with its fourth version on February 15, 2008, with a new score composed by Bruce Broughton and new narration provided by actress Judi Dench. The attraction's exterior was also modified for the 2007 renovations, which included removing the giant Mickey wand and EPCOT signage with twinkling stars that had originally been added to the geosphere for the millennium celebration.

The "magic wand" being removed in August 2007

With the new Siemens AG sponsorship, changes have been made to the ride and post show area. The ride's updates include new scenes, modifications to existing scenes; some new costumes, lighting, and props; a new musical score by Bruce Broughton, new narration by Judi Dench;^[7] and a new interactive ending featuring a touch screen. New scenes show a Greek classroom, mainframe computers and the creation of the personal computer.^[8]

The "time machine" vehicles now have an interactive screen where riders can choose their vision of the future.^[9] This resembles a similar idea on the now-defunct attraction Horizons. At the beginning of the ride, a camera takes riders' pictures (using facial recognition technology) which are used at the end of the ride to conduct an interactive experience about the future of technology, featuring the riders' faces on animated characters and narration by Cam Clarke. Visitors are now also asked where in our Spaceship Earth they live; this is used in the post-show area where a map of the world is displayed with the riders' faces shown where they live.

The renovations were scheduled to be completed for a February 2008 reopening but the attraction opened for "soft launch" previews starting in December 2007. On February 15, 2008, the ride reopened officially after closing periodically in January for last-minute adjustments.

Timeline

Spaceship Earth's original logo, visible at the entrance of the ride until 2007.

• October 1, 1982: Spaceship Earth opens with the opening of EPCOT Center. Sponsored by the Bell System.^[10][11][12] The narrator is Lawrence Dobkin.
• May 26, 1986: Attraction reopens from first major renovation. AT&T is now the sponsor, having signed on in 1984. New narration by Walter Cronkite. Finale music changed to Tomorrow's Child.
• August 15, 1994: Closes for second major renovation. "Home computer", "Office Computer", "Network Operations Center", and "Space Station" scenes removed. New final scenes installed and replace old final scenes. Earth Station closes. Tomorrow's Child ending removed.
• November 23, 1994: Attraction reopens. New ride narration by Jeremy Irons.^[13][14] New ride score by Edo Guidotti.^[15] The Global Neighborhood replaces Earth Station.
• September 29, 1999: The Mickey Mouse arm holding a wand is dedicated with "2000" over Spaceship Earth.
• November 24, 1999: The Global Neighborhood is replaced with The New Global Neighborhood, a new exhibit space serving as a hands-on playground for Spaceship Earth's post show.
• May 2001: The Mickey Mouse arm holding a wand is changed to say "Epcot" over Spaceship Earth.
• January 1, 2003: AT&T Corporation sponsorship ends.
• April 2004: The New Global Neighborhood is removed and the area is boarded up. AT&T references removed.
• November 2005: It is announced that Siemens AG^[16][17] will sponsor Spaceship Earth for twelve years.
• April 11, 2007: Major changes coming to Spaceship Earth are announced.^[18]
• April 25, 2007: The new exhibit space in Spaceship Earth's post show called Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future opens.
• July 5, 2007: Epcot Vice President Jim Macphee announces the removal of the wand structure in time for the park's 25th anniversary on October 1, 2007.
• July 9, 2007: Closes for a fourth renovation. Removal of the wand structure begins.
• August 24, 2007: Removal of the wand structure completed.
• December 2007: Guest previews of fourth edition begin.
• February 15, 2008: Fourth edition opens to the general public after renovations. New narration by Dame Judi Dench.
• March 4, 2008: Spaceship Earth is rededicated.
• October 1, 2012: Spaceship Earth and Epcot celebrated their 30th anniversary.

Narrators

• Lawrence Dobkin^{[citation needed]}: October 1, 1982 – May 26, 1986
• Walter Cronkite: May 26, 1986 – August 15, 1994
• Jeremy Irons: November 23, 1994 – July 9, 2007
• Dame Judi Dench: February 15, 2008–present

Attraction experience

As the ride is built on an omnimover system, there are no triggered ride events. Rather, a narration plays as the show scenes and music run on loop. The script, originally penned by Ray Bradbury, has since been updated to meet contemporary technological trends. The current host is Judi Dench, who narrates along an orchestral score by Bruce Broughton.

Show scenes

Audio-animatronic cavemen in the first scene of the ride. The scene has since been updated with new figures and an animated background.

The ride begins with the time-machine vehicles ascending into a dark tunnel with twinkling stars all around. An adventurous orchestral theme starts to play. As the score shifts to the theme ostinato, a leitmotif that comes to represent digital interference, guests have their picture taken which, unknown to the riders, will be used later in the ride and in the postshow.

As the vehicle arrives at the first story of the structure, it begins a slow curve. A large film screen is stretched along the inside of the sphere, depicting neanderthals fighting for survival without a form of communication and language. As the screen dims behind them, guests enter a cavern populated by audio animatronic early humans, who represent the development of early language through cave paintings. The drawings on the walls come to life and begin to dance as the car continues onward.

The score modulates, presenting the theme in a phrygian mode, implying a middle eastern atmosphere. Guests are brought through a heated diorama of the Egyptians, who invented a system of portable communication using hieroglyphs recorded on papyrus, as opposed to cave paintings that were unable to be transported as humans migrated. Migration is depicted, when the arid desert shifts to a salty and breezy ocean, as Phoenician merchants are seen carrying goods to faraway lands. The narration explains how their civilization was the driving force behind the alphabet, and due to their vast trading network, it became standardized in order to facilitate economic endeavors. Turning a corner, riders see the ship docking at an ancient Grecian port, in a sequence that attempts to show how language helped the arts thrive. A Greek man ushers the car past lively scenes of cultural diversity including the erection of the Parthenon, a performance of Oedipus Rex and a small musical ensemble. Shifting to ancient Rome, language is portrayed literally as a tool for cultural unification with the vast network of roads that stretched across Europe, ultimately "all leading to Rome."

The Phoenicians animatronics in an early scene from the ride discussing how our modern alphabet evolved.

Suddenly, the scene takes a dark turn as crashes are heard and the smell of burnt wood fills the air. The fall of Rome by invading mercenary armies also brought the destruction of the bulk of the world's recorded knowledge, including the loss of scrolls at the Library of Alexandria. But the narration gives hope as the vehicle reaches the next level, where Jewish and Islamic scholars of the Middle Ages are seen preserving recorded information, and continuing to progress in science.

Winding through exotic fabrics and drapery, guests arrive at a monastery where biblical manuscripts are being painstakingly copied. The composition shifts to a rousing hallelujah chorus, sung to the melody of the piece's exposition. Gutenberg is seen working the first movable-type printing press, allowing information to travel freely across the globe. The European Renaissance is portrayed, with animatronics of ensembles playing rich, polyphonic secular motets, maypole dancing and the painting of a portrait of a woman. The scene ends as the car passes under a scaffold, where Michelangelo is seen painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The time machines transition to a post-Civil War North. Guests witness syndicated news reports illuminating the planet of current events with amazing efficiency. Loud, industrial-sized printing presses show the incredible influence of the machine as an advancement in mass communication. As guests pass the clanging sounds of the press, the score's theme is presented again, this time with an uptempo ragtime piano. Seen next is a romanticized version of the 20th century communications revolution—after passing telegraphs, radio, telephones, and movies, riders see the 1969 television broadcast of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, featuring Walter Cronkite. Language had progressed to such an extent that it no longer was spoken solely by humans, but by machines as well.

Guests turn a corner and find themselves in a large mainframe computer as they ascend up the final hill. At the top, a slow descent starts, progressing through a garage in California, where Steve Wozniak is seen building one of the first home computers. The score becomes suddenly percussive and dramatic as guests fly through a tunnel with binary code projected onto the walls. At a crescendo, the car makes its final turn into the cupola of Spaceship Earth. The top of the structure is, in fact, a planetarium studded with stars and a large projection of a rotating Earth. As the omnimover vehicles start to move down the long descent to the unloading area, they spin and guests ride the end of the attraction backwards.

The remainder of the ride moves past a seemingly infinite number of stars and into a realm of glowing triangles. The guests can then use the touch-screens in their Omnimover vehicle to fill out a questionnaire to create a possible depiction of their future, which uses the pictures taken at the beginning of the ride.

Siemens then invites guests to visit Project Tomorrow as they exit the ride cars.

Post-show

Earth Station

The original post show for Spaceship Earth was called Earth Station. It lasted from 1982 until 1994. It was a wide open exhibit space that included:

• EPCOT Center Guest Relations
• Seven large rear projector screens mounted on the walls of the exhibit space toward the ceiling that displayed visual previews of various EPCOT Center attractions.
• WorldKey Information: Interactive kiosks that offered previews of various EPCOT Center attractions. Guests could also talk to a live cast member via two-way closed-circuit video, or make a restaurant reservation while in the park.

Global Neighborhood

When AT&T renewed their sponsorship in 1994, they redesigned the exhibit space for Earth Station into the Global Neighborhood. The original Global Neighborhood lasted from 1994 until 1999. In 1999, the exhibit space was updated to become the New Global Neighborhood for the Millennium Celebration. The exhibit space closed in 2004 after AT&T left as sponsor.

Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future

AT&T's departure as sponsor in 2004 caused the exhibit to close. Siemens AG, the new sponsor of Spaceship Earth, having signed on in 2005, created a new exhibit space called Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future. The new exhibit space once again uses the entire exhibit space that only Earth Station had once used. The new exhibit space houses interactive exhibits featuring various Siemens AG technology. These interactive displays and games allow guests to see the future of medicine, transportation and energy management. The space opened with two games, with two new games added in December 2007 and January 2008.

Project Tomorrow current attractions are:

• An illuminated globe that shows the hometown of all Spaceship Earth visitors for the day.
• Body Builder – a 3-D game that challenges guests to reconstruct a human body.
• Super Driver – a driving simulation video game featuring vehicle accident and avoidance systems. It simulates what is supposed to be the future of driving. You drive a "smart-car" and try to stop the city from being destroyed.
• Power City – a large, digital "shuffleboard-style" game that has guest racing around the board to power their city.
• InnerVision – a coordination and reaction-time game with elements similar to Simon and Dance Dance Revolution^[19]

VIP Lounge

A VIP lounge, operated by the pavilion sponsor, exists above the postshow area of Spaceship Earth. Employees of the current sponsoring company and their guests can relax in the lounge while visiting Epcot. The sponsor can also hold receptions in the space as well as conduct workshops and business presentations. When Spaceship Earth was without sponsorship from 2004–2005, the room was utilized for private events such as weddings and conventions.^{[citation needed]} The layout is small and curved in shape, with one wall consisting of large windows where visitors can look out onto the park.

When Siemens AG took over as sponsors, the lounge was given the name "Base21".^[20] In 2012, the name was dropped and it is now simply known as the "Siemens VIP Center."

See also

• Epcot attraction and entertainment history

References

Notes

Further reading

• Mongello, Louis A. (July 2004). The Walt Disney World Trivia Book. The Intrepid Traveler. p. 125. ISBN 978-1-887140-49-2. "The concept of the geodesic sphere came from Buckminster Fuller, who also coined the term "spaceship earth" in his 1964 book, An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth."  Cite uses deprecated parameters (help)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spaceship Earth, Epcot.

• Walt Disney World Resort - Spaceship Earth
• Intercot's Spaceship Earth page
• AT&T Archive video of the opening of Spaceship Earth