大象传媒

Take the journey further...

大象传媒i - interactive TV

Although the action in Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets is dramatised, it is all based on existing technology and knowledge collected during actual missions to the planets.

Digital TV offers a chance for viewers to delve further simply by pressing the red button on the remote control.

At any point during both of the programmes, viewers can choose to access the Mission Report.

This is a virtual mission control interface featuring pop-up facts that will highlight the background research from which the series was made.

In addition, it provides extra information and context for each scene.

It will answer questions such as: Why do the astronauts have to exercise so much? Why don't the astronauts eat bread? and Why is Mars so cold and Venus so hot?

If viewers have further questions not answered in the programme or the Mission Report, they can submit them via email, SMS or by digital satellite return path.

These will be answered in a special live broadcast from the European Space Agency Mission Control, where some of this series was filmed.

Accessed by pressing the red button, viewers will meet a team of experts - planetary and rocket scientists, real astronauts and the programme-makers - who, as well as answering their questions, will be demonstrating what conditions are really like on the different planets, giving the insider's track into the missions currently sailing round the solar system, and also unveiling plans to send a manned mission to Mars.

bbc.co.uk/science

Visit the info-packed website to learn more about Pegasus and the other spacecraft in Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets, and get to know the principal crew members by reading their detailed profiles.

With Space Doctor Interactive, get to grips with the physiological effects of space travel by taking on the role of a doctor who has to look after the health of a crew on a mission to Mars.

Imagine planning the holiday of a lifetime to the planets or their moons - an online travel guide gives all the facts and information needed.

There's also a Solar System Jigsaw which lets users 'build' the solar system themselves and see how the planets orbit the sun.

The tour

Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets hits the road with a series of events across the country.

Aimed at families with children aged seven and over, the events will take place at venues including the Science Museum in London, Manchester Science Museum, the National Museum of Scotland and the National Space Centre in Leicester.

Series producer and former planetary scientist, Chris Riley, will take visitors on a whistle-stop tour of the solar system and, along the way, uncover some of the science behind the series.

There will be previously unseen footage, live demos and a chance to find out what we know about our nearest neighbours in space.

For more information on venues and dates, visit bbc.co.uk/science