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Illusion feels real aboard Disney ride
By ROBERT N. JENKINS
Published June 15, 2005
LAKE BUENA VISTA - Mission: Space quickly became one of Walt Disney World's most popular rides when it opened in August 2003. It used technology, including a centrifuge, to move riders past the thrill of the roller coaster by tricking their minds.
Disney creators reportedly worked for more than five years and spent $100-million on Mission: Space. They consulted with former astronauts, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab to translate basic elements of space travel into an indoor ride lasting four minutes and 20 seconds.
The ride matches movie simulation with significant motion generated by a centrifuge. The result fools the riders by inundating their senses with stimuli.
When I rode it, here's what happened:
As you approach your turn on the ride, you pass warning signs about claustrophobia, back pain and so on. You also pass historical accounts of real space missions and impressive movie props. Actor Gary Sinise lays out the premise: You and three others will pilot a rocket to Mars, each of you having certain responsibilities in the cockpit.
Then you and your crew mates enter a tiny room - your cockpit - and sit in a snug seat. A restraint bar is lowered over your shoulders and across your chest.
The entrance to the cockpit closes when the front wall moves toward the crew, until each face is just inches from a small TV monitor and various gauges. The cockpit is now closed around you.
Recorded narration counts down to liftoff. The cockpit shakes and the centrifuge moves it so that you are pushed back in your seat.
The monitor in front of each crew member shows the same animated version of space travel, while the narration urgently instructs individual riders to push buttons in front of them to keep the rocket on course or to avoid obstacles that seem to be racing toward your face.
Many times, the cockpit is moved by the centrifuge. While a centrifuge spins objects in a circle, on Mission: Space you don't perceive that round-and-round effect because your eyes are watching perfectly synchronized movies. The effect is to confuse the brain with the matching - though false - stimuli.
The mission ends with a rocky landing on Mars.
Riders have reported feeling nausea, both temporarily and for hours afterward, because of their brains' interpretation of the stimuli.
Travel editor Robert N. Jenkins can be reached at 727 893-8496 or jenkins@sptimes.com
[Last modified June 15, 2005, 00:44:10]
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