Simple question here. I'm attempting to pen a short script for a fulldome planetarium show on the exploration of Mars. Flying thru HRSC images, immersed into Pancam mosaics etc etc.

Would you expect such a production to touch on the FOM story at all? I think it might serve as a usefull method to highlight the improvements in resolution from Viking to MOC to HiRSE - but part of me just doesn't want to acknowledge it at all.

Doug

As The Face oddity brought early attention/publicity/interest to the Mars effort, it deserves a mention. Does the location now have an official designation?

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It's a case of what folks would think if it wren't mentioned; there are some who would claim coverup.

Why not mention it briefly, maybe with a shot of the Famous Face Image morphing into the later hi-res images. Use it as a segue into the many real and more interesting things we've seen.

"One of the earliest and best known images seemed to show evidence of intelligence on Mars... However, later images with better resolution showed it to be completely natural... However, that doesn't mean Mars doesn't have some interesting - and completely natural - things to show us..."

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I was recently wondering sort of the same thing, only in reference to "Atlantis theories" and the Egyptian pyramids. I think a documentary specifically focusing on the non-mainstream aspect of something famous must include both sides, but a documentary only focusing on the famous something does not need to include the non-mainstream theories.

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I think that a documentary should mention it. After all, it isn't the first time this has happened with Mars; think Schiaparelli's canali ("channels") mistranslated into English as "canals". A couple of comparisons between sketches showing Mars criss-crossed with "canals" and modern photographs of the planet and then the comparison between the original "face" image and the later and better photographs should do a lot to lay this sort of nonsense to rest--except for the most Hoagwashed, of course.

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As long as there is a general popularity about it I say yes. It's still "new" enough to not only come to mind when we think "Mars", but a lot of people probably have questions about it. This may be a good chance to give good information about what was thought, what is thought, and clear up misconceptions between the two.

That is, I think, the nature of public education, in order to teach to good stuff, you have to make sure to at least mention the "bad" or "not quite" stuff if those things are still part of pop culture. Then explain why those "bad" or "not quite" things are, well, bad or not quite.

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None to speak of

I'm just finishing work on a short fulldome show about Mars, but it's not a full-out documentary. It's focusing on a specific aspect of current Mars exploration that has nothing to do with the FOM.

In my longer documentary show, MarsQuest, which is just now available in fulldome (see http://www.lochnessproductions.com), we DID mention the FOM, but only to the extent that orbital images showed that the FOM was turned out to be a trick of light and shadow. It's really a minor part of the longer show, and so we devoted the proper amount of time to the story in relation to the rest of what we wanted to talk about.

Honestly, you really need to decide what your story line is and tell it. It's like anything else -- you use only what you need to tell the story you want to tell. Tossing in stuff just because it's interesting, but may or may not have anything to do with your storyline, is unnecessary and distracting.

My $0.02 USD.

Carolyn Collins Petersen

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Mentioning the Canals and Face at the same time, as part of a discussion about our early expectations of Mars versus the observed reality, could work. With pictures to show the befores and afters, of course.

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