Replica Red Planet scenery revealed to be marketing campaign to launch new National Geographic series – ‘MARS’
· Giant 3D canvas complete with the Airbus Mars Rover prototype “Bridget” unveiled in central London
· Trafalgar Square converted overnight from urban city to desolate rocky red landscape
· Replica Martian surface and geology created by artists to launch new TV series ‘MARS’ on National Geographic airing on November 13th at 9pm
· Artists use imagery from Mars’ surface to create huge 3D canvas featuring craters, ravines and canyons
· The epic six-part series follows a fictitious crew’s mission to Mars in 2033, combining unparalleled visual effects with present day documentary storytelling
A replica landscape of the planet Mars was unveiled this morning in London’s Trafalgar Square. A team of artists worked overnight to lay a giant 400 square metre canvas over the surface of the capital’s iconic landmark, complete with matching geology and the Airbus Mars Rover prototype “Bridget”.
Surface imagery from the Martian planet was used to create the huge canvas and took a team of artists and engineers two months to painstakingly produce the replica rocky landscape featuring craters, ravines and canyons.
Commuters and tourists awoke to see the nation’s most famous public square turned into an intergalactic scene. The out-of-this-world artwork was revealed to be a marketing campaign by National Geographic to launch thrilling new docu-drama – ‘MARS’ – airing on November 13th at 9pm.
Produced by the Academy Award- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Michael Rosenberg, ‘MARS’ is an epic six-part series which is set both in the future and in the present day – and redefines TV storytelling by combining feature-film-quality scripted drama and visual effects with unparalleled documentary footage.
The eye-catching 400 square metre canvas uses imagery from the surface of Mars, complete with chasms, craters and canyons. To complete Trafalgar Square’s transformation into the Red Planet, specialist designers meticulously created 3D fibreglass rock sculptures to replicate the Martian surface geology.
The Mars Rover “Bridget” is a prototype created by Airbus, which is pioneering the building of the vehicles in the UK with support from the UK Space Agency. This prototype was driven remotely by British ESA astronaut Tim Peake when he was on the International Space Station. Airbus is currently developing the ExoMars rover vehicle for the European Space Agency’s 2020 mission to search for life on Mars.
Kirsty Howell, Head of PR at Fox Networks Group UK says, “It is no longer a case of if, but when we will reach the Red Planet, and this will happen within our lifetime. National Geographic is going further, as pioneers committed to pushing boundaries, and our thrilling new docu-drama ‘MARS’ blurs the line between the future and reality in a gripping way, never before seen on television.”
“An epic space odyssey, telling the story of mankind’s colonisation of the Red Planet, what better way to celebrate the launch of the new series than bringing Mars to Earth and sending Londoners out of this world. The incredibly realistic landscape unveiled today in Trafalgar Square shows that life on Mars is closer than we think.”
Set in the year 2033, ‘MARS’ tells the story of the Daedalus crew, following their epic journey as the first manned mission to the red planet and their attempts to colonise it. This exhilarating space odyssey is interwoven with present day documentary with space visionaries such as Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson explaining the science behind the drama, and how modern-day pioneers and technology will make the colonisation of Mars a reality.
The quest to send humans to Mars has become a modern-day space race for top scientists, and the new global series brings this race to life by linking the scripted narrative in real-world science in an extraordinary format. The writing team worked with an extensive group of experts including former NASA astronauts and engineers, to use science to build and hone the story. The show also features an unprecedented collection of interviews with top scientific minds, with exclusive access to film with Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, truly bringing together the world’s leading minds in a way never seen before.
Watch MARS on Sunday 13th November 2016 at 9pm on National Geographic.