Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets, marketed as Voyage to the Planets and Beyond in the United States, is a 2004 two-part fictional documentary created by Impossible Pictures and produced by BBC Worldwide, Discovery Communications and ProSieben. Space Odyssey chronicles a fictional crewed voyage throughout the Solar System, which is used to convey scientific information on spaceflight and on the different planets. The programme was initially announced under the title Walking with Spacemen as an instalment in the Walking with... franchise of documentaries. Though the title was changed before release and its connection to the other Walking with... programmes was removed, it was broadcast under the original title in Canada. The special effects and scientific accuracy of Space Odyssey was praised by critics, though some criticism was leveled at the storylines and drama portions of the programme.
Plot
Part One At an unspecified point in the near future, five astronauts, commander Tom Kirby, engineer Yvan Grigorev, medic John Pearson, geologist Zoë Lessard, and exobiologist Nina Sulman depart Earth orbit on a mile-long nuclear-powered spaceship, Pegasus. Six weeks later, Pegasus arrives in orbit around their first destination, Venus, where Lessard and Grigorev pilot the lander Orpheus to the surface, where Grigorev conducts a short walk in a specially designed reinforced pressure suit while Lessard remains inside the lander. During the walk, Grigorev visits the nearby derelict Soviet lander Venera 14, which had arrived on Venus in 1982. He falls behind schedule, and, suffering from exhaustion and overheating, only narrowly makes it back to Orpheus. After successfully launching and docking with Pegasus, the crew depart Venus for Mars.
After arriving in Mars orbit, the crew rendezvous with a pre-placed supply ship to refuel Pegasus. Kirby, Pearson, and Sulman descend to the surface of Mars in the lander Ares, landing near Melas Chasma, a part of the Valles Marineris canyon system, where they intend to search for liquid water buried beneath the surface at the bottom of the canyon using a robotic rover (named Charlie) carried by a balloon. Upon landing, Kirby is hit by a dust devil, but he is not injured. Their first attempt at finding water is thwarted by a solar flare, which forces the astronauts on the surface to take shelter in Ares for a few days, while Lessard and Grigorev in orbit onboard Pegasus take shelter too. Once the danger has passed, the crew of Ares return to the edge of Melas Chasma, where Sulman successfully guides Charlie to the bottom of the canyon, successfully finding a small amount of liquid water buried under the ground. However, Lessard reports that a large dust storm is developing in the canyon, which threatens to ruin their mission. After retrieving the water sample, the astronauts once again take shelter in Ares. Once the dust storm has passed, Ares lifts off and rejoins Pegasus.
Departing Mars, the next destination of Pegasus is Jupiter, which they will reach by swinging near by the Sun to pick up speed. On the way towards the Sun, Pegasus passes by Mercury, however mission constraints prevent landing there. To protect them from the intense radiation of the Sun, an artificial magnetic field is generated around Pegasus, but the power requirements of the generator force them to turn off non-essential systems, such as their laboratory and the centrifuge that provides artificial gravity for their sleep compartments. The flyby is a success, and the crew head to Jupiter. On their way through the asteroid belt, the crew perform an unplanned close flyby of a binary asteroid system, which passes much closer than predicted owing to discrepancies in the data provided by mission control.
Part Two
Pegasus performs an intense aerobraking manoeuvre in Jupiter's upper atmosphere to put them on course for Io. En route to Io, Pearson receives a diagnosis of lymphoma, which he received from a high radiation dose during the solar flyby. Upon arriving in orbit over Io, the primary landing site is considered unsafe due to an ongoing volcanic eruption, as is the secondary landing site due to lethal levels of radiation. After a heated discussion at mission control over whether to land at the still potentially risky tertiary landing site, or to land at the safe but uninteresting quaternary landing site, the decision is made to land at the more interesting site, but the mission duration is cut to reduce radiation exposure. Lessard then descends alone to Io in the lander Hermes. On the surface, she quickly becomes exhausted in her heavy radiation-shielded spacesuit. With the radiation levels climbing, Lessard is ordered by the crew to abort her walk. Returning to Hermes, she leaves all the samples she had collected behind. Pegasus then encounters Europa, where they send a robotic probe to the surface to collect sub-surface ice samples.
Their mission around Jupiter complete, Pegasus embarks on the long journey to Saturn. However, Pearson's condition continues to worsen, weakening him severely. Upon arriving at Saturn, Pegasus enters orbit around its largest moon, Titan, where they release a robotic probe to collect samples, however the probe malfunctions and is lost. Leaving Titan, Pegasus is placed in an orbit in the Cassini division, where Sulman performs a spacewalk to collect a fragment of Saturn's rings. However, during her spacewalk, Pearson dies. Subsequently, the remaining crew cut off communications with Earth for a whole day while they mourn Pearson and decide what to do next. During this period, Kirby sets adrift the body of Pearson into the rings of Saturn. Upon restoring contact, the crew reveals that they have decided to continue the mission (in the US version, they decide to return home), and they leave for Pluto shortly afterwards.
Arriving at Pluto, Kirby and Grigorev land on the surface in the lander Clyde, where they set up a telescope array to detect exoplanets, which they had modified on their journey from Saturn to Pluto, and the telescope is pointed at Earth for a calibration test. Before leaving Pluto, Kirby and Grigorev perform a short memorial service for astronauts who have died in the pursuit of space exploration, including Pearson, who was intended to land on Pluto with them. Clyde later ascends and docks with Pegasus. On the way back to Earth, they rendezvous with a fictional long-period comet, Yano-Moore. Lessard and Sulman pilot the lander Messier to collect samples, with Kirby, Grigorev and mission control observing increasing seismic readings from within the comet. Sulman and Lessard continue their excursion, but the nucleus of the comet suddenly breaks apart. Sulman and Lessard liftoff aboard Messier to return to Pegasus, which itself is struck by fragments of debris of the destructing comet and severely damages the spacecraft. Kirby tends to an oxygen leak while Grigorev is injured by comet debris. Unable to contact the damaged Pegasus, Lessard and Sulman abandon Messier and spacewalk to the airlock. After performing emergency surgery on Grigorev to remove the comet fragment from his lung, the three able astronauts repair Pegasus and commence on the final journey home. Finally, after six years away, Pegasus and her crew arrive home to Earth.
Cast Pegasus crew
Martin McDougall as Tom Kirby, Mission Commander. Pilot and navigator, responsible for navigation and guiding secondary crafts to and from planet surfaces. His decisions are final in event of loss of contact with Mission Control. Rad Lazar as Yvan Grigorev, Flight Engineer. Highly trained in computer systems, mathematics, physics, chemistry and meteorology. Second in command. Joanne McQuinn as Zoe Lessard, Mission Scientist. Specialised in hydrology, geology, geomorphology, geochemistry, meteorology and remote sensing. In charge of supplies, food and water. Mark Dexter as John Pearson, Flight Medic. Medical doctor also trained in biology and geological sciences. Official mission biographer and media liaison person and also responsible for monitoring personal and environmental health. Michelle Joseph as Nina Sulman, Mission Scientist. Specialised in biology and chemistry (in particular organic chemistry) and trained in emergency medicine. In charge of the equipment for experiments and its storage, logging and preparation.
In order to ensure that the actors portraying the Pegasus crew were playing convincing astronauts, the production team put the actors through a "Space School", where they received a crash course in spaceflight and space exploration and went through team-building exercises. Among the tutors were David Scott (astronaut; commander of Apollo 15), Jean-Pierre Haigneré (astronaut), Chris Welch (spacecraft engineer and astronautics lecturer) and Kevin Fong (co-director of the centre for extreme environment medicine at the University College London). The actors also spent a week at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia, where they spent time in spacecraft simulators, floated around a full-scale space station mock-up, and practised space walks in a neutral buoyancy tanks. They also took a flight on a reduced-gravity aircraft in their spacesuits and experienced the effects of zero gravity.
Mission control
Mark Tandy as Alex Lloyd, Chief Scientist. Inter-disciplinary scientist with the goal to get as much science as possible out of every step of the mission. Hélène Mahieu as Claire Granier, Chief Flight Surgeon. Responsible for the health of the crew, works through consulting with the on-board Flight Medic John Pearson. Colin Stinton as Fred Duncan, Flight. Director of the mission, has extensive knowledge on the systems and objectives in the mission. John Schwab as Larry Conrad, Capcom. An experienced astronaut familiar with the challenges of the mission. Lourdes Faberes as Isabel Liu, Flight Dynamics Officer. Oversees the engine burns used to get in and out of orbits and on to the correct trajectories for flights between the planets.
Production
Walking with Spacemen Space Odyssey entered into pre-production in January 2003 and was first announced on 26 March that year, set for a September 2004 release. The title for the programme was announced to be Walking with Spacemen, set to be produced by Tim Haines and Jasper James of Impossible Pictures. Haines and James are the creators of the Walking with... franchise of documentary series on prehistoric life, having made the previous series Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) and Walking with Beasts (2001) together.
Though it would differ considerably from the other Walking with... programmes in its settings and subject matter, the series was seen as the natural progression of the Walking with... franchise, which had gone from Walking with Dinosaurs (the age of the dinosaurs) to Walking with Beasts (the age of the mammals) to Walking with Cavemen (2003; human evolution) and would now step into the future. Walking with Spacemen was also connected to the other series through its creators (Haines and James) and through using scientific knowledge and special effects to create a dramatic yet informative programme. The BBC announced Walking with Spacemen as set to consist of two 50-minute programmes whereas some other sources, such as Variety, reported that it would consist of six 30-minute episodes.