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(415) 693-0584
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ALERT!! ALERT!! The spaceship you need to leave the surface of Mars
has been
severely damaged in an emergency landing, your replacement crew is
gone, a
dust
storm is approaching and air, food and water are extremely low...AND
THE
MISSION HASN'T STARTED YET! This is the scenario for Chabot's newest
attraction, "Escape from the Red Planet". You are the crew of a doomed
landing. Your mission: Get the shuttle working again and into orbit
before
you are hit with the worst dust storm ever recorded on Mars.

These hour-long, simulated missions begin at 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. on
Saturdays and 1:00 and 2:30 p.m. on Sundays through August. Children,
ages 6-12 must be accompanied by an adult. May not be appropriate for
children under 6 years old. Tickets may be purchased at Chabot's
front
desk and are sold on a first come first served basis. Tickets are
priced
at $10 for adults and $5 for children.

That's just the latest bit of excitement at Chabot Space & Science
Center
where we are celebrating the closest approach to earth by the planet
Mars in
15,000 years!

Next up....

PARTY LIKE A MARTIAN AT
CHABOT SPACE & SCIENCE CENTER'S
MARS MANIA COSTUME PARTY
Tuesday, August 26, 2003, 9 pm – 1 am

How would you look as a Martian? Chabot Space & Science Center
invites you
to stretch your imagination and dress yourself up as a Martian for a
Mars
Mania Costume Party on Tuesday, August 26, 2003, from 9 pm to 1 am.
Chabot
hopes to draw all manner of ET's and Martian wannabes to celebrate in
style
as the Red Planet reaches its closest approach to Earth in 100,000
years.
Chabot's Mars Mania Costume Party will include special "Summer of
Mars"
programs such as Return to the Red Planet planetarium show, the new
Mars
Encounter exhibit, movie previews in the Tien MegaDome Theater,
special
Mars-related hands-on activities, and close-up viewing of Mars through
Chabot's telescopes. A door prize will be given to every partygoer who
arrives in Martian costume. Tickets for the Mars Mania Costume Party
are
$11.00 Adult / $8.00 Youth and Senior, and are available at
ticketweb.com or
by calling the Chabot Box Office at 510-336-7373.

On the night of August 26th and morning of August 27th, Mars will be
closer
to our planet than it has been in approximately 100,000 years, with
its
orbit reaching Opposition on August 28. Barring summer dust storms
on Mars,
observers can take a close look at the Red Planet with Chabot's large
telescopes, including the new 36" reflector, and examine surface
features
such as the bright white polar ice cap and the darker "V" -shaped
Syrtis
Major.

The space explorers Spirit and Opportunity were recently launched by
NASA
and are expected to reach Mars in December and January, and begin
transmitting new information about the mysteries of the Martian
climate,
geological history, presence of water and life forms. Data from the
Mars
Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting
Mars,
give strong indications of possible liquid water in Mars' past.

The latest missions to Mars — NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers and
the
European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter and Beagle 2 lander — are
looking for water and life, and may shed new light on these
tantalizing
mysteries as soon as next winter, when this new batch of robot
explorers
reaches the Red Planet.

Special features of Chabot's "Summer of Mars" celebration include the
Mars
Encounter exhibit in the galleries, and Return to the Red Planet on
view in
the Ask Jeeves Planetarium, as well as lectures, family workshops,
viewing
parties, and other programs. Mars Encounter invites visitors to
explore
Mars' place in our culture, investigate discoveries of past missions
to
Mars, follow the progress of current missions, and visualize future
Mars
exploration when human astronauts will experience the Red Planet
first-hand.
The exhibit, developed by Chabot and West Office Exhibition Design,
features
a four-foot tactile Mars globe complete with craters and volcanoes; a
Martian meteorite; a Martian Sci-fi theater; a Mars Mission Control
where
visitors can obtain data on current and past missions; videos of Rover
missions; a wall-size mural embedded with quiz games; a vacation to
Mars
planning station, and a play area for the younger crowd.

Return to the Red Planet show in Chabot's Ask Jeeves Planetarium takes
viewers through a journey in time to consider how human understanding
of
Mars has changed throughout history. The show includes a live
presentation
that teaches visitors how to locate Mars in the night sky; the latest
images
from telescopes, orbiters, and rovers; breaking news from the NASA
missions,
and presents a timeline for Mars exploration. From Percival Lowell's
Martian-built canals and the Carl Sagan Memorial station of
Pathfinder to
the future MER and Mars Express missions, the spectacular show probes
questions such as "Why explore Mars?" "Could life exist there?"
and "What
would such life look like?" You might stumble on an answer to this
last
question as you prepare to express your inner alien at Chabot's
August 26th
Mars Mania Costume Party.

For more information, call (510) 336-7300, or visit
www.chabotspace.org
* * *


"Creating dialogue...fearlessly."

David Perry & Associates Communications
Flood Building
870 Market Street, Suite 670
San Francisco, CA 94102-3008

(415) 693-0583 - T
(415) 693-0584 - F
news@...
www.davidperry.com