Remember the people who said the moon landing was a hoax? A New Port Richey company hopes to create a simulated trip to Mars that everyone will know is fake but will appear as realistic as possible. "This is not Disney World or Universal Studios," said Mark Homnick, 52, one of the managers of NewSpace Center LLC. The company has submitted site plans for a 75-acre lot in Titusville on Florida's Space Coast to build Interspace, a space-themed entertainment and research facility that would include the simulated Martian environment. The men estimated the project will cost about $30-million and said their plans began in 2005. Homnick and his vice president, Joseph Palaia, run the company and its parent, 4Frontiers, out of Homnick's waterfront stilt home.

Come on, Mars. I mean, come on.

Performance Network Theatre announces its production of "It Came From Mars" by local playwright, Joseph Zettelmaier, beginning February 18 and running through March 21, 2010. "Mars," which is a co-production with Williamston Theatre (WT), is a recipient of the prestigious Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, which is granted to only a handful of theatres nationwide. This world premiere comedy stars Wayne David Parker, Sandra Birch, Joseph Albright, Jacob Hodgson, Alysia Kolascz and Morgan Chard. It is directed by WTArtistic Director Tony Caselli (A PICASSO). "It Came From Mars," which is featured in the February issue of American Theatre Magazine, is a hilarious comedy about a troupe of radio actors terrified by Orson Welles'War of the Worlds broadcast. Passions ignite and secret identities are revealed when a washed up director, his diva ex-wife, a German sound effects wiz and a wanna-be war hero believe that they are about to be annihilated by men from Mars!

Disney has released the official synopsis for the movie and also started an official Facebook fan page for the film. Production is under way in London for Andrew Stanton’s latest film, which is set to come out in 2012.

Addy and I are both weeping dusty red-colored tears in honor of the Spirit Rover's new permanent surroundings after reading this xkcd chronicle of his poor little life.

"OFF WORLD. Robin Parrish. Bethany House. $14.99 Softcover. Well, Robin Parrish of North Carolina has written an account set on Aug. 11, 2032, about what happens when a crew from NASA arrives on Mars, has an incredible flight back to Earth - and finds that everyone has vanished. Buildings are empty, cars are lined up at the toll booths with no one in them - the world has disappeared. Eerie? Yes! Could this happen if some terrorists have hidden something with plans to blow the world apart. Is Houston's NASA and Florida's Kennedy Space Center taken by surprise? How will we ever know. Until a woman appears. Her name is Mae. Was she ever really born? Was she murdered?

Walt Disney Pictures announced filming is underway on John Carter of Mars starring Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as John Carter and directed by Andrew Stanton. Stanton earned Academy Awards for Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and John Carter of Mars marks his first time helming a live-action feature film.

Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars on Saturday delivered BBC America its highest-ever primetime rating and delivery in total viewers and adults ages 25-54. It was the first of three Doctor Who specials airing three straight Saturdays on the network, the finale to David Tennant's era as the Tenth Doctor. More than 1.1 million viewers watched the program on Saturday, ranking BBC America 13th in coverage rating during the premiere among ad-supported cable nets for adults 25-54, the network said, citing Nielsen live plus same day DVR data.

Avatar, the new 3-D blockbuster from director James Cameron, represents a quantum leap in movie-making technology. The truly impressive part of the production was the real-world technology that powered the stunning special effects. How did they do it? For over a decade, James Cameron has been fascinated with the prospect of using 3D in his movies. His first aspiration for the technology was to create a movie about Mars exploration that would symbolize NASA’s Mars ambitions. At the time, stereoscopic 3D camera systems were the size of refrigerators and could weigh close to 500 pounds. Cameron issued a challenge to one of his partners, Vince Pace: Develop a quiet, lightweight 3D camera for a movie I want to do. That was seven years ago, and the result is stunning – the new Fusion Camera System. Considered the most advanced camera system ever designed, it was used to “run the stitches” between live action scenes and computer generated scenes.

Today we're happy to announce the winner and runners up of our fourth annual Medical Sci-Fi Writing Contest. Medgadget's editors and Dr. Allen Roberts from GruntDoc would like to thank everyone that submitted their stories because they were fun, thought provoking, and in many ways very inspirational. And now we'd like to congratulate Evan Perriello, this year's winner of the Amazon Kindle reader, for his short story "HeartPlus". The runners up are James H. Dawdy for "Mars Rescue" and Hans Patrick Griesser for "WHAT'S MORE AFFORDABLE THAN FREE?"

Keeping busy as partner in rhyme to DJ and production specialist Chief Xcel in lauded duo Blackalicious, Gab took five years to follow his masterful solo debut 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, a record as obsessed with scientific discovery as spiritual awakening. But even with Gab’s phonetic prowess and all that time to prepare for launch, Escape 2 Mars doesn’t reach the transcendent heights of its sublime, lushly orchestrated predecessor, ultimately feeling less like an epic interplanetary voyage and more like space camp. But who didn’t fantasize about going to space camp as a kid? Space camp is fun! And so is Escape 2 Mars. At its best (“E2MTRO,” “Spotlight” and the title track), the record plays like rap’s funky answer to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Life on Mars?”

Usually, low-rent comedy genre house The Asylum (Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, Transmorphers: Fall of Man) waits until just as a movie is released to unleash their own knock-off / parody of the project. But with Edgar Rice Burroughs and A Princess of Mars, the company gets a two-fer. Their new Princess of Mars is already close to finished, and with it the company can perhaps steal a few Avatar-related dollars while creating a product that will be ready on DVD shelves when Disney eventually begins to promote Andrew Stanton’s John Carter of Mars. See the first teaser for Asylum’s version of the Burroughs novel, after the break.

In a stunning piece of astronomical news, the planet Sol III — better known as “Earth” — has been completely obliterated. In connection with this sudden catastrophe, authorities have questioned a resident of neighboring planet Sol IV (Mars), who is known to have made threats against Earth in the past. This questioning is thought by many to be a formality, as most sources indicate that the destruction was caused by a foolhardy group of scientists in central Europe.

Now anyone with a Web browser can become a Martian explorer. That’s because NASA is launching a new citizen-science Web site, called “Be a Martian,” that gives people a chance to view hundreds of thousands of images gathered over decades of exploration on the Red Planet. Site visitors can pan, zoom and explore the planet through images from Mars landers, roving explorers and orbiting satellites dating from the 1960s to the present. Many of the images have never before been seen. The site is also designed as a game with a twofold purpose: NASA and Microsoft hope it will spur interest in science and technology among students in the U.S. and around the world. It also is a “crowdsourcing” tool designed to tap visitors’ brains and help the space agency process volumes of Mars images.

Students in fourth through seventh grade will work to create the ultimate baseball experience "on Mars," even designing the rules for how to play a game on the Red Planet. NASA and JPL have partnered with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum to host a workshop for kids on Sat., Nov. 7, in Cooperstown, N.Y. The workshop runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7. Cost is $5 per student, which covers materials, supplies and admission to the Museum. The workshop is limited to 50 participants. To register, visit http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/something_new/ or call 607-547-0362 to request a registration form.