Most of you might have seen the cartoon which recounts the story of the famous mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko:

English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD2zrF3I_II
Italian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOE1lt-t3JY
French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2qcopytSbQ
Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfU09NXRnfI
German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDmp4ZhSuIc

I approached ESA if a Fulldome version for Planetariums is possible and immediately got contacted by Mark McCaughrean (Senior Scientific Advisor in the Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration and keynote speaker at the last IPS in Warsaw). ESA is very open minded regarding this idea and they discussed it with the producers of the episodes and they presented three options with a different price tag (I quote from his email):

"-----

    1. Basic projection: The video will be projected on the front part of the dome. A drawn frame will identify the part of the projection, where the film story of Rosetta & Philae is told. The rest of the dome will receive a night sky background still in the style used in the web video to ensure visual continuity across the complete full-dome projection area and the video.

    Cost: €12,600

-----

    2. Advanced projection: This solution goes beyond the storytelling boundaries of a classic video frame. It builds on the solution proposed within the basic projection. Elements from within the video frame will be animated to appear outside to the left and right of the video frame. These will show elements that directly relate to the current video scene being played. These elements will contain some local animation movement. As in the basic projection solution, the rest of the dome will receive a night sky background still in the style used in the web video to ensure visual continuity across the complete full-dome projection area and the video.

    Cost: €22,800

-----

    3. Best projection: This type of projection is the most complex of all. It will break open the boundaries of the classic video frame. All the animated elements within the video will be exported individually and remodelled using a combination of 3D and 2D animation elements to allow for natural perspective distortions as the elements move across the complete full-dome projection area. As this style of animation will require redoing the video from scratch, a new storyboard will become necessary to make use of the full scope of the 360 degree full-dome projection.

    Cost: €43,200

-----

 
Option 1 is limited in scope, and essentially not much more than projecting the existing film straight on to part of the dome, while Option 2 adds some elements that take into account the dome.

Clearly, Option 3 is the best suited to a true planetarium environment, but is then obviously the most expensive. Nevertheless, I would hope that Option 3 could be afforded by a consortium of planetaria across Europe."

I agree that number 3 is the only feasible option.

So, I'm creating this form to survey potential support from the planetarium community for such a project and which properties are needed by the majority of the institutions. The more join the lower the final costs for each.

Your commitments here are not binding - this survey is for me to estimate the approximate cost per seat it will take to participate or if there is a base for a crowd funding initiative. i will send an email to all those interested in the beginning of May with more details and the results, so I kindly ask to complete the survey until April 30 2017.

Please forward this form to your planetarium manager and other planetariums. Of course this targets European planetariums in the first place, as this was an ESA mission. But institutions from other continents are also welcome to join!

Thanks for your cooperation, I'm looking forward to bring Rosetta and Philae to the dome!

Marc Horat
Swiss Museum of Transport Planetarium
Lucerne, Switzerland
marc.horat@verkehrshaus.ch