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The Planetary Society BlogBy Emily LakdawallaHilarious but weirdJun. 30, 2006 | 11:32 EDT | 15:32 UTC
I don't usually write much on pop culture topics, but this item was just too funny to ignore. Apparently there is an upcoming DreamWorks Pictures project to create a live-action Transformers movie. Yes, Transformers, those toys that you could turn from vehicles to robots, that were all the rage among boys (and this girl, I'm ashamed to admit) in the early- to mid-1980s. Anyway, the reason I'm posting about this is because DreamWorks now has a trailer for the new Transformers: The Movie on a website and it opens with film of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's launch, intercut strangely with a very brief fragment from a Saturn V launch, then the text: "IN 2003, THE BEAGLE 2 MARS ROVER WAS LAUNCHED." Beagle 2?!?! How extremely bizarre. (For those of you who tuned in late, Beagle 2 is the name of the tiny, non-roving lander that launched with ESA's Mars Express, which was never heard from again after it separated from Mars Express on December 19, 2003.) The next bits of the film trailer show the landing of a Mars Exploration Rover -- unchanged in any way from the designs of Spirit and Opportunity and their landers (it's a beautifully faithful model), except for the strange addition of a second robotic arm, in what looks like some southern California desert (the airbags and parachute billow in the wind). The onscreen text continues: "WE WERE TOLD IT CRASHED. ITS FINAL TRANSMISSION WAS CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET." Our unfortunately-named rover speedily exits its lander, arms flying and instruments whirring. Then the poor thing is trashed by, of course, a giant robot. "IT WAS THE ONLY WARNING WE WOULD EVER GET."
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