Adventures thru Innerspace

Known formerly as Adventures thru Innerspace (branded Monsanto,), and globalwarminglyhot on the tails of Biosphere 1 (you’re already there), Biosphere 2, the arctic mars thing from 2007, and the recent mars 500; utilizing the Atomobile (based on the doom-buggy of haunted mansion fame) incredible shrinking car… you entered one end of a microscope. The que line forced you to watch lifesize people enter one end of the big microscope, and then in a little glass tube high above the waiting line watch those same people, now 3″ high (actually replicant doll fascimile’s of walt disney and his daughter) continue to shrink: and then turn into a beam of light before entering “innerspace”… אױ גװאַלד! … merely the best and most terrifying ride as a kid. I always wondered… did the entire ride happen just in that last inch of the microscope? Then i grew up, and got scaled.

Another great part was the scientists eye peering down it you. It was huge.. Years later when I read Eye in the Sky, classic pkd about a scientist being looked at objectively, I had the same feeling.

part of the script:

“I am the first person to make this fabulous journey, suspended in the timelessness of innerspace are the thought waves of my first impressions. They will be our only source of contact once you have passed beyond the limits of normal MAGNIFICATION… MAGNIFICATION.. MAGNIFICATION. MAGNIFICATION. […] From this tiny viewpoint I can see that nothing is solid, no matter how it appears. And still I continue to shrink. What compelling force draws me into this mysterious darkness? Can this be the threshold of innerspace? […] What are these strange spheres… Have I reached the universe of the molecule? YES! These are water molecules, H20! They vibrate in such an orderly pattern, because this is water frozen into a solid state of matter. These fuzzy spheres must be the atoms that make up the molecule. Two hydrogen atoms bonded to a single oxygen atom, and I see it’s the orbiting electrons that give the atom it’s fuzzy appearance. And still I continue to shrink. Is it possible that I can enter the atom itself?!? Electrons are dashing about me- like so many fiery comets! Can I possibly survive?!?. […]
I have pierced the wall of the oxygen atom! I am so infinitely small now that I can see millions of orbiting electrons. They appear like the Milky Way of our own solar system. This vast realm… THIS is the infinite universe within a tiny speck of snowflake crystal. And there is the nucleus of the atom! Do I dare explore the vastness of It’s innerspace?
No… I dare not go on. I must return to realm of the molecule before I go on shrinking- forever! Oh, how strange! The molecules are so active now?!? They have become fluid, freed from their frozen state. That can only mean that the snowflake is melting.
YES the snowflake has melted. But there is no cause for alarm. You are back on visual and returning to your normal size…. [full transcript @ themightymicroscope]

… some memories of the workers behind the animatronic scenes can be found over at Davelandweb…