"Spaceship Earth"

I visited Disney World last month while attending a conference, so I had the opportunity to do a sideline visit to Epcot (one of Disney Theme Parks). The most interesting feature that attracted me to this park is probably this easily recognizable architecture of Epcot, "Spaceship Earth".

Being a fan of interesting architectural landmark, "Spaceship Earth" certainly attracted my attention. Spaceship Earth is a geodesic sphere supported on legs. Geometrically, Spaceship Earth is a pentakis dodecahedron, with each of the 60 isosceles triangle faces divided into 16 smaller equilateral triangles (with a bit of fudging to make it rounder). Each of those 960 flat panels is sub-divided into four triangles, each of which is divided into three isosceles triangles to form each point. In theory, there are 11,520 total isosceles triangles forming 3840 points. In reality, some of those triangles are partially or fully nonexistent due to supports and doors; there are actually only 11,324 of them, with 954 partial or full flat panels.

Inside "Spaceship Earth" houses a recently updated ride called "Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future". The ride experience begins with the Omnimover vehicles ascending into a dark tunnel. A series of twinkling stars surround guests. Soon, guest's pictures are taken on a face-recognition program that is to be featured in the attraction's post-show. Guests then re-enter the starfield, and move through series of historical scenes of human society. The remainder of the ride is involved in seeing a depiction of Earth from space, traveling through an infinite amount of stars and into another star field where guests can then use the touch-screens in their Omnimover vehicle to create a possible depiction of their future.