Discovery Channel has set premiere dates for its $20-million Mars programming blitz, backing it up with an interactive online companion site, a live public debate to be streamed online and broadcast as a one-hour special, a Race to Mars companion book and a touring exhibition with the Ontario Science Centre.

Race To Mars, the four-hour miniseries about a team’s mission to the Red Planet in 2030, will premiere on Sunday, Sept. 23 with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. ET on both Discovery and Discovery HD. It is directed by George Mihalka (Les Boys IV).

Mars Rising, the six-part documentary series narrated by William Shatner, about how such a mission could be achieved, will premiere on Oct. 7. Both projects will later screen on Discovery Networks International, The Science Channel in the U.S., ARTE in France and Japan’s NHK.

The public event, Earth to Mars: The Great Space Debate, will give the audience the chance to ask questions of Mars experts about future missions and will stream live at DiscoveryChannel.ca, and will be re-packaged as a one-hour special that will wrap up the Mars themed-programming on Nov. 11. Additional complementary programming will be unveiled soon.

The programming blitz will coincide with international celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Sputnik. The first man-made satellite was launched on Oct. 4, 1957.

Quickplay Media produced the microsite RacetoMars.ca. The online hub includes articles, video, simulators, an online community and multiplayer games, puzzles and a virtual Canadarm that lets users build a spaceship in the Earth’s orbit. The site also features a downloadable reference book for teachers and students, including curriculum-based science experiments for various grade levels.

The Ontario Science Centre’s Mars exhibit will feature Mars Rovers, space suits, air lock doors and elements of Discovery’s interactive games. It will open in Toronto in June 2008 and will tour internationally.

From Media in Canada

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This story has been corrected. It originally said the exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre was already open.