DUNDEE AND Captain Scott’s ship Discovery will feature in a NASA documentary that will be broadcast coast-to-coast in America.

A team of NASA scientists and film makers will arrive in the city a week on Monday for a four-day stay during which they will also hope to learn something from Captain Scott, the man who pioneered the use of “base camps” in exploration.

Captain Scott created such an outpost at McMurdo Sound on his way to the South Pole 104 years ago and that has inspired NASA as it draws up plans for a mission to Mars in 2008.

Consideration is being given by NASA to using the Moon as a staging post on route to the red planet and the NASA team will be visiting Scott’s ship when they are in Dundee.

They will be filming for a documentary entitled The Case of the Physical Fitness Challenge and Scott’s remarkable feat of endurance is expected to figure in it.

Two astronauts will be filmed in Dundee talking with local children about space exploration and their sporting fitness activities.

Filming will also take place at Discovery Point recording more about Scott’s expedition and what can be learned from his polar experiences.

The footage will form part of the NASA SCI Files, a series of free Emmy award- winning instructional programmes emphasising research and scientific inquiry.

Dundee will have a role to play thanks to the links forged between the city and NASA’s Houston HQ by Dundee businessman John Beaton and Houston-based expatriate John Smith.

The NASA series, an hour-long broadcast, aims to motivate students by participation to become critical thinkers and active problem solvers.

It will go out to a potential audience of 60 million viewers.