Astronauts are stomping around Mars without ever leaving Earth in Canada, where filming is underway for an ambitious new documentary and mini-series that blur the line between science fact and fiction.

Clad in spacesuits on sets awash in red dust, actors are portraying future astronauts in the television mini-series “Race to Mars”, a Discovery Channel docu-drama aimed at realistically depicting a manned mission to the red planet. The three-hour program, a six-part documentary “Mars Rising”, and a related Internet site Mars Interactive are set to debut in Fall 2007 on the Discovery Channel and its broadcast partners.

Paul Lewis, president and general manager of Discovery Channel Canada, said the Mars program highlights what would be “the biggest and most exciting, most dangerous human scientific expedition that can be taken in the near term, perhaps in our lifetime.”

“This was a bit of a personal dream of mine to kind of take the mission to Mars,” Lewis told SPACE.com, adding that he had fond memories of NASA’s Apollo Moon missions during his childhood. “Hollywood’s taken a couple of stabs at it, but I didn’t think anybody has done the mission justice and done it in a way that would be truly scientifically authentic.”

As expected, Race to Mars is set in a near-future–2030 to be exact–where China has surged ahead of the United States and other nations in Mars exploration. China’s space ambitions apparently lead to a red planet race that prompts Canada, the U.S., Russia, France and Japan to mount the first manned Mars mission.

The full story by SPACE.com Staff Writer Tariq Malik can be read here: Race the Red Planet: Production Begins on Mars Mission Mini-Series