In the early 2000s, Disney planned to completely overhaul Epcot’s Future World area. At the heart of that plan sat Time Racers, a futuristic roller coaster set inside Spaceship Earth.
The Future World project was dubbed Project Gemini, and was focused on thrill rides. The entire area was to be renamed Discoveryland (the same name used by a land at Disneyland Paris), and many attractions would have been updated or removed altogether.
Time Racers would have taken over Spaceship Earth, the iconic structure that sits at the entrance to Future World. The existing, slow-paced Omnimover dark ride that occupied the interior of the building would have been ripped out. In its place would have been a steel roller coaster reminiscent of Space Mountain: Mission 2 at Disneyland Paris. 
Little is known about the proposed attraction, other than that it would have seen riders racing past scenes from different periods in time. It would, then, have retained the essence of Spaceship Earth, but would have been aimed squarely at thrill-seekers rather than families. A projection system would have been employed to take riders back into recognisable scenes from history, then off into the future. Project Gemini proved to be too expensive for Disney to pursue, with a rumored price tag of around $500 million. Had it gone ahead, Epcot could be a very different park today. Instead, Siemens took over sponsorship of Spaceship Earth, and the existing ride was given a makeover – ensuring that it will continue to whisk riders through history for some time to come.
