As part of an effort to beef up original programming on Fox Sports Net, company executives next week will launch "Sport Science," one of the cable channels' most expensive productions yet.

The network has all 13 episodes of the series in the can, with the first set to debut Sept. 30.

The addition of "Sport Science" to the lineup represents the beginning of a reinvestment in the Fox Sports cable channels, according to company executives.

"Sport Science," produced by Fox Sports and Base Productions, uses the latest technology to capture and define the mechanics behind athletic prowess, examining everything from reaction times of top athletes to the biological impact of being hit by a linebacker or a hockey puck.

The series evolved from the show "Fight Science," which premiered on the National Geographic Channel and replays on Fox Sports Net.

"We approached Fox Sports Net about this show during an interesting time in their development where they wanted to head in a new direction," said series executive producer and host John Brenkus of Base Productions. "We had already seen incredible ratings for 'Fight Science' and knew that their audience craved knowledge about this industry. Fox loved the idea and created an accelerated schedule to make it happen."

Already the series has attracted A-list names from the world of sports, ranging from the National Football League's Chad Johnson and Ben Roethlisberger to Ultimate Fighting Championship's Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

The crew for the production, which is based in a hangar at Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California, built sections of a basketball court, a football field, a hockey rink, a baseball batting cage and a golf simulator as part of a sports laboratory designed to test the athletes, using top-of-the-line motion-capture technology to record the results.

It took about three months to trick out the facility; production costs are estimated to be almost twice that of an average series on the cable outlet.

"Sports fans have always wondered what makes elite athletes special, the proverbial, ''How did they do that?'' question," said George Greenberg, executive VP of programming and production at FSN. "Now, through amazing visuals, incredible production values and the latest in technology, 'Sport Science' delivers those answers. Putting high-profile athletes into a stunning visual environment, a sports playground meets a mad-science lab, revealed astonishing results in athletic performance.

"Without a doubt, what is done on this series goes far beyond just being a new direction in FSN's original programming, it's groundbreaking television," he added.

Clips from the show, which contains seven segments per hour, will be exploited and delivered online or via cell phone. Also, as the library and test results from the list of athletes grows, segments could be added to NFL pre-game shows as a way to explain the dynamics of one of the athletes.

"The interest by the athletes has been one of the biggest surprises," Mr. Brenkus said. "These guys are gazillionaires who don't have to do anything out of their way, but they all participated beyond their minimum requirements because they want the opportunity to analyze their game and take it to the next level."