Even though the U.S. manned space exploration program is coming to a close rather soon, it appears that NASA hasn’t stopped bringing eager explorers to the moon. At least not in pixel form.
Launched yesterday, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is giving gamers a taste of what lunar repair is really like. Set in Moonbase Alpha, the new free online title features single and multiplayer missions where players assume the role of a NASA exploration team member in a 3D lunar environment. The goal is to restore critical life support systems and oxygen after a meteor strike disables a solar array and other necessary equipment. Players’ available tools include an interactive command center, a lunar rover, robotic repair units, and a full array of pieces and parts from an equipment shed.
Rated “E” for everyone, the new offering from NASA is a proof of concept, displaying NASA content combined with leading game technology to engage and educate students about NASA’s tech, jobs, and the future of space exploration.
The Moonbase Alpha game is in fact, a precursor to a planned NASA MMO. The much larger project is designed to incorporate NASA content and deliver interactive technology, i.e. virtual worlds, games, and software apps to foster the growth of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM as NASA refers to it. The ultimate goal for the large MMO is to include missions that require players to demonstrate STEM knowledge to progress.
The Moonbase Alpha game is built upon Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3, and was developed by The Army Game Studio and received support from Virtual Heroes, a division of Applied Research Associates in Triangle Park, North Carolina. For distribution, NASA has partnered with Valve’s Steam network, also taking advantage of their server browsing, leaderboards, and stats features.
So while the current state of NASA looks like a no-fly, at least for humans, perhaps with a series of immersive and interesting “almost real life” games, NASA might just be able to spark enough interest in manned space flight to bring the option back to the table. A fine example of the virtual worlds’ impact on the real world.
Bonus and Bragging rights will be credited to you, if you can successfully name the film the above image references. 
