NASA may not be transfer astronauts back to the moon anytime this decade, but the space agency hopes to give virtual explorers a sense of what life on the moon would be like in a new computer game launching this month. The game, "Moonbase Alpha," will permit players to work together in a futuristic lunar base. It will be existing for PC download from Valve's Steam network on July 6. Players must tackle the challenge of restoring oxygen flow and serious systems after a meteor strike cripples a solar array and life support system.
This comes as a precursor to NASA's particularly multiplayer online game, called "Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond," where players would take on astronaut roles, such as a roboticist, and explore virtual versions of the moon and other space locations. NASA and the game developers had debated about whether to keep the "Moonbase Alpha" location on a lunar base, after the cancellation of NASA's group Program that aimed to return astronauts to the moon. But they finally decided to forge ahead with their original plans.
"The moon's not leaving anywhere," said Daniel Laughlin, project manager for NASA Learning Technologies at the agency's Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center in Maryland. Games that reconstruct real space environments inside a user's computer can entertain casual gamers and perhaps spread the word about space exploration actions. At least that's the hope among NASA's "Moonbase Alpha" designer, and the U.S. space agency is not alone in demanding to tap into that potential.
This comes as a precursor to NASA's particularly multiplayer online game, called "Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond," where players would take on astronaut roles, such as a roboticist, and explore virtual versions of the moon and other space locations. NASA and the game developers had debated about whether to keep the "Moonbase Alpha" location on a lunar base, after the cancellation of NASA's group Program that aimed to return astronauts to the moon. But they finally decided to forge ahead with their original plans.
"The moon's not leaving anywhere," said Daniel Laughlin, project manager for NASA Learning Technologies at the agency's Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center in Maryland. Games that reconstruct real space environments inside a user's computer can entertain casual gamers and perhaps spread the word about space exploration actions. At least that's the hope among NASA's "Moonbase Alpha" designer, and the U.S. space agency is not alone in demanding to tap into that potential.
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