After news that NASA are working with Information Place, Virtual Heroes and Project Whitecard on a new MMO video game they have announced the title... Astronaut - Moon, Mars and beyond.NASA hope the game will spark an interest in space and the universe - we can only wait and see if this wish comes true.
The gamne is financed by individual investors and sponsors with NASA lending their expertise in development.
“‘Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond’ was selected because the three companies involved had a really ideal combination of qualities we were looking for,” Daniel Laughlin of NASA’s Learning Technologies Project Office said in a statement. “They have the right experience, they demonstrated their ability to engage middle school through higher education curricula, and they have extraordinary enthusiasm about working with NASA to make a fun game. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from more than 800 pages of public input, it’s that this game must be fun if it’s going to be of any use for education.”
"When they see that they can use these skills to build something – like a space shuttle or a greenhouse – then they understand why it’s important,” said Sonny Kirkley, CEO of Information In Place. “So, ultimately, teachers will find that a gaming environment makes it much easier to engage students in STEM subjects and provides context for the other things they are teaching.”