It continually amazes me how little love the space program gets. From the media, from the public at large, you name it. It seems that no one but space enthusiasts bother to care about any of the work NASA is doing — you know, unless they do something huge, like land on Mars. Nevermind the endless triumphs and scientific advancements along the way that it takes to get there. NASA is in the business of trying to understand the universe, and discover our origins. How can they not be in the news every day?
Well, okay, even I have to admit that a lot of what they do is pretty dry stuff. But that doesn’t make it any less important.
In an effort to increase public awareness and passion about the space program, NASA has released a professional-quality video game called Moonbase Alpha. The game, which is described as a “first person explorer,” puts you in the boots of an astronaut working at the first self-sufficient human base on the moon.
The game’s main challenge sounds like the perfect scenario for an indie scifi flick: upon returning to base after a research expedition, you witness a meteorite crashing into the life support systems of Moonbase Alpha. You and your team of astronauts have to fight the clock to repair the equipment before the station runs out of oxygen. You’ll control robots, rovers (which look like WALL-E’s bigger brother), repair tools, and more, and NASA says that there are multiple paths to success, though speed is the most coveted aspect of your work.
There’s a 20-minute single player mission, or you can play it online with co-op, allowing you to work as a team with up to six of your friends, to maximize your repair efforts. There are even leaderboards, where the best repair times are tracked.
Moonbase Alpha runs using the same 3D engine that America’s Army — the free action title from the U.S. Army that pits you as a real soldier on the front lines of war — uses (Unreal Engine 3), simulating the actual gravity and physics of what it’s like to be on the moon. It’s available now, for Windows users (no Mac version? the horror!) to download for free, on the Steam network.
