Why NASA's New Video Game Misses the Point

longacre writes "Erik Sofge trudges through NASA's latest free video game, which he finds tedious, uninspiring and misguided. Quoting: 'Moonbase Alpha is a demo, of sorts, for NASA's more ambitious upcoming game, Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, which will feature more destinations, and hopefully less welding. The European Space Agency is developing a similar game, set on the Jovian Moon, Europa. But Moonbase Alpha proves that as a recruiting campaign, or even as an educational tool, the astronaut simulation game is a lost cause. Unless NASA plans to veer into science fiction and populate its virtual moons, asteroids and planets with hostile species, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to suffer through another minute of pretending to weld power cables back into place, while thousands of miles away, the most advanced explorers ever built are hurtling toward asteroids and dwarf planets and into the heart of the sun. Even if it was possible to build an astronaut game that's both exciting and realistic, why bother? It will be more than a decade before humans even attempt another trip outside of Earth's orbit. If NASA wants to inspire the next generation of astronauts and engineers, its games should focus on the real winners of the space race — the robots.'"

Comments

NASA is the wrong man for the job

[elrous0]

Man may one day set foot on Mars. But when he does, he won't be wearing the patch of an agency that stopped being innovative in the 1970's. NASA is really good at doing safe, simple, repetitive missions that involve little to no risk (a nice side effect of government engineers way more interested in keeping their cushy federal jobs than actually doing anything significant). They closest they'll ever come to anything as bold as a Mars mission (or, likely, even a moon mission) is some crappy animation and big talk at a press conference. There is no way anyone at that agency is going to uncover their ass long enough to do anything more risky than yet another trip to low earth orbit or launching an unmanned probe. If you want to really send man into space, your best start is to abolish NASA and start a whole new agency with new leaders and engineers.