Given the fact that the American Space Program has been failing, at least when it comes to the government side of things, there has been little to no excitement about going up into space. I mean can you remember the last time we launched anything from our own country (America)? Most likely not. Most of the memorable launches have been either the ones that explode or the ones that do a first for space. The excitement just isn't there. NASA sees that and have come up with something to fix that. A new MMO.

Yes, you read that right. They are in works with a private game developer to bring a new MMO built in the Unreal 3 Engine. All in the hopes of driving up interest in space and aviation. Industries that of course are not all that popular, if you can believe it. I guess the hopes for what happened for paleontologist when Jurassic Park released.

Another interesting thing behind it all is that part of the MMO is focused on trying to get from Earth to the Moon to Mars. All for the least amount of time, money, and effort. Which leads me to believe that they are looking for some of the brilliant minds behind the players of MMOs to help them to do this in the "failing" economy. Or just in general. Just my thoughts on that. Who knows right?

Astronaut: Moon, Mars&Beyond, the working title, is slated to come out some time in the next year or so. I guess we'll see how this pans out for them.