Nasa investigates virtual space ...

The U.S. Space Agency is considering the possibility of developing a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game.

The virtual world is designed for students and "real NASA missions of technology and science."

The agency has a "request for information (RFI) from organizations in the development of the platform.

Nasa believe that the game can be found, it should help the next generation of scientists and engineers responsible for the fulfillment of his vision of the exploration of outer space ".

"A synthesis of high-quality games is an essential element of education cyberstructure NASA," the bed of the RFI.

"The MMO encourages the exploration of the possibilities for a career in a way much deeper than write, and could be a fraction of the time and cost of an internship program."

Space mission

NASA already has a presence in the virtual world in 3D.

The agency has an island in Second Life, where individuals and groups with an interest in the space program can meet, exchange ideas and the conduct of experiments.

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CoLab, as it is called, is the invention of the scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center in San Francisco.

The agency hopes that the environment one day be used to allow the public to the tasks and book.

"We at NASA worked to create opportunities for what I might call the exploration participatory," the project director, Simon Worden said.

"We are investigating how this island is a portal for all to fly along the space," he told the delegates of the National Space Society (NSS) Conference last year.

"If the people in the next stage on the surface of the moon in just over a decade, the avatar can be with them," he said.

The last proposal was developed by the NASA's Learning Technologies Project Office, supported and developed projects for the promotion of education in science and technology.

Job seeker

The document confirmed that the games will be increasingly important in education, and could be useful to the formation of a whole set of skills.

"Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations so that the learners to tinker with the chemical reactions in living cells, the exploitative practices and the repair more expensive, and the experience in micro-gravity," he says.

The document calls for a game machine includes a powerful physical abilities "," support precisely in the game of testing and research. "

"An MMO from NASA, the possibility could give the students the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and the ways in which career and is involved in the game-play".

Other organizations, such as the US armed forces are already using the online games as a recruiting tool.

America's Army, for example, the player for the "seven Army Values", and now claims that one of the "most popular games in the world".

NASA has raised concerns among interested organizations to meet the demand of 15 February.