14 DAY TRIAL // CNet News.com is reporting the upcoming release of Lunar Explorer, the moon exploration simulator developed by Los Angeles' Virtue Arts. The title saw great responses from NASA and apparently will feature a separate build specifically adapted for their own training programs. Virtue Arts is additionally working on Lunar Racing Championship, a more popular application to their game engine, where players are racing moon buggies. The Lunar Racing Championship game is expected to be released to consumers next June for $49.95. Lunar Explorer will be released this month for $39.95.
The developer devised the game and the moon exploration software using genuine footage collected by NASA and other international space agencies, gathered during Moon missions. Last week, the company featured its programs for the first time at NASA's Ames Research Center. NASA Ames intends using the software to engineer space vehicles and helps complement the training of astronauts for future missions. Developers also plan on selling the lunar exploration software to schools and consumers alike.
Following this presentation, NASA has signed an agreement to collaborate with Virtue Arts and Virtue Play, for engineering and real-time simulation training in a variety of applications, including a dynamic learning system that allows users to virtually race lunar buggies on the moon in 3D. The software renders the exact physics and topology of the moon in a 3D game, letting players drive the lunar surface, gaze at the galaxy or study objects that were left by NASA astronauts on real missions.