PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Friday, March 20, 2009
Source: Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA To Sign Agreement With Three Companies to Participate in a Massively
Multiplayer Gaming Initiative

Greenbelt, Maryland - Officials from the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) are finalizing negotiations for a Space Act Agreement
(SAA) with three gaming companies whose joint proposal for a massively
multiplayer online (MMO) game has been selected for collaborative
development. The three companies - Project Whitecard, Inc., Virtual Heroes,
Inc., and Information In Place/WisdomTools - teamed up to create a proposal
for "Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond," a game concept developed for NASA's
MMO gaming initiative, which is designed to increase student interest in
science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects and career
fields.

The three companies decided to collaborate on the winning proposal given
their collective passion for space exploration-based gaming. "We couldn't be
happier to be working together as a collaborative team, along with NASA,"
said Khal Shariff, CEO of Project Whitecard. Shariff, whose company is also
working on a learning game project with the Canadian Space Agency, was
introduced to the work of Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes,
at NASA's Participatory Exploration Summit in June 2007. Not only did they
share a common interest in space games, Heneghan's company was also
collaborating with Information In Place on "Virtual Astronaut," a learning
environment that allows middle school students to virtually colonize Mars
while learning STEM content.

So the three companies joined forces. "This project is bigger than any one
company," said Heneghan. "It will certainly take many successful
partnerships to get our game done right and that starts with our three
small, independent companies, working together, in concert with NASA and
aligned to a common vision."

Proposals submitted to fulfill NASA's MMO vision were vetted through three
rounds of review by a panel of nine experts from NASA, the gaming industry,
and academia. "'Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond' was selected because the
three companies involved had a really ideal combination of qualities we were
looking for," said Daniel Laughlin of NASA's Learning Technologies Project
Office (LPTO), which is administering the initiative. "They have the right
experience, they demonstrated their ability to engage middle school through
higher education curricula, and they have extraordinary enthusiasm about
working with NASA to make a fun game. If there's one thing we've learned
from more than 800 pages of public input, it's that this game must be fun if
it's going to be of any use for education."

Fun is certainly in the plans for the three companies tasked with
development. "We're building Mars together. We'll be able to let people's
avatars walk around on it. We're creating a real living, breathing, shaking
world in space that people can actually experience," said Shariff. "How
amazing is that?" So amazing, in fact, that professors and academics from
universities across the U.S. and Canada are offering support for research
and development - helping to ensure that the content created is not only
fun, but will be educational enough to enable students to earn academic
credits.

"Conversations are happening with professors to make sure that the content
we develop is in line with their educational goals and specific
accreditation requirements," said Shariff. For example, the University of
North Dakota's Capstone Program will contribute content and curricula for
the spaceship portions of the game through its Master's program in Spaceship
Design.

Slated for release next year, the game will enable participants to learn and
be tested on real skills through single-player and team-based missions based
on real NASA technologies, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. In addition,
players will interact with NASA digital assets, such as hyper-realistic
digital renderings of Mars rovers and telescope images taken of and from
space. The level at which users participate in these missions will depend on
age and education, among other factors. So, while the game promises to have
a big impact on higher education, it will also be geared toward students as
young as 13 who can participate at a level suited to their experience.

"One of the reasons this opportunity with NASA is so exciting is because it
will give us the opportunity to take everything we've learned from students
and our work on games like Virtual Astronaut and apply it on a massive
scale," said Sonny Kirkley, CEO of Information In Place.

Kirkley explained that many students forgo advanced classes in abstract
subjects like math and engineering because they don't understand the
relevance. "But when they see that they can use these skills to build
something - like a space shuttle or a greenhouse - then they understand why
it's important," said Kirkley. "So, ultimately, teachers will find that a
gaming environment makes it much easier to engage students in STEM subjects
and provides context for the other things they are teaching."

According to Laughlin, the game will influence younger students just getting
introduced to STEM subjects, all the way through graduate students preparing
to launch a career. "It will expose a lot of young people to the potential
career opportunities in science and engineering and open up their minds to
career paths that they might not otherwise consider. And it will do it
through a medium they are very comfortable with - the Internet and online
gaming."

As for the development costs? They won't come directly from taxpayer
dollars, said Darryl Mitchell, a technology transfer manager in Goddard's
Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP) Office, which is co-managing the
project's implementation with the LTPO. NASA funds will provide access to
NASA subject matter experts, data, facilities and the engagement of
educational design and evaluation experts. But the majority of the
development cost will be covered by private investments and corporate
sponsorships. "Ultimately this agreement will benefit taxpayers as we look
for innovative ways to train students for the science challenges of the
future," said Mitchell.

Two major components of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program's mission are
securing partnerships with outside organizations for technology development
that will yield future benefits for NASA, and supporting economic
development by extracting value from NASA technology and expertise. The IPP
is bringing its expertise in these areas to help the LTPO guide the
execution and implementation of the novel collaborative approach being
utilized for the NASA MMO gaming initiative.

For further information related to the MMO agreement, please contact the IPP
Office's Darryl Mitchell at (301) 286-5169 or the LTPO's Daniel Laughlin at
(301) 286-1112. For more information about NASA's MMO Initiative, please
visit: http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/mmo/