NASA releases Mars Rover game in celebration of mission's fourth anniversary

Shawn Knight

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Have you always dreamed of working at NASA on a spaceflight mission but don’t quite have the credentials to make it happen? If so, today’s your lucky day as the space agency has released a game that lets you pilot the Curiosity Rover currently stationed on Mars.

The game, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is called Mars Rover (imagine that). In it, you get to pilot the rover as it traverses the rocky surface of the Red Planet (which isn’t really red, as NASA explains) in search of underground water deposits.

What makes the game a bit of a challenge, just as in real life, is the possibility of damaging the rover’s wheels on the unforgiving terrain. As Gizmodo notes, it’s likely a nod to the real-life Curiosity rover whose wheels are slowly cracking and breaking courtesy of Mars’ rocky surface.

The Mars Rover game is available to play on Android and iOS devices as well as on the desktop. The controls are pretty straightforward – use the arrow keys to navigate, “P” to pause the game and “R” to restart.

The game is being released in celebration of Curiosity’s fourth year on Mars. After leaving Earth on November 26, 2011, the rover touched down on our nearby neighbor on August 6, 2012, and has been conducting experiments to study the planet’s climate and geology ever since.

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Awwww come on! It probably only cost the tax payers a few million bucks and at least you don't have to walk around and get all tired out like that Pokemon Go thing!.........LOL
 
At least it's free. Or at least I'd assume it is, who'd ever dream of paying for it anyway?

The game is ostensibly free, but you can buy in game tokens like underground water reservoirs and invulnerability to cosmic radiation. BTW, don't forget to stop at Elon Musk's "spacesuit fashion boutique", to get something which is massively overstated designer crap to wear while you're playing.

In truth, it would appear that Atari beat NASA to this in 1981 with, "Caverns of Mars".

NASA appears to have flipped the game from a vertical to a horizontal play field, ostensibly to avoid getting nailed with a copyright infringement lawsuit.

You be the judge(s). The Atari version looks like a lot more fun:
Now aren't you sorry you threw that old Atari 800 away? :D

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caverns_of_Mars
 
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