Virtue Arts, based in Los Angeles, has
developed software that 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.
The company showed off its application for the first time
Thursday here at NASA Ames Research Center. NASA Ames plans
to use the software to engineer space vehicles and train
astronauts for future missions, and Virtue will sell lunar
exploration software to schools and consumers beginning this
fall.
"This revolutionizes the use of visualization technology--it
brings it down to everyone's computer," Mary Duda, founder
and CEO of Virtue Arts, said in an interview.
Jerome Rasky, the 10-year-old son of a NASA scientist,
tested a game version of the software, called Lunar Racing
Championship (expected to be released next June) on Thursday
here at NASA's Exploration Center. He said it's not as easy
as it looks.
"It's like someone put a jet on your car and you have to
control it," Rasky said. "I've played car games before but
nothing like this."
Virtue Arts engineered its game and moon-exploration
software with publicly available data that NASA and other
international space agencies have collected from missions to
the moon. That way, the software draws on real science to
encourage play and learning, according to Duda.
For example, the moon's gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's,
so driving among its rocks and on its dusty surface is more
weightless and out of control than driving on Earth.
Aerodynamics are meaningless on the moon, so the lunar buggy
in Virtue's Lunar Racing Championship software includes
rocket boosters and a reaction control system, which is
typically found on spacecraft, to stabilize itself in the
event of spinning out of control. But speeds of only 8 miles
per hour can cause a dust storm because of the moon's fine
surface.
The lunar software also includes exact renderings of the
constellations, the Earth, the Sun and the galaxies.
Virtue Arts developed a system called RADE, or rapid
application development environment, so that it can process
the lunar data in real time on a consumer PC. It's a tall
order, according to Virtue Arts Chief Technology Officer
Romesh Prakashpalan, because the application must process a
data source of 10 gigabytes, an amount that's typically been
the domain of high-end servers.
The Lunar Racing Championship application is also networked
so that, for example, two kids can race each other in the
game from two different PCs.
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. Both applications
can run on a standard consumer-grade PC with a graphics
accelerator.
Obviously, NASA plans to use the software for a higher
purpose.
"We need to simulate space for designing vehicles and
missions because there are a lot of complicated questions to
answer in the process," said Dan Rasky, a senior scientist
at NASA.
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