NASA has announced that they have established partnerships with a number of game development to studios, who will be working on Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, in which students and gamers alike will be able to take part in a "massively multiplayer online educational game", to be powered by the Unreal 3 Engine.

In the game, the player will be tasked with a number of scientific, mathematical and economic tasks, in a bid to create a "fun, compelling gaming experience" that focuses on aeronautics and teamwork.

The game will be developed in close collaboration with NASA, who will ensure that the game accurately represents the technology available to them. Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond will be developed by the same folk who worked on America's Army, with the gameplay of the space-themed MMO explained by Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes:

Players will pick a profession like a roboticist, space geologist, astrobiologist or mechanical engineer and work together as a team as they explore space and complete missions, establishing bases and outposts and travelling to the farthest reaches of the solar system.

The game will offer both individual challenges and team-based objectives to encourage players to use real-life applications of science, math and engineering to unlock new in-game vehicles, spacesuits, robotics and mining apparatus that will propel them further into space.

Heneghan, who will be taking a key role on the project also indicated that Virtual Heroes will eventually release tools for the game's community to develop new missions and content for the game, which would be available to educational institutions and enthusiasts alike.

While any specific details for the game are sparse at this stage, a playable demo is expected to be released by the end of the year. Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond will also be tied into several Masters degrees in Aerospace-related fields, with a University in North Dakota to use the game engine to allow students to test their space-ship designs in-game.