Now this is one of the coolest MMO ideas to ever become reality. While there has been plenty of talk about a NASA-based MMO for tha last few years, people seemed to merely poo-poo the idea as...Now this is one of the coolest MMO ideas to ever become reality. While there has been plenty of talk about a NASA-based MMO for tha last few years, people seemed to merely poo-poo the idea as nothing more than fluff. However, a recent article over at Big Download shows that the game is not only a reality, but a nice looking reality at that. In fact, the game is using the Unreal Engine 3 to power the game.

Taking a page from America's Army a free online game that Virtual Heroes has worked on, Heneghan said the NASA MMO game will be released in modular parts. This fall will see the first playable demo of the game and then next year the first episodic installment of the game will launch.

Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond will be a 'first-person-exploration' game that will also include traditional role-playing game (RPG) elements for both single-player and team-based space exploration, but with a realistic twist. Everything in the game will be crafted based on real NASA technology, as well as on prototypes from esteemed academic institutions for the next generation of robotics, spacecraft, spacesuits and space habitation.

Where do I sign up? Read the entire NASA MMO article by clicking here.