The European Space Agency (ESA) launched a Moon mission game in Fortnite that lets you bounce around on the lunar surface, picking up resources and building a habitat in the same way future astronauts will establish human presence on Earth’s dusty satellite.
Lunar Horizons is an immersive 3D experience set on the lunar south pole, the main hotspot for future missions to the Moon. The game was created by Epic Games, ESA, and Hassell, and released in Fortnite on Thursday.
In order to create the lunar environment, game developers worked closely with ESA to add authenticity to the experience and build a realistic landscape that lets the players learn real-life space facts while exploring their surroundings. For space nerds like myself, this is the ultimate gaming experience.
As a player, you navigate your way through the cratered surface of the Moon, looking for resources, working with tools, and putting together each module of a lunar habitat in the same way a real mission might work.
It may not look super realistic, but the game draws from real-life missions set for the Moon. As an astronaut in the game, you’ll encounter ESA’s Argonaut lunar lander, which will be used to supply cargo for future crews on the lunar surface.
“Welcome to the south pole of the Moon,” the game’s opening line reads. “Your mission is to gather water and Helium-3 to complete the ESA lunar habitat.”
The Moon’s south pole is the main destination of future lunar missions as it could contain pockets of water ice hidden in permanently shadowed regions that have never seen the light. Water will be an important resource for building a habitat on the Moon, which is key to establishing a permanent human presence on the lunar surface that could one day help us reach farther destinations in space.
Future missions to the Moon are also looking to harvest clean forms of energy from the lunar surface like Helium-3, which could provide safer nuclear energy in a fusion reactor.
Lunar Horizons can be accessed using code 3207-0960-6428 or by searching for ‘Lunar Horizons’ in Discover.
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