Happy 4th birthday Curiosity Mars Rover! Well, it turned 4 years old in Earth years recently, and to celebrate this milestone, NASA wants you to drive the historic rover. Well, of course, only digitally. They have released a new game through the Gamee app for Android to get people curious about Curiosity Mars once again and what it has done so far out on the “red planet”. It’s also meant to drum up interest for the next rover that will be released by year 2020, and maybe even the planned sending of people to Mars by the 2030s (if ever that will push through).

But while the latter one is still a big question mark, at least now you get to somewhat experience what it’s like to be on Mars through the game. You will be able to drive the rover through the challenging terrain of the planet and earn points along the way. It’s also a preview as to what they plan to do with the 2020 rover, which is to “use radar to search for underground water”. You will have to download the Gamee app on your Android device in order to play the Mars Rover, which they call a “social media game”.

If this game is too simple for you, you can wait until NASA releases their planned virtual reality game called Mars 2030 Experience. Those who have VR headsets like the Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, or Facebook’s Oculus Rift will be able to play and experience this game, which will probably be a tiny preview of what you can expect when you actually go to Mars, but without the gravity problems yet.

While government funding may be pulled out of NASA’s planned Mars exploration, private companies like Space X want to actually start sending unmanned spacecraft in a couple of years, and then eventually, actual people. But for now, we’d have to be satisfied with playing mobile games.

SOURCE: NASA

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