Perhaps witnessing the impact America’s Army has had on recruiting results, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is planning its own game—a massively multiplayer online title set in the year 2035.

Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond is in development by a team of three developers, including one behind America's Army: Virtual Heroes (America’s Army), Project Whitecard and Wisdom Tools. The full title is being created using the Unreal Engine and is set in a time when humans have begun forming settlements throughout the solar system.

The game also seeks to be a proponent of science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning and, as of now anyway, has a goal of granting real course accreditation to users.

Moonbase Alpha is the mini-demo game component that is expected to be issued early next year. A short video slideshow teasing the mini-game can be viewed here.

Edge-Online also has a recent interview exploring the game with NASA’s Learning Technologies Project Manager Daniel Laughlin.

GP: Remind us in three or four years to file a Freedom of Information Act request to see how much this ends up costing taxpayers.