• NASA has joined forces with Epic Games, which is behind Fortnite.
• NASA needs developers to help it build an environment that will allow astronauts to explore the Martian surface.
• NASA will use MarsXR, a world already launched by NASA for these challenges.

The US space agency NASA has partnered with Epic Games–the company behind Fortnite. This partnership aims to encourage developers to build a Martian metaverse experience.

This challenge was posted to the Herox crowdsourcing platform. It asks for developers who can help NASA create an environment for astronauts on Mars. The experiences will be rendered using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to provide a realistic environment.

NASA will use MarsXR (an already started world) for its challenges. It has already mapped 400 km of Mars terrain. The MarsXR world also includes realistic day and night cycles, which are all modeled with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. This means that developers must also use the engine to submit challenges.

NASA has identified five categories of virtual experiences as being appropriate for this challenge: scientific research, exploration and set-up camp. Maintenance is also included. Every category has a specific purpose and will need to fulfill that purpose.

There will be a total of $70,000 in prize money, which will then be divided among 20 prizes. The average prize will amount to $6,000.

According to the Herox page, NASA’s activity has already attracted a lot of attention from several groups that are keen to participate in the challenge and contribute to growing NASA’s Martian metaverse. More than 24 teams are currently contributing, along with 237 innovators to the Martian simulation.

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