Moonbase Alpha

O jogo é baseado no projecto Constellation que foi cancelado… por várias razões mas (sobretudo?) também por “problemas” ligados ao “business model”… (too much “pork barrel” and/or “business as usual”?)

NASA moon plan was an illusion, wrapped in denial
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18515-nasa-moon-plan-was-an-illusion-wrapped-in-denial.html#.VRjF_mddXXo

Finally, and most important, even if Constellation was funded and worked … so what?

The programme was far too tightly focused on repeating Apollo, which was pointless: we already did Apollo!

Early ideas of quickly establishing a permanent lunar base had already been forgotten.

Constellation was going to deliver exactly what Apollo did: expensive, brief, infrequent visits to the moon.

That was all it was good for.

Switching to commercial space transportation, for both cargo and crews, is long overdue.

For over 20 years, NASA has been legally required to use commercial space transportation whenever possible – and has used every possible excuse not to.

It’s high time to end this.

Já tinha feito o download no passado, e o jogo é bastante interessante… este jogo foi desenvolvido antes do cancelamento do Constellation, e talvez já fosse estranhamente premonitório, pois (irónicamente) nós os (jogadores) astronautas num EVA na superfície lunar, em contra-relógio, temos de fazer diversas reparações em vários buracos (financeiros?) nos “life support systems” causados por meteoros (erros de gestão?), antes de morrermos asfixiados por falta de oxigénio…

Um outro local onde (embora rarefeito) ainda existe e irá sempre existir oxigénio, é no alto das montanhas, onde se podem construir “bases” quase “lunares”… e saliento a importância do conceito de “self-sufficient” (auto-suficiente).

Refuge du Goûter: Space-Age Self-Sufficient Alpine Lodge is the Highest Building in France
http://inhabitat.com/spaced-mount-blancs-refuge-du-gouter-is-self-sufficient-and-frances-highest-building/