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Numedeon, Inc., creators of Whyville the educational virtual world for children and young teenagers, has created a site for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that offers children a virtual trip around the lab.

The goal of the virtual site is to educate students about space exploration and raise awareness of the JPL facility before they take a physical tour. The new site is an avatar-based virtual world built on the same software engine as Whyville.

On the site, a virtual tour guide takes visitors through the JPL Space Museum, the Mars Exploration Rover Lab and the Mission Control Center where users can play an interactive game simulating the process of managing and communicating with spacecraft exploring the solar system.

Visitors can also collect 23 virtual souvenirs such as a Rover and share them with others. In 2006 close to 15,000 students and teachers from school districts around Southern California visited the facility.

NASA has no plans to add a virtual crazy astronaut feature but if they did it could be called “Houston She Has A Problem”. Kidding aside the site actually does seem to be worthwhile to check out. The features are straightforward and the site itself is easy to navigate. It should also appeal to the audience they are targeting.

"We are very pleased that JPL has decided to use Numedeon's virtual world technology to provide future visitors an opportunity to explore and understand JPL's science and missions before visiting the lab itself," said Dr. James Bower, CEO of Numedeon, Inc. Dr. Jennifer Sun, President of Numedeon, Inc., who coordinated this project, added, "We expect the virtual field trip will greatly enhance young learners' interest in JPL, as well as the quality of their experience during their real life field trip. We also expect that many visitors will return to the virtual site to continue their experience even after their real life visit."

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