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If you're sick of exploring the big empty known as Second Life, NASA plans to open a virtual frontier for cybernauts. Convinced the only way to get kids to do anything these days is to shove a game in front of them, the Learning Technologies Project Office is developing a multiplayer online game that will simulate the space agency's real science and engineering missions. Will the game indoctrinate the next generation into signing up with NASA's moon colonization recruiting office, too?

NASA has no answers to that. Nor does the agency have any idea how to build its virtual training grounds. It's openly requesting advice on how exactly to bring its vision of a fun, scientifically accurate recruiting tool into reality. Our advice: Don't copy Linden Lab. (Photo by NASA