
Angry Birds in space - pshken
http://space.angrybirds.com/announcement/
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jroes
Something about this doesn't sit right with me. I feel like the kind of people
I would ordinarily consider role models are selling out to a video game.

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binarysolo
It feels like the other way around too me -- in order to reach out and inspire
a new generation, NASA willingly collaborated with Rovio to show people that
(an abstraction of) space can be all sorts of fun. Its relevant physics
puzzles in much more palatable form!

'Sides, at least it's a game about space where, for once the aliens are not
exterminating humans and blowing up everything.

Oh wait on the blowing stuff up part. :)

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skilesare
Here's the thing. My 3.5 year old is going to understand something about
gravity. I think I was probably 8 before it was presented in 'science'
class...and that was just 'newton had an apple fall on his head. things fall.'

I think this is pretty cool and the game looks fun too.

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bh42222
If your 3.5 year old had been born 10 years ago, he would have still
understood something about gravity at 3.5 with the help of Spaced Penguins. A
simple Java or Flash game (can't recall which) about shooting a penguin into
orbit around planets.

This is neat, and good for Rovio but it's not anything more than neat.

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matdwyer
Talk about priceless press... the Rovio marketing team were probably
salivating when they heard about this

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dazonic
Surely they paid for it? If so, is the the first use of private advertising on
the ISS?

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kenrikm
It seems like that would be really, really expensive unless NASA actually
wanted to help them out. I think it's mutually beneficial NASA is trying to
reach a younger generation as they struggle to stay relevant given that they
don't even have a human launch platform ATM.

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derekerdmann
NASA's putting quite a bit of effort into educating the public, or at least,
more than they were a few years ago. I'm hoping things like this and the Lego
sets they built will get us interested in space again.

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rcthompson
The physics system looks a lot like that of Mario Galaxy, where each planet
has its own localized gravity field of constant magnitude that just ends
abruptly at a specific altitude. Although here the gravity fields can overlap.

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Drbble
Angry Birds in Space, a win for popularizing understanding physics, but a loss
for understanding biology.

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artmageddon
Can you explain how that is?

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monopede
I think he/she meant that birds can't survive in space. The pigs at least seem
to have some sort of bowl around their head.

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xinliang
I think creating a game for the sole reason of inculcating the simple concept
of gravitation into the kids is kind of inappropriate. It costs them more time
to be wasted on the game that that takes for them to simply learn it from the
textbook. If additional features like the extent of effect of gravitation in
relation to the mass of the planet and the travelling speed of the bird are
added, again, that will make the game complicated and less interesting to
play.

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lloeki
> It costs them more time to be wasted on the game that that takes for them to
> simply learn it from the textbook.

Maybe, just maybe playing with physics could actually spark their interest
into actually reading the text-book and learn about the real thing.

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eliaskg
Awesome! This feels like, hey, an astronaut isn't an isolated individual
living far away from us anymore. It feels more like he got a call from Rovio
if he could do a video for advertising and said "Well why not? I put it in my
Dropbox"

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jstepien
Have you noticed that scientific organisations participating in the ISS
project are promoting a game in which sounds in audible _in vacuum_?
Apparently the heritage of Star Wars _et al._ is still preventing the industry
from marketing space-based games not making physicists laugh. Surely, it won't
change soon.

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mseebach
Yes, let's care about sound in space. Because the rest of Star Wars et al is
_completely true_ to the laws of physics.

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redact207
I'm guessing to celebrate they'll be releasing another weather balloon into
space to drop angry birds paraphernalia.

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hellweaver666
I wonder how much it cost NASA to put that Angry Bird Plushie into space?
Doesn't it cost like $10,000 per pound?

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Drbble
So about $5k then? That is an incredibly cheap ad buy.

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joering2
I wonder if you or me would want to advertise this way, NASA would agree. I,
for a second, though: hmmm.. what if he shoot it and somehow, some way it will
gently put firmly enough hit some precious spacecraft component..

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amurmann
I find it very depressing that the US space program now has come down to have
to produce ads like this...

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Steqheu
Wouldn't be the first space physics game, but cool nonetheless.

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ioquatix
Why is this on Hacker News? Isn't this spam?

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prawn
In that case, isn't almost everything?

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andy9d
Space Jam

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rhplus
Do US taxpayers get a free copy of the game?

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PLejeck
Man, NASA is so desperate for money. Good to see the private sector paying the
public for once.

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bitsoda
Angry Birds Space looks like a total rip off of this neat flash game where you
put a golf ball through a ring located on a distant planet while taking into
account the mass of the bodies in space.

[http://www.kongregate.com/games/FunkyPear/gravitee?acomplete...](http://www.kongregate.com/games/FunkyPear/gravitee?acomplete=gravitee)

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Lewisham
Angry Birds itself was a rip-off of Crush The Castle. Just having the game
design doesn't sell; you have to find the right dressing.

If I was the Crush The Castle guys, I'd be crying into my corn flakes every
morning.

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joering2
one was stolen from another, agreed. but you have to admit to "replace"
warriors with crazy looking animals and do it as a major project of a games
company needs some balls involved. And it worked out. For that reason and the
difference in anything else than "crushing elements" between those two games,
I dont think they cry in their cereals.

