In the past, NASA has used everything from websites and mobile apps to coverage on its own TV network to get the public excited about its space exploration efforts. But the run-up to the planned August 5 landing of the Mars rover "Curiosity" includes the organization's first foray into the world of console game development.

Mars Rover Landing, available this week as a free download on the Xbox 360, was inspired by "the entirely factual and amazing sequence of events to land Curiosity on Mars," Jeff Norris told Ars (Norris is the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab manager for planning and execution systems). Using the Kinect, players help adjust the landing module's angle as it enters the Martian atmosphere, handle timed explosive charges to discard the heat shield, and deploy a parachute before applying thrusters to gently touch the rover down on the Martian surface (that last bit is in a mini-game somewhat reminiscent of the arcade classic Lunar Lander). It's not the most complicated game on the market, but it does a good job of showing just how many things have to go exactly right to land a robot on another planet.

In real life, that entire automated process takes place during what NASA engineers refer to as "seven minutes of terror" when the Rover is unable to communicate with Earth. While NASA had previously detailed that sequence in a dramatic video from earlier this year, the organization felt there might be better ways to get the public involved in the story.

"When you look at that video, you realize that it's already a very exciting and engaging thing to watch," he said. "So we thought 'what might be possible if this was interactive?'"

Video games are a natural choice for fulfilling NASA's core responsibility of bringing its message of exploration to the public, Norris said. He cited a 2008 Pew Study showing that 86 percent of teenagers play games on home consoles as evidence that video games "have to be part of how [we're] talking to people." Microsoft was a natural partner for such an effort, he said, because both NASA and the Xbox 360 maker share an interest in getting teens interested in engineering and science education from a young age.

Working in a medium meant primarily for entertainment was a new experience for NASA, but Norris said his team meshed well with the third-party developers Microsoft brought in from Smoking Gun Interactive and Hellbent Studios. Each side brought different skills to the collaboration. So while simplifying the landing process and making it fun were obvious concerns, Norris said that NASA's primary goal was to make sure the experience was authentic to the actual rover landing.

"We're using an entertainment medium to build these experiences—that often makes us think of a number of video games we're used to playing. We needed to think more about indicating NASA's message and a little less about building an entertainment experience as our first goal," he said. "I don't think people would receive it well if NASA created a fictional landing game... There are lots of games like that already, and it's not really clear that it addresses the core messages NASA is trying to get at to create something like that. It's a game that's inspired by many of the accurate details of how we land on Mars, but it's still a game."

So can we expect interactive versions of future NASA missions? Norris couldn't give any details, but he said this is the beginning of an "ongoing partnership" with the game industry. The reaction to Mars Rover Landing will help inform what the organization's next games will look like.