Based on a real lunar project, Moon Village lets players colonize the silver globe one giant leap at a time

1.2.2024

By Meg Sullivan, ContributorSpace: Who doesn’t love it? It’s vast, wondrous, and offers infinite possibilities. It’s why sci-fi games like Mass Effect, Kerbal Space Program and The Outer Worlds are so popular. These games let players explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no man has gone before. (Yes. I have to quote the opening line of Star Trek. It’s space law.) While these games reach for distant stars, one new space simulator offers a more unique experience that’s closer to home. Enter Moon Village Simulator, by SimFabric S.A.

In Moon Village Simulator, selenophiles have the opportunity to helm an ambitious inner solar team looking to create a permanent human settlement on the silver globe orbiting planet Earth. By using real blueprints created by real engineers and scientists, players can build transportation rockets, construct a lunar space station, traverse the moon’s rocky surface with lunar vehicles, transport critical resources, and bring a thriving moon community to life one self-sustaining habitat at a time. These luminaries will also have to learn how to produce power, water, and food while they work. You’ll have to manage the extreme conditions of our nearest celestial body, which is prone to wild swings in temperature, as well as space weather like heavy meteor showers and powerful solar winds.

The more you grow your moon base, the higher the chance you’ll survive and succeed in your lunar project. Better yet, when you build lunar vehicles, transport resources, and dive into the intricacies of constructing a real space station, you’ll begin to understand the guts and innovation needed to reach the heavens.

It’s a fun concept, but what makes Moon Village truly unique is this: Unlike Kerbal Space Program and other cosmically inspired games, this heroic narrative is not science fiction. It simulates a real interstellar project headed by a group of ambitious thinkers who believe humanity is due for another giant leap in space exploration.

Admittedly, it’s hard not to scoff at the idea of a real moon village; it sounds impossible. After all, the moon is a large hunk of inhospitable lava rock with no air and no visible life forms (so far). Scientists can’t just plunk down a prefabricated village and wish the newly minted moon denizens the best of luck. However, the former general director of the European Space Agency, Jan Wörner, argues that it is possible, and the ESA has teamed up with both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the famed architectural design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to prove it.

To tackle the challenging logistics of such an operation, this coalition has wisely divided their plan into a series of small (but still highly ambitious) phases. The first phase would send a space crew to work on building the foundations of the settlement, which would reside on the rim of Shackleton Crater near the Moon’s South Pole (a region that receives near-continuous daylight throughout the lunar year and is close to essential natural resources). In order to allow the intrepid construction workers to survive the harsh lunar atmosphere (or lack thereof), supplies and a series of inflatable habitable modules would accompany them to the moon via rocket.

Once the basics are set up, additional equipment and infrastructure supporting food production and science operations would arrive. This in turn would allow excavation, manufacturing, and construction to continue. While working and living on the moon, the crew would then harness sunlight for energy while extracting frozen volatiles and water stored in nearby craters to create everything from breathable air to rocket propellant for transportation and industrial activities. The final stage of the project would see the village become a self-sustaining human colony, one that would act as a hub for science, exploration, and tourism. It’s an aspirational goal to say the least, but the Moon Village team has chosen to go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard. (Yes. I have to quote JFK’s moon speech. It’s also space law.)

This lunar habitat project is still quite a few years away, however. In the meantime, gamers can shoot for the moon by playing Moon Village Simulator when it arrives on the Epic Games Store.