NASA Releases "Sector 33" Air Traffic Control Game

NASA, the U.S. space agency has released a new iOS game called Sector 33. The educational title aims to teach youngsters math and reasoning skills as they act the role of an air traffic controller in charge of ATC Sector 33 as they guide planes to San Francisco International Airport from the East over California and Nevada.

Players adjust multiple planes' path and speed to safely reach a target location in the sky in the fastest time possible while keeping the plans a safe distance apart.

"Our hope is that Sector 33 will give students a sense of the importance of math in managing our nation's air traffic and, at the same time, interest them in pursuing a career in aeronautics," said Jaiwon Shin, NASA's associate administrator for aeronautics research in Washington.

The math-focused game also aligns with the NASA Office of Education's mission to engage students in activities related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"Today's students respond positively to experiential learning," said Leland Melvin, NASA's associate administrator for education. "Using an interactive game to spark their interest, while at the same time teaching them fundamental math concepts, is a win-win scenario. It is a perfect way to help cultivate the next generation of engineers and technologists."

NASA is no stranger to iOS apps, having launched an iPhone app in 2009 to help users stay on top of the latest NASA news.

Sector 33 is available free for iPhone and iPad from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

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reden

89 months ago

Shuttle program shut down? Lets make video games!

Rating: 7 Votes

ArtOfWarfare

89 months ago

I guess they're trying to get the next generation prepared for when this guy becomes president*:

*I neither support nor actually expect him to win, I just thought the image was pretty funny and fit the topic well enough.

Rating: 3 Votes

coder12

89 months ago

About the only thing they can afford to do these days.

They should sell Apps and get more money :( I want to go to the moon!

Rating: 3 Votes

PracticalMac

89 months ago

Shuttle program shut down? Lets make video games!

About the only thing they can afford to do these days.

Rating: 3 Votes

SamFisher

89 months ago

They should have made it paid, NASA need the money to get to mars damn it! XD

will try this app however, it's like flight control for boffins :)

Rating: 2 Votes

nagromme

89 months ago

So it's Flight Control, but much more realistic looking?

Cool!

More math, less freehand drawing, I think.

NASA has other cool apps too (non-game).

Rating: 1 Votes

marcusj0015

89 months ago

... -_________________-

Rating: 1 Votes

jlc1978

89 months ago

Shuttle program shut down? Lets make video games!

While I appreciate the sarcasm, NASA does much more than Shuttle. The Aeronautics part is deeply involved in a lot of non-space research; and produces a lot of useful (and often free) material of interest to pilots, researchers and engineers. Glenn, for example, has some great educational DVDs on icing. I've used some of NASA's human factors research in my work.

Shuttle is neat, but it's the very visible tip of a much larger organization.

As for the game, It looks cool, but then again one of my favorite games was an old MS-DOS ASCII ATC simulator.

Flight Control is fun, as is ATC but this looks like a more realistic simulation.

Rating: 1 Votes

sjp5317

89 months ago

Very Addicting Game

I guess this belongs in a review section or something, but the game is really addicting. I am 3/4 of the way through it. I think my wife got tired of my staring at my phone at dinner. It makes you think of a lot of aspects at the same time...time and speed. Hopefully if I beat it I can get recruited to be a flight controller! I wonder what that pays? :)

Rating: 1 Votes

mamajt

89 months ago

I totally fell in love with that game, completed it in one evening. Can you recommend some similar games?

Rating: 1 Votes

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