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Get your Kinect to Mars [update: Kodu experience on PC only]

Get your Kinect to Mars

If you want to experience what it's like being on Mars with NASA's Mars Rover, but don't want to die from the incredibly toxic atmosphere – and who wants to go through the hassle of traveling to Mars just for a gruesome death? – fire up your Xbox today.

A free Mars Rover Landing app on the Xbox Marketplace lets you use your body to guide the Curiosity rover to a safe landing, just like NASA would do if it didn't have specially designed equipment for more precise control of the device. There's also a Mars-focused experience in the Xbox PC version of the programming education app, Kodu.

Additionally, the new Unity app, Curiosity's Journey, lets you explore a 3D map of Mars' Gale Crater, following along with Curiosity's mission. Thanks for still being awesome, NASA.

Update: Microsoft contacted us to let us know that the new Mars material is only on the PC edition of Kodu, not the Xbox version. The Mars rover character is the first new character since launch, accompanied by three linear levels and several open levels, based on real Mars data.