🔭 Science, nature and the world · 🕹️ Games and platforms kids play
Mission: Mars
By Museum of Science, Boston, with Filament Games. Visit Mission: Mars
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
A free educational game on Roblox, launched in December 2022 by the Museum of Science in Boston with Filament Games and funded by the Roblox Community Fund. Players put on a Mars suit, design and customize a rover, and use it to cross canyons, collect water ice, race to raise dust shields and rescue other researchers. The museum says the terrain and mechanics are based on NASA data, and it offers a free educator guide that turns missions into whole-class engineering lessons.
Our take: A good pick for kids who already play Roblox with parental controls set; families who keep children off Roblox should skip it.
| Ages it suits | about 8-14 (the museum says all ages) |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | Runs on Roblox. Roblox's terms say a parent or guardian must agree for any minor, and only users who have reached the age of majority may buy Robux. Chat on Roblox needs an age check, and parents can turn chat off for under-13s. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free to play; needs a free Roblox account (Oct 2026). No game passes listed for the experience. |
| Works on | Windows, Mac, iPhone and iPad, Android |
| Account | The child's own account |
| Ads | Not stated |
| In-app purchases | Not stated |
| The AI in it | No AI. |
What's good
- Free, science-based engineering game from a respected museum
- Free educator guide for classroom use
- Still updated (Sept 2026) with about 8 million visits
Watch for
- Requires Roblox, with its chat, other games and Robux store one tap away
- The museum's Play button link (roblox.com/mission-mars) returned a not-found page in Oct 2026; search Roblox for the game instead
- Servers hold up to 24 players, so kids may meet strangers
Data and privacy
Player data is handled by Roblox under its own privacy policy. The museum's own privacy policy covers its website and says it gets parental consent before collecting personal details from children 12 and under. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
No independent studies found. The maker's own claims only: the museum says the game teaches the engineering design process with NASA-based science.
In the Big Index
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Where these facts come from
- https://www.mos.org/game/mission-mars
- https://www.mos.org/privacy-policy
- https://www.mos.org/terms-of-use
- https://www.mos.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/MOS_Misssion_Mars_%20Lesson_Plan_2023%201.pdf
- https://www.roblox.com/games/10840095864/Mission-Mars-Explore-the-Red-Planet
- https://www.filamentgames.com/project/mission-mars
- https://about.roblox.com/newsroom/2022/12/museum-of-science-boston-enters-the-metaverse-with-new-roblox-experience-mission-mars
- https://en.help.roblox.com/api/v2/help_center/en-us/articles/115004647846.json
- https://about.roblox.com/parental-controls
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.