'Mass Effect: Andromeda' gives a shout out to SpaceX with a nerdy easter egg
Space exploration takes centerstage in the upcoming sci-fi game Mass Effect: Andromeda, which gives a nod to some of humanity's space pioneers, including SpaceX.
Polygon first noticed a model of a SpaceX rocket sitting on a shelf in the main character's living quarters in Mass Effect: Andromeda, a fun little Easter egg for any fans of Elon Musk's private spacecraft company SpaceX.
Polygon was able to interact with the model and unlocked a special codex entry describing humanity's early ventures into space that ultimately led to how humans travel through space in Mass Effect, which is set in the year 2185.
Here is the entry in full:
The human philosopher Plato once said: "Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another." For much of its recorded history, humanity has indeed looked to the night sky and dreamed of venturing to the stars. However, after the historic NASA Apollo moon landings in 1969, the drive for crewed space exploration slowed as government funding dried up. The move towards cheaper unmanned probes and orbital stations gained traction instead, as one of the central obstacles was the expense of creating first-stage booster rockets that would be lost after each flight.
But the lure of sending people into the cosmos never lost its draw. In the early 21st century, a private company called SpaceX pioneered efforts in sustainable space travel by developing a reusable launch system. It revolutionized the field as the first entity, government or private, to successfully launch and then safely recover an orbital booster rocket intact, allowing it to be reused in future launches. Reusable hardware placed lower-cost, sustainable space travel within reach.
Galvanized by SpaceX’s achievements, a renaissance in space exploration followed. Reusable launch system technology later became pivotal in establishing the European Space Agency’s first permanent settlement on Mars, Lowell City, in 2103.
While the entry above uses the recognizable names NASA and SpaceX, the "historical" recount is almost completely fictionalized. NASA has played, and continues to play, a huge role in modern space travel, including helping to fund SpaceX since its early days.
SpaceX is known for its reusable rockets, which are able to perform multiple missions to space and back. The rocket model in Andromeda looks identical to SpaceX's upcoming rocket Falcon Heavy, which will be able to take a payload weighing nearly 30,000 pounds all the way to Mars.
In the Mass Effect universe, though, humans already built a settlement on Mars by 2013, so we really need to pick it up if we want to be traversing the galaxy by 2185.
