A week ago today, we had the pleasure of announcing NASA and Gowalla’s partnership with “The Search for the Moon Rocks” – a nationwide hunt for NASA-themed Gowalla objects which JESS3 facilitated and designed a custom U.S. map for.

Turns out other people were as excited about the project as we were. The media hits garnered so far can be found on our Delicious account here, and you may find some of our favorites clips below:

• Mashable: “The game is a win-win for both parties. NASA gets fun incentives to generate foot traffic through its venues, and Gowalla gets a high-profile partnership with a fascinating organization.”
• Wired: “On my higher education site this week, Julie Meloni explained how, compared to services like Foursquare, Gowalla is particularly good at making learning vivid, offering examples of different historical and cultural sites that have created strong Gowalla presences, or whose visitors created one for them.“
  
• VentureBeat: “As far as we can tell, the Gowalla and NASA partnership is the first time a location-based game has teamed up with a government agency to incentivize visitors.”
• Design Taxi: “The space exploration agency has also commissioned creative agency JESS3 to design a nifty map that pinpoints all the locations where these ‘prizes’ can be unlocked. It’s not just for bragging rights too. The first 100 people to collect three items will receive a physical poster of the map, and anyone thereafter will get another virtual reward: a special NASA pin in their Gowalla passport.”
• GeekSugar: “Moon rocks, which were brought back during the Apollo 12-17 missions, are currently on display at various museums and planetariums around the country.”
• International Business Times: “Gowalla users, who virtually “check-in” at NASA-related venues and places of discovery via their smart phone, have a chance to find the four agency virtual items which can be swapped for other items, dropped in locations or kept in their vault.”
• Aol’s Switched: “Given NASA’s adeptness at Twitter, embarking on a location-based foray seemed like a logical next-step for the space organization. Well, Gowalla scored that extraterrestrial team-up, and the space scavenger hunt has officially launched. Participants can accumulate Gowalla moon rocks by visiting actual moon rock exhibits at various NASA locations. The patch, suit and shuttle awards can be nabbed by checking in at NASA visitor centers and at over 400 museums, aquariums and other organizations that belong to NASA’s Museum Alliance.”

Written by Alix McAlpine | Director of Marketing, JESS3

Tags: buzz, gowalla, JESS3, nasa, press roundup