Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, has "a brain the size of Mars" according to an Epsom-based video game publishers who worked with him to create a new space game.

Engineer, pilot and astronaut Aldrin had regular Skype conferences with lead developer of the Slitherine Group, Ignacio Liverotti, and flew over to the UK for meetings over the 24 months it took to build Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager.

The company's headquarters are in Church Street with international offices in Canada, France, Italy and the USA, and it specialises in immersive and historically accurate strategy games.

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John Driscoll McNeil, Slitherine’s CEO, said: "Buzz is now 84 years of age and he is no less vibrant in his pursuit of space exploration now than he was then, in the original space mission.

"He is a great guy, a real character and his contribution was splendid, guiding us through the building of the spacecraft - it was such a big adventure."

Aldrin brought encouragement, technical knowledge, expertise and drive to the process and Mr McNeil said the experience of working with him was a privilege.

He added: "Even for an old guy, now, his reactions are still lightning fast.

"Life was never the same after the moon landings for him - he said looking back on the earth was such an adrenaline rush that everything after that was secondary."

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Mr McNeil’s son, Iain McNeil, is Slitherine’s founder and technical director and they describe themselves as "a real Epsom family."

The game is the combined work of artists, musicians, game designers and programmers and involved years of research even before the two-year building process began.

Mr McNeil puts the "huge success" of the game since its release down to space capturing the imagination with the Rosetta Mission and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic making recent news.