Kerbal Space Program

**rajpoot** · 04-22-2012, 16:14

Interesting little game about building your own spacecraft and then flying it into space.
It's still in alpha stages but you can pre-order it and get each new version for free ala Minecraft.
It also has a growing mod community, so it's a win win.

There's a also a free demo which is an earlier version (but it has everything you need to get into orbit and land on the moon and stuff).

Been messing around with it for hours. After half a dozen failed attempts at moon landing, I made a three stage thruster system and inadvertently managed to launch myself into an orbit around the sun. Never made it to the moon though.

Website

Website for mods

**Ibn-Khaldun** · 04-22-2012, 16:38

Ha ha.. that looks like a fun game!

**Ibn-Khaldun** · 04-22-2012, 18:12

Ok, I've played it for a while and it really is very fun game. So far I have only killed 6 kerbalnauts(?) out of 7 launches. The Moon still looks too far but not for long.

@rajpoot - Any advice on how to build a good spaceship? ~:P

Edit: It seems the right term would be kerbonaut..

**Kekvit Irae** · 04-22-2012, 18:16

**Monk** · 04-22-2012, 18:39

I remember playing with this way back when the version was .6 or something. It was utterly hilarious to build rockets and have them critically fail on the launch pad. The game strikes a really fun balance between legitimate rocket science (yeah, seriously) rocket design and simple silly fun.

It's amazing to see how far the game's come. The newest version in the video kekvit post actually has orbit paths and a moon. While you could always achieve orbit, it looks significantly "easier" to do so now.

If you've never had the fun of KSP then you really owe it to yourself to check it out.

@The King

Check their forums and ask there. When i last visited there were tons of helpful people who could give you all kinds of advice, and the devs love throwing math and formulas around and showing off how deep the mechanics of their game are. I don't know if it's still there but in the old versions there were tons of mods available for more engines, rocket types and different stage separation devices. That's where the real fun came from imo.

**rajpoot** · 04-22-2012, 19:36

@The King

I'm pretty much a novice myself but a few things I've learned by hit and trial is that you need considerable amount of fuel to provide enough acceleration (say 6 cylinders) to merely make it out of the planet's gravity well.
The solid thruster seems useless. Also you need multi-staged thrust system. Like you use up the first stage to get into orbit, then drop that off. Then use second stage to get to Mun.

I haven't been able to control flight in space as yet, or even make it to any orbit on purpose. When I did make it to the orbit around sun it was accidental. I just made a 15 cylinder ship with three thrusters in the first stage and one in the second using the three way connector thing. Then I just put it on full throttle and let it fly. Made a few adjustments in order to achieve what I felt was an optimum path to Mun, when suddenly Mun flew by and zooming out I found that the trajectory plot now went around the sun in a full circle.

If you're in orbit and you run out of fuel you're stuck see.

There's also a wiki. haven't had time to read it yet, but I'm sure you can find some advanced stuff there.

**Hooahguy** · 04-22-2012, 20:57

This really is a cute, fun little game. Still have no idea how to get into orbit, I dont even make it out of the light blue area of the atmosphere classification at the top.

One of my doomed launches:

**Hooahguy** · 01-30-2015, 00:16

I'm debating whether or not to, for now it's just sandbox mode. When I get better at it I think I'll try science mode, then career.

**Hooahguy** · 03-04-2015, 19:37

KSP is 40% off on Steam until March 9th, for those who are interested.

**Hooahguy** · 04-27-2015, 19:59

Well, KSP is finally out of beta! KSP v1.0 was released today and it includes a huge number of new features, fixes, and just awesomeness. Cant wait to blast some Kerbals into oblivion after work today.

**Veho Nex** · 04-27-2015, 22:27

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

Well, KSP is finally out of beta! KSP v1.0 was released today and it includes a huge number of new features, fixes, and just awesomeness. Cant wait to blast some Kerbals into oblivion after work today.

Me too hooah, me too

**Hooahguy** · 04-28-2015, 19:31

So I had a bit of time to try my hand at the 1.0 version, its a lot more difficult I think even to just get your rocket into orbit. In the past you didnt really need work that hard to get something into space. You could do a 45 degree gravity turn even within the atmosphere and not tumble out of control. But not anymore, I tried to launch a simple rocket last night and following the way I was used to, I pointed my rocket 45 degrees when I hit around 12,000km. The result was that I did a couple of flips and plunged back to the ground as by that time I had lost momentum and it was generally not a good time for the Kerbalnauts on board. Thankfully I managed to separate their capsule and get them to safety before the rocket exploded, but the lessons were learned. Apparently now you have to turn much more gradually than before, so that will take some getting used to.