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The Kerbal Space Program

#1
Yazata Offline
Elon Musk plays it. (Not just on his computer but in real life!!!) So do the engineering geeks at NASA and the European Space Agency.

https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/game/...e-program/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerbal_Space_Program

It's a computer game that's basically a very detailed physics engine, in which you design and fly spacecraft on various missions. You assemble the rockets, plan the science, the telemetry, the life support. The strength of materials is similar to real life as are the orbital mechanics. (Translation: things blow up and crash.) You design rocket engines, pick rocket fuels, design structures, calculate interplanetary trajectories and try to figure out how to land your vehicles on planets with and without atmospheres with all kinds of gravity.

Edge magazine's review said, "The magic of Kerbal Space Program is not just that it manages to be both a game and a simulation, a high-level educational tool and something that is fun to simply sit and tinker with. It's that, in combination, these qualities allow for a connection with real history and real human achievement... Its ultimate promise to the player is not that you'll crack a puzzle that has been set by a designer, but that you'll crack a puzzle set by reality."


[Image: ksp_2.png]
[Image: ksp_2.png]

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#2
C C Offline
Works on Linux, which is good to know. I often fantasize about not only chucking Windows, but abandoning it altogether. But that's all it ever can be is a dream.
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#3
Yazata Offline
Here's an introduction to the KSP. In the process of explaining the KSP gameplay, it's also kind of a quick introduction to Rocket Science. While a lot of it describes the various screens, displays and views, they aren't unlike the displays at NASA's (or SpaceX's) mission control. Then if you scroll down (and down and down) you get into more details of orbits, velocity changes, stability, attitude control and all kinds of things like that. There's even information on atmospheric aircraft design, and you can simulate designing airplanes on KSP too.

https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/files/KSPedia-PC.pdf

The game's 'career mode' is kind of cool. You are the Elon Musk equivalent, the space program administrator. You start with a limited amount of money. Each part and construction process costs money. But there are contracts. Take a contract and fulfill it and you make money. The less ambitious your design (provided it works) the less reputation points you earn. The more ambitious, the more points. And the quality and lucrativeness of future contracts depends in part on your reputation points.

You have department heads beneath you. Each of them is pushing a 'strategy'. Not all of the strategies are consistent. Not all of them cost the same. Not all of them have the same likelihood of succeeding.

You have to choose your astronauts and decide what training they receive. Better trained astronauts can perform more tasks. But inevitably there are costs. So you have to draw up crew rosters and timetables.

Then you need a vehicle. You get a whole assortment of parts to choose from, all with different price tags. You get general design principles like positioning centers of mass, thrust and lift relative to each other. And different ways of fastening parts together so that they come apart at the right time (like stage separation) and not before. You need to plan for reentry, aerobraking and heat-shields and for the various stresses and loads on each part. The parts don't only have different prices, they have different masses. You want to minimize takeoff mass, but not have your whole thing collapse like a house of cards. You need fuel and oxidizer in sufficient quantity to complete your mission, but not too much because they are massive. But running out of fuel in space means loss of the mission, so you need safety margins. And on and on. Engines, thrust and delta-V (change in velocity).

Then get the whole thing into orbit. If the goal is to go somewhere, a space station, a moon or another planet, you need to figure out the orbital mechanics and plan the necessary rocket burns to achieve each step. You need to keep tabs on the cumulative radiation exposure your astronauts are receiving. Along with their psychological state. All while monitoring fuel consumption. And electricity. And food. And air.

And on and on. They don't call it "Rocket Science" for nothing.
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#4
stryder Offline
Prior to it's main release (before they added more things) I did manage to both get a Kerbal to the Mün (Kerbals Moon) and back (That took some doing since it's extremely easy to burn up the fuel if you don't micromanage it)

I think I was using at least a 3 stage rocket:
  • first stage to get out the atmosphere (Some of which can be retrieved)
  • second stage to get to and then land on the Mün (That bit gets left behind)
  • Final stage to launch from the Mün and return. (Parachutes a plenty, making sure I burnt the fuel reduced the weight although you still need thrusters for any trajectory changes)

I also manage to send a Space Exploration Satellite into an Orbit with the star however there was no way I would ever be able to get it to return. (It took a lot to adjust it's orbit before it ran out of fuel)

The building of the ships themselves I had all sorts of fun with, it went from the conventional rocket look, right to "Can I launch this monstrosity build with 8 boosters?" I mean I was rigging up was where the fuel tank would empty as the rocket went up and the lower empty tanks would then be jettisoned, the problem was of course that it completely alters it's centre of mass, so the rockets behaviour changed the further up it went.
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