Kerbal Space Program

[rhombus]

I absolutely love this program.  It is a spaceflight simulator for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  However, it is much more than that.  Not only does it allow you to build your own spacecraft, but it also allows you to pilot your creations.  It also packs quite the challenge in that you have to carefully plan your trajectory in order to enter a stable orbit, perform a deorbital burn, and to safely land.  It is still in alpha and will be for quite some time, but even so it is one of the most entertaining and educational games I have played in quite some time.

https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Has anyone else played this game?  If not and it sounds interesting to you, it does have a demo version which provides for the spaceflight and rocket-builder modes.

[jansenov]

I wonder if you could build a fully reusable multi-stage rocket before Elon Musk does so for real.

[vonboy]

You can kinda role-play a fully reusable rocket like that, by putting parachutes on every bit of rocket you leave behind, but they usually disappear after awhile when you get far enough away from them if your close to the planet.

They are working on the career mode right now, and that will probably allow that. Right now, they only have research to do to unlock the tech-tree. There's currently no working money system, and you can just build as much stuff as you want to for free. That's fun for some, but it get's boring for pretty wuick if there's really no challenge to it.

I've been playing the game some, but I'm really looking forward to career mode getting fleshed out a lot more. I think it'll make the game many times more challenging and fun for me, kind of like how Survival mode made Minecraft much more fun for me than that old classic version, where you could just build whatever you wanted with unlimited resources.

[rhombus]

I've been playing the game some, but I'm really looking forward to career mode getting fleshed out a lot more. I think it'll make the game many times more challenging and fun for me, kind of like how Survival mode made Minecraft much more fun for me than that old classic version, where you could just build whatever you wanted with unlimited resources.

I agree.  It will be interesting to see how disasters and successes will impact your funding levels.  Another add-on that I am waiting for is the inclusion of realistic atmospheric effects.  Right now the effects of atmospheric drag are highly simplified in the game, but it will be interesting to see how that changes in the beta version.  The choice of heat shield and the angle of approach for reentry, for example, will become quite an important consideration.