Kerbal Space Program

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#1

Here’s something that people here may find interesting. It’s an indie game called Kerbal Space Program. Basically you design a rocket (by dragging components together in a vertical assembly building), put it on the pad, launch it and try to get your astronauts back to Kearth safely. You can find it here.

It’s still in beta so there are a few bugs and they are still adding features. OTOH, it’s free.

Here’s a sample mission I ran:

On the pad.

Launch!

Boosters jettisoned

The Kearth is round! (Maximum altitude - 513.9 km)

Preparing for re-entry; orbital sunrise

Touchdown!

#2

Fun game. It’ll be interesting to see what’s available to build as development progresses. I built a death trap that only went about 1km verticle before I tried to jettson the first stage. Second stage fired causing a violent pitch over along with a collision with stage one. Didn’t even have a chance to eject the command module and try and save the poor crew.

When it comes to rocket games, crashing and burning is about as fun as having a successful launch.

#3

This has been true since the original (text based) Lunar Lander.

#4

You had the foresight to pitch over and go into an orbit. I just had a “successful” launch which burned all my fuel sending my guys on an escape trajectory. I’m sure eventually they would have made it back but I didn’t have time to find out.

Pro tip, the tricoupler with 3 liquid boosters stacked onto it causes an explosion. I guess it’s not capable of holding together with that much power on a single decoupling joint, though it might work if I was already up to speed instead of going from a stop.
EDIT: This was a failure of correct weight/power balance. I’m not sure what I need to do, but I’ve done some testing with different, smaller, configurations and it’s worked a bit better.