I Started Playing KSP for Fun, Ended Up Learning Rocket Science

Hello and welcome back to my blog!

I want to share something that I have been enjoying a lot lately. I picked up a new game called Kerbal Space Program (KSP). I don't remember how I got interested in it in the first place; maybe I watched someone trying to launch their rockets in this space simulator. At first, I just wanted to launch rockets for fun and see what it takes to do so, but it slowly turned into learning about orbits, gravity, delta-V, launch windows, and planning missions in deep space.

This post will not be a review of the game, but more about how it made me fall in love with spaceflight, science, and exploration. It has been a very unique experience so far.

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Build a Rocket and Pray

KSP doesn't teach you much about rockets and space flights in the career mode. There are separate tutorials to learn those, but I went it almost blind and came out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) with a somewhat simple rocket that had a few parts like a solid booster, a command and control pod, one astronaut, and a parachute to land back safely. It was fun to experiment and record science data during those early flights.

There is a whole Tech node which unlocks advanced parts with more 'science' points you collect. Once I had a powerful booster, I could make it out of the orbit of this planet called Kerbin. Its atmosphere extends upto 70km, and it wasn't that hard to get out of the atmosphere with the first few launches.

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Accidentally Left a Kerbal in Space for a Year

But getting out of the atmosphere is one thing, and orbiting around the planet is another. I had no clue how to get to a stable orbit. All I knew was that you needed to launch off and get out with more than the escape velocity relative to the surface of the atmosphere. But due to a thick atmosphere and gravity, it is not that easy. I had a few parts blow up into the atmosphere while re-entry.

Eventually, I learned about the technical terms involved in setting up orbits like Apoapsis and Periapsis, and how to properly use the 'NavBall' that looked like a globe on the screen.

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The first time I got to a stable orbit around Kerbin with an astranaut on board, it was one of the best feelings in the game. But that astronaut had to stay for a year in space before she could be rescued back to the planet safely. I only packed enough fuel to get to the space, but not enough to come back.

But why did it take me an in-game year to get to that astronaut? Because I had to learn rendezvous and how to properly match the same orbit as that spacecraft to rescue them.

I had to learn more efficient staging, unlock better engines and more science parts to perform more experiments to unlock even more things. There are different biomes on the planet, like deserts, grasslands, poles, etc., where you can collect more science points, and the progression system is fairly satisfying. The whole node tree takes a while to unlock, but it is worth the effort.

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Exploring the Mun and Soft-ish Landing

Once I mastered the space flight over the home planet, Kerbin, it was time to move to its moons. Kerbin has two moons: Mun and Minmum. Getting out of the influence of Kerbin is easier than it sounds; you just have to increase your velocity even more. And if you burn right, you will eject straight out to the Mun. Then, once you are in the sphere of influence of Mun, you can burn retrograde (or, in other words, decrease your velocity) until the gravity of Mun makes you orbit around it.

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One of the best feelings you can get in the game is to reach an undiscovered celestial body for the first time. It is a moment of pride for your space program. Landing, on the other hand, is a different beast. I had to launch another spacecraft to learn about landing. It was a lot of trial and error.

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Landing on Kerbin is easier because there is an atmosphere and you can utilise parachutes, but those moons were too small to have an atmosphere, so all you can rely on is your engine to slow down during descent. If you can't slow down enough in time, it means a bad impact and your Kerbal might die in the process, or worse gets stranded in space.

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Managing your fuel is one of the biggest challenges in space; every unit of it is such a precious commodity. A lot of planning is involved in building your rocket, to keep in mind the different stages of the rocket and what each stage is supposed to do. How can we get back safely if it is a manned mission? Things rarely go well in the first few attempts, so it is always planning, building, testing and retesting until you get a good rocket capable of doing its assigned task.

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There is no shortage of content in the game, too. Plenty of rocket parts, experiments and celestial bodies to explore. It is one of the best sandbox experience about space. But it might be a boring game for someone who loves action and story in their game. For me, it is very close to a perfect space sandbox game. And a big shoutout to the modding community for a lot of visual mods that enhance the stock experience even more.

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Another thing I love about this game is its subtle humour. Seeing those Kerbals smiling even when their whole craft is blowing apart will always be funny. The item descriptions of new parts and the whole humour about it are well done. I recommend the game for anyone looking for a fun and educational experience. It can be very frustrating and hard to learn because we are literally talking about Space rocket science lol.