Category Archives: Simulators

Kerbal Space Program – a game to create your own space program

July 7, 2013 TopSpacer

s a multi-genre game where the players create their own space program.

In KSP, you must build a space-worthy craft, capable of flying its crew out into space, without killing them. At your disposal is a collection of parts, which must be assembled to create a functional ship. Each part has its own function and will affect the way a ship flies (or doesn’t). So strap yourself in, and get ready to try some Rocket Science!

Some features include:

The Vehicle Assembly Building and the Space Plane Hangar allows players to build spacecraft out of any imaginable combination of parts.
Fully-fledged, Physics-based Flight Simulation ensures everything will fly (and crash) as it should.
Take your Kerbal crew out of the ship and do Extra Vehicular Activities
Fly out to Moons and other Planets
Procedural Terrain delivers detailed terrain at a vast scale. The Kerbal Planet is 600km in radius!
Mod-enabled, allows players to create new content and modify the game.
Ship systems. Keep an eye out for engine temperatures and fuel levels, and try not to explode.
Build ships with multiple stages, and jettison parts away as they burn out.
Full control over the staging sequence allows for complex ships and advanced functionality.

The program can be purchased in the KSP Store and Kerbal SpacePort sells add-ons.

Several videos about the software can be found in the Kerbal Space Program YouTube Channel. For example,

Astronomy, Education, Simulators

The Space Engine freeware simulator

July 5, 2013 TopSpacer

The Space Engine is

a freeware space simulation software that lets you explore the universe in three dimensions, starting from planet Earth to the most distant galaxies. Areas of the known universe are represented using actual astronomical data, while regions uncharted by astronomy are generated procedurally. Millions of galaxies, trillions of stars, countless planets – all available for exploration.

Here are a couple of videos describing the program:

Find more space sim links in the HobbySpace Space Simulations section.

Living in Space, Simulators

HI-SEAS and maintaining a healthy appetite in space

June 26, 2013 TopSpacer

Here’s an article about the HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) project and their current emphasis on the challenges of foods and food preparation during long term space expeditions: In Space, No One Can Hear Your Takeout Order – The New Yorker.

Here’s a HI-SEAS video about the project:

Astronomy, Simulators, Software

Space on the iPad + Tutorials for the Orbiter simulator

June 8, 2013 TopSpacer

Here’s a review from Bruce Irving of several space related apps for the iPad device: iPad Astronomy – Music of the Spheres.

See also his free ebook, written with Andy McSorley, on the Orbiter spacecraft simulation program: Virtual Spaceflight – Go Play in Space

He includes a free presentation about the Orbiter: Go Learn in Space v2 – (pdf, 2.8MB).

Living in Space, Simulators

HI-SEAS project simulates long space voyage

May 27, 2013 TopSpacer

The NASA funded project HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) is investigating human factor challenges for a Mars mission. They are starting with a four-month simulated mission with 6 non-astronaut “crew members” in a dome near Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano. One of the issues that will focus on is food, in particular those foods that can be stored for long voyages but are still tasty : Aloha, Mars! What we’ll eat, wear and play with to ease boredom in space – Cosmic Log

Here is a video from earlier this year when the project participants carried out a short term simulation at the Mars Society‘s Mars Desert Research Station in Utah: