Once the vehicle is complete, you can begin testing it, starting with a launch. Players work with their Kerbals to design a working rocket, rover, aircraft or spaceplane using the set number of components. Set on an imaginary planet called Kerbin, cartoonish aliens, Kerbals, have shown a wonderful proficiency at spacecraft design and interplanetary flight. So well designed is the game that people who work in the space industry, such as space giants, NASA, have shown an interest in its development. Or, if meticulous industrial planning is more your thing, consider Factorio, which we reckon is one of the best PC strategy games around.Kerbal Space Program for PC is a space flight simulation game that uses realistic physics engines and precise engineering formulations that make it tricky to launch a successful rocket, but that make it exceedingly rewarding when you apply real life theoretical formulae to your design and see it work exactly as planned. If you fancy your space strategy mix, but want something a little harder than NASA’s family-friendly game, check out Surviving Mars. The interactivity of video games is often seen as a valuable way of teaching children and families about real-world issues, and the consequences of tough decisions. The Financial Times released The Climate Game (opens in new tab) only earlier this year, challenging players to manage a country’s economy and diversify its industries away from fossil fuels to reach a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. Video games are no strangers to edutainment. It lent the studio technical specifications and personnel to create an accurate 3D model of the International Space Station, and some NASA employees even volunteered as beta testers for the game. The agency previously teamed up with developer Vision Videogames to create the 2005 space station manager SpaceStationSim. This isn’t the first time NASA has co-operated in the development of a video game.

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