Kerbal Space Program

After NASA’s recent Artemis II crewed spaceflight around the Moon, the old space flight simulation game Kerbal Space Program has increased in popularity again.

I am not really a gamer, but I’m interested in celestial navigation, orbital mechanics, and spaceflight. I was reminded about Kerbal Space Program from listening to an episode of Fraser Cain’s Universe Today podcast, so I decided to finally buy it.

There are two versions available, the original Kerbal Space Program and the newer Version 2. Version 2 was never finished, with many missing features and a myriad of bugs; the recommendation is to buy Version 1. Although the software is old, it runs fine on Apple Silicon Macs and on Windows ARM computers. Neither version is getting updates now.

I downloaded the Steam app from https://store.steampowered.com/ onto my MacBook Pro and installed it. I opened the app and created an account on the Steam platform. I had difficulty creating a password; I used 1Password to generate 20-character random passwords, but the Steam app rejected two different passwords without explaining why. I resorted to creating a 12-character password with numerals and lowercase and uppercase letters. When I logged in, I received an email with a five-character code to confirm my login. So I guess security is adequate.

Using the Steam app, I purchased Kerbal Space Program and the two extensions, “Breaking Ground” 1.7.1 and “Making History” 1.12.1, for the bargain price of $18.13, including sales tax. I installed the software on my M4 Pro MacBook Pro and on my Surface Laptop 7; it runs fine on both computers.

Now I need to play the game and learn how to navigate a rocket ship in space, after which I need to explore the mods that users have created and read the forum.

There is a new, similar game under development called Kitten Space Agency that is available as a free pre-alpha release for Windows and Linux.