Kerbal Space Program Educational Evaluation

Kerbal Space Program
https://www.kerbalspaceprogram.com/
Developer: Squad
Available On: Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox 1
Developed Using: Unity

In Kerbal the goal is to run a space program for the Kerbal race. The player has access to parts which allow you to assemble spacecraft and they function based on realistic aerodynamics and orbital physics. The game’s career mode as the player managing construction, strategy, funding, research, and all other aspect of managing the space program.

The core gameplay is building an aerospace vehicle for experimentation, then launching that vehicle. Players will control the trajectory and module activations in order to succeed in a goal determined by the player. Some of these goals may align with and be driven by contracts space fairing agencies in the game receive and provide additional rewards. After a successful mission or a handful of successes the player can spend their resources on upgrading their base.

KSP primarily teaches the user all of the required skills through a semi tedious set of training missions. Some general knowledge that must be obtained before hand are using the peripherals or system, concepts of earning, saving, and spending currency, and the ability to read and understand in the language the game is being played in at a 4th grade level. Some beneficial knowledge is that of physics, geographical, and aeronautical terms, such as sea level, atmosphere, velocity, but these terms are likely understandable with context clues and time.

Rocket science is a complex topic and there are many take aways the player can receive based on general experimentation and interaction within the game. Some of the core concepts developed in the game are understanding the center of mass, center of thrust, thrust to weight ratios, and aerodynamics. Players are free to jump into the game and add tons of thrusters to the vehicle, and they will quickly see that vehicle dismantle itself in flight. They can also create an asymmetric vehicle that can’t recover its trajectory, and they will see it spiraling into the dirt. Through low cost, or no cost in sandbox, failures they can experiment and learn rapidly.

The orbital mechanics and aerodynamics concepts are very useful in conceptualizing the general ideas, and this will decrease the difficulty of learning them traditionally. In depth analysis of the game can also improve their logical skills when breaking down and solving equations.

Mechanically this game is extremely complex. The core interactions are the physics systems which are models are similar to those that were used in the 1960s by NASA.

Dynamics in the game include players assembling and controlling vehicles that interact in the physics framework, purchasing new parts and resources, and earning resources through contracts and milestones.

The aesthetics this game primarily delivers on are dependent on their level of involvement and engagement. The core of the game is discovery and expression, where the player will explore the mechanics and the virtual landscape while creating vehicles with their own flair. When delving into the community based aspects, where players share mods and unique vehicle designs the title can encompass fellowship. When participating in that robust mod scene the player can find even more intense challenges.

Active learning is encouraged and the only way to properly progress in KSP. If the player doesn’t experiment, they won’t understand how to build a proper vehicle for their goals, and the more the player experiments the easier it will become for them to create a vehicle to target a specific goal set.

Prior knowledge or incorrect pre-existing ideas can play a large part in how quickly a player gets off the launch pad in KSP. One example is the Godard puller rocket or pendulum rocket effect, which is attempting to stabilize a rocket by having the engines near the top and high weight at the bottom. This causes an extremely unstable vehicle. In the game this is seen quite quickly by losing control of the rocket and it crashing.

As mentioned with the pendulum rocket, the player is immediately receiving feedback on their experiments. The different ways a vehicle fails may not always be obvious, but the game allows for quick iterations and the ability to feel slight improvements or detriments in the design.

On its own KSP is a marvelous experience, but In the context of the EDGE framework this game is thoroughly cohesive. The discovery focused aesthetic of KSP’s design provides outstanding experimental based learning in an engaging system that can teach users of most ages new concepts that can be applied to understanding the world around us. These understandings can even help encourage different career goals.