PC Gamer

I

thought I knew the
kinds of stories that
would come out of
Kerbal Space
Program’s newest
expansion,Making History.Now
thatKSP’s legendary modding
community has access to all the
scripting and planning tools it could
ever need, I was sure we’d see
recreations of the doomed Apollo 13
mission, recreations of Apollo 11’s
historic moon landing, and
probably even an interplanetary
trading run inspired by the sci-fi TV
show, The Expanse.

It seems foolish that I never saw The
Martian coming. Author Andy Weir’s
story of a lone NASA astronaut
stranded on Mars is a perfect fit for
the focused, real-world-adjacent
rocket physics of KSP. Using the new
mission planner, KSP forum member

the cross-Duna road trip that I know

(spoilers!) is coming for me at the

end of the mission.

KSP isn’t just an astronaut sim,

though, it’s a space program sim, and

playing The Dunatian gives me a

whole new level of respect for the

tertiary characters in The Martian:

the NASA administrators, the Jet

Propulsion Lab engineers. At any

time I can jump away from Bill –

which is good, since the main threat

to his life is two years of crippling

boredom – and manage the other

missions that I’m juggling. I could

have been designing my own ships

for these flights as well, but frankly

this mod would have taken me years

to finish if I’d gone down that road.

Luckily, the mod’s author included

some gorgeous premade spacecraft

for each flight in the mission, so I

was able to spend my time piloting

instead of building.

THE DUNATIAN

A Kerbal Space Program recreation of Andy Weir’s The Martian. By Ian Birnbaum

Mikki recreated the drama of The

Martian for brave Kerbals to suffer

through. Behold: The Dunatian.

ALONE

A lot of really bad stuff happens to

Kerbals in their pursuit of

interplanetary glory. Burned, frozen,

squished, smashed, pulverised –

Kerbals die in many different ways,

but they carry on, unfazed. At the

start of The Dunatian, though, I

swear that Bill is looking terrified.

He’s been left for dead on Duna, the

KSP solar system’s Mars analogue,

and his crew and his ride home are

months away, nearing the end of their

tragic voyage back to Kerbin.

The mod kicks off right there, and

there’s an immediate laundry list of

things that need doing. Controlling

Bill, I potter around in rovers,

managing their limited batteries and

trying to figure out a way to survive

MAJOR MODS, ANALYSED

MOD SPOTLIGHT

The nearest toilet

is 30 light minutes away.