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I started playing KSP in 2012. Now I'm at college for astrophysics. Here's how KSP has changed the course of my life.


Entropian

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I never thought that on that evening in 2012 that a random game would eventually set me on a course to where I am now.  Now that we are upon the eve of KSP1's great adventure, I wanted to highlight how KSP has affected me.

I remember the first time I landed on the moon.  At first, I was stupefied and elated at finally - finally! - succeeding where I'd failed dozens of times before.  My lander parked beside me, I looked homeward to that beautiful blue and green marble - Kerbin.

I was introduced to Kerbal Space Program at the age of eight.  Over the course of the decade past, Kerbal has taught me the allure of spaceflight, from the celestial clockwork of orbital mechanics to the vast expanse of space.  Ever since I first launched my first rocket all those years ago, I have been captivated by spaceflight.

  Kerbal taught me to love science, spaceflight, and engineering.  It also changed the course of my life immensely.  I will be attending college this year to pursue further education in physics and engineering.  It is my hope that one day I will fulfill my dream of working in astronautics – a dream inspired by Kerbal Space Program.

I’d like to extend my deepest thanks to the developers - the people who made Kerbal possible.  Kerbal never would be as it is today if not for your enthusiasm, care, and dedication to Kerbal and its community.

I’d also like to express my gratitude to the Kerbal community.  Your passion for space exploration, commitment to teaching others, and infinite creativity and innovation has truly made an impact on my life.

As a homage to KSP, I created a 10-minute long cinematic video montage.  Go check it out if you want!

(Moderators: please don't move this to Fan Works if you're considering it - the main point of this post is to talk about how KSP has influenced my life and give thanks, not the cinematic. :))

 

Edited by Entropian
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A link to this post went up on our internal slack channel at Intercept yesterday and we all loved it. We are inspired and energized by stories like this - it's the main reason most of us (including me) joined this team to begin with. I hope you keep posting updates as your career progresses so we can watch your transition from Kerbal rockets to real ones!

Also, some incredible builds in that video. That mass driver at your Mun base was rad. :) 

Thanks for sharing, Entropian! 

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1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

A link to this post went up on our internal slack channel at Intercept yesterday and we all loved it. We are inspired and energized by stories like this - it's the main reason most of us (including me) joined this team to begin with. I hope you keep posting updates as your career progresses so we can watch your transition from Kerbal rockets to real ones!

Also, some incredible builds in that video. That mass driver at your Mun base was rad. :) 

Thanks for sharing, Entropian! 

Thank you so much!  I'm really happy that you got to see it!  I'll definitely keep y'all updated as I progress!  I'm glad you liked the mass driver; I put a lot of work into getting that shot as smooth as possible, so I'm happy that you liked it.  :D  Thank you very much for your response and good luck with KSP 2!

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I would like to say the KSP influenced me to get my pilot's license but, it was actually the other way around.

I was looking for an alternative Flight Sim to check out and came across KSP on the Google.

Dang near 9 years ago, already?! It went fast.

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This is just a friendly moderator poking his head in to say he has removed a few posts in the thread because they were off topic.  Guys and gals, there's no need to jump on the developers every time they show their faces. Let them participate in the forums too, OK?

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/12/2023 at 8:56 PM, Entropian said:

I never thought that on that evening in 2012 that a random game would eventually set me on a course to where I am now.  Now that we are upon the eve of KSP1's great adventure, I wanted to highlight how KSP has affected me.

I remember the first time I landed on the moon.  At first, I was stupefied and elated at finally - finally! - succeeding where I'd failed dozens of times before.  My lander parked beside me, I looked homeward to that beautiful blue and green marble - Kerbin.

I was introduced to Kerbal Space Program at the age of eight.  Over the course of the decade past, Kerbal has taught me the allure of spaceflight, from the celestial clockwork of orbital mechanics to the vast expanse of space.  Ever since I first launched my first rocket all those years ago, I have been captivated by spaceflight.

 

  Kerbal taught me to love science, spaceflight, and engineering.  It also changed the course of my life immensely.  I will be attending college this year to pursue further education in physics and engineering.  It is my hope that one day I will fulfill my dream of working in astronautics – a dream inspired by Kerbal Space Program.

 

I’d like to extend my deepest thanks to the developers - the people who made Kerbal possible.  Kerbal never would be as it is today if not for your enthusiasm, care, and dedication to Kerbal and its community.

 

I’d also like to express my gratitude to the Kerbal community.  Your passion for space exploration, commitment to teaching others, and infinite creativity and innovation has truly made an impact on my life. Now that I'm in college and aspiring to become a good specialist in the future, I'm glad that I came across the Kerbal training materials a few years ago. When we had a task about writing a profile essay for https://samplius.com/essay-types/profile-essays/ I had no doubts about which curriculum I should write an essay. Many people can't find their calling and can't figure out what major to choose to study at college or university. I am happy that I know exactly what I want to study and it inspires me.

 

As a homage to KSP, I created a 10-minute long cinematic video montage.  Go check it out if you want!

 

(Moderators: please don't move this to Fan Works if you're considering it - the main point of this post is to talk about how KSP has influenced my life and give thanks, not the cinematic. :))

 

 

 

Wow! It's great when your favorite hobby is so life-changing. This year I will also go to college and I have chosen a faculty, but I am not sure that my specialty will be to my liking. And if you dream of studying those sciences that you like, then it will probably be easy for you to study.

Edited by Charley
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  • 9 months later...

Well I guess I should give y'all an update:

I'm now attending college and am having a blast.  I knocked out my first quarter with great grades under twice the normal courseload, so I think I may be able to graduate in three years instead of four.  I've also been able to get into research for next quarter on observing the early behavior of supernovae and perhaps other transient events.  I'm still super into engineering and spaceflight though - to satisfy that, I've been working on portablizing my homemade fusor.  Hopefully I'll have that done in a couple months.

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On 1/12/2023 at 7:56 PM, Entropian said:

I never thought that on that evening in 2012 that a random game would eventually set me on a course to where I am now.  Now that we are upon the eve of KSP1's great adventure, I wanted to highlight how KSP has affected me.

I remember the first time I landed on the moon.  At first, I was stupefied and elated at finally - finally! - succeeding where I'd failed dozens of times before.  My lander parked beside me, I looked homeward to that beautiful blue and green marble - Kerbin.

I was introduced to Kerbal Space Program at the age of eight.

jumping in very late, but i must ask...

you started playing ksp at age 8?? like, you could actually understand something of what you were actually doing?

last time i brought my little cousin (age 9) on the trampolines, i could not get her to understand that in order to make a somersault she had to push herself forward, not upward, because forward and upward speeds are different. i thought ksp could be an educational tool for high schools, not earlier. How could an 8 year old understand a maneuver node? what was the trick to get a child to use ksp with some competence so young? I may want to use that in the future

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5 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

you started playing ksp at age 8?? like, you could actually understand something of what you were actually doing?

Yeah.

5 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

what was the trick to get a child to use ksp with some competence so young?

Well I was already interested in spaceflight since I had seen the launch of STS-125 in person, but my dad is somewhat of a disappointed physicist.  He graduated top of his class at one of the best universities in the world for physics, but is in a different field now (life happens, etc.), so he was able to teach me a lot.  It's not just about him though; I have a younger brother and after some help from me he was able to dock independently when he was 7.  So far as I can tell it really just boils down to interest and effective teaching.

5 hours ago, king of nowhere said:

How could an 8 year old understand a maneuver node?

I have really strong spatial reasoning so I assume that's the main reason.  I'm not sure if maneuver nodes were even a thing then though, it was ages ago.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thankyou for sharing your story! I've had a life-long interest in space which stays with me to this day, I had my kids in front of the computer at almost midnight (Time in Eastern Australia) to watch Starship 2 launch live. I've settled into a career as a civil engineer (Municipal, roads bridges etc) but there's still a part of me that dreams of space. Follow your dreams, be part of the new generation!

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