NASA's Artemis II mission just skyrocketed sales for this space video game

A video game about little green aliens building space rockets is seeing a resurgence tied to NASA's Artemis II mission.

Kerbal Space Program, which launched in 2015, is back on Steam's top sellers list and has seen nearly 15,000 additional monthly players (an increase of 241%), according to steamdb.info. The last time it saw a peak like this was when it debuted. The Artemis II launch is noted on the chart as a reason for the peak—on the day of the landing, April 12, Kerbal Space Program had over 21,000 people playing concurrently—an all-time high. According to Polygon, many players are returning fans, but a sizable percentage are new to the game. 

It makes sense why people would want to get their own space missions going. Artemis II was pretty freakin' cool.

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In Kerbal Space Program, you get to run the space program for the alien race known as the Kerbals. With access to parts, you assemble spacecraft to fly (or crash) into space to explore moons and planets and construct bases and space stations.

But be warned: this cutesy game is as hard as rocket science … literally! The gameplay is based on realistic aerodynamic and orbital physics, which makes it especially challenging. It has three modes: Science Mode, where you perform space experiments to unlock new technology and advance the knowledge of Kerbalkind; Career Mode, where you oversee every aspect of the space program, including construction, strategy, funding, upgrades and more; and Sandbox, where you are free to build any spacecraft you can think of, with all parts and technology in the game.

There's even a recent mod you can download that lets you play with the Artemis II ship.

The game has great reviews. It has a 94% approval rating on Steam and an 88 on Metacritic. It's a beloved cult classic—my husband has played it since it launched and says it's one of the best games of all time. Polygon reports that one Reddit user said the game helped them land a job at NASA itself.

"I don’t know if I’d be in this line of work without this game,” they said.

So for all you aspiring rocket scientists out there who want to try a moon mission yourself, Kerbal Space Program is available on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and more.