A fast-paced deck-building tabletop game of modern space exploration for 1-4 players. A new masterpiece from Martin Wallace.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
The final booster (why back now?)
about 4 years ago
– Mon, Feb 03, 2020 at 11:22:17 PM
Hello Everyone,
Today this campaign will enter the final 48 hours period. It means that all potencial backers, who are following this campaign, will receive a reminder, inviting them to the campaign page for the final decision. This could work like a final rocket booster, throwing us successfuly towards the stars!
So, let's talk about this for a moment: why should you pledge now?
Because you receive Kickstarter exclusive items, that won't be available in retail distribution or pre-orders after this campaign ends.
Because you get the best deal: discounted price 20% off the MSRP and a fast delivery: you will enjoy your game before it enters any other distribution channel.
Because this is a great game, designed by one of the World's top authors - Martin Wallace. You are supporting him this way, encouraging him to design more serious games for demanding players.
Because people who have already played Rocketmen confirm, that this one is worth backing!
There are different pledge levels - basic or more deluxe - letting you to get the game in a configuration you need. Every of these levels contains the Kickstarter exclusive set which, besides the Rocket & Launch Pad miniatures and Moon & Mars metal coins maybe will contain one extra piece... :)
Social Goal
During the weekend you have achieved (with 194 new interactions) the second social goal, introducing 12 new pieces of artwork to the game. And now there is the final social goal upon you, improving the exclusive content for those who support Rocketmen on this campaign!
If the following social media posts receive a total of 200 interactions before the campaign ends, we will add the Earth metal coin to your Kickstarter exclusive items pack! Please like, comment and share these posts:
Your support improves the content you get. Yes, that's true: common efort bring fruits - it is also true in the world of space exploration - just read the following article, written by irreplaceable Dr. Eric G. L. PINZELLI:
ORBITAL SHIPYARDS AND PROPELLANT DEPOTS
It seems like the stuff out of a science fiction movie. Trekkies, for example, are familiar with the 25th Century Utopia Planitia shipyards in Mars’ orbit, Starfleet’s construction and repair facilities. In reality, we already have this seemingly futuristic technology and the incentive: As human population should reach almost 10 billion by 2050 and resources will become increasingly scarce, space seems like a new frontier offering options for the preservation of our planet. Low Earth orbital docks will remove the need for spacecrafts to be launched from Earth's surface to escape the planet’s gravity and to re-enter the atmosphere for landing. Propellant depots, containing liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to reduce launch mass will also be critical components of the entire future space exploration and colonization as parts of a in-space transport and infrastructure system.
The building, refueling, and repair work on very large space-only transit vehicles usingnuclear propulsion, artificial gravity and/orhuge panels for photovoltaic power could be achieved in LEO. For riding to the Moon, the asteroids, Mars and beyond, instead of launching a number of very large payloads from Earth using rockets, which is particularly costly and inefficient as propellants usually take up to 2/3rd or more of their total mass, orbital shipyards with spacedocks would be used to assemble those complex and large manned spacecraft. For long duration propellant storage, large cryo-coolers powered by solar panels can be designed. To this day, satellite refueling systems don’t exist as satellites are not yet designed to be refuelable in orbit. This is about to change however: In 2019, Orbit Fab raised $ 3 million to make orbital refueling a viable reality. The U.S. startup company is working to establish the first depot in space for satellite refueling.
To go to the Moon or Mars, three accelerations are necessary: a first burst for leaving Earth’s orbit and course correction, another to slow down and to land on the surface, and a last one to take off again for the trip back to Earth. Cryogenic propellant in geosynchronous orbit, at Lagrangian point 1 or 2 would reduce the costs to travel to the Moon or Mars, facilitating much larger payloads for the spaceships on their journey after rendezvous with the space tankers. Propellants depots could also be sent directly in Lunar or Martian orbit. This will also lead to reduced stress on transit ship components with no launch or atmospheric re-entry necessary. In the future, it would make sense to mine the propellants from the asteroids or from the surface of the Moon, instead of bringing from Earth and delivering it to these “space gas station”. A string of shipyards and propellant depots will eventually set up humanity’s “Interplanetary Highway” in cislunar space and beyond.
It is great to have you here, on the final hours of this flight. Please keep the engines burning!
Michal & PHALANX Team
Polyvinyl Chloride
about 4 years ago
– Sun, Feb 02, 2020 at 06:03:29 PM
Hello Rocketeers,
Polyvinyl chloride is one of the world's most widely produced synthetic plastics. Invented in late XIX century, went to massive industrial usage in early XX c. We use it now to manufacture almost everything: from window frames and credit cards to miniatures for board games! We call them PVC miniatures.
For Rocketmen we have prepared 9 different miniature sculpts. Two of them combine into our Kickstarter exclusive Set, containing the launch pad and rocket. During the game you will use them to mark your mission points. Launching mission is a very tense moment, so it must be performed in style!
3D printout of Kickstarter exclusive Rocket & Launch Pad miniatures.
And here is a display of the other sculpts, that are used to mark the successful missions.
We have printed the miniatures already, and use them in every playtest session! :)
3D Printouts of Rocketmen miniatures.
Social Goal
With 236 interactions at 1200 GMT, you have nailed the first Social Goal easily! Congratulations, you have added 5 new Mission cards images to the game, for the full variety of these components! OK, so here is a new one (as promised yesterday), a thing that you have asked for in your comments:
The game will be enriched by new Personal Goal cards images if the following posts receive a total of 250 interactions. Please like, share, and comment on these social media links:
Be sure that if you break this one quickly, we will give you a new one! Please remember also to visit the Kicktraq page and click the green ‘ Visit Project’ button, to help us to show this project to other users of Kicktraq:
Thanks for your support! And now let's see what new possibilities are waiting for us on the Moon!
TOWARD A PERMANENT LUNAR OUTPOST
“Sending humans to the moon changed the future of the human race in ways that we don’t yet understand. It hasn’t solved any of our immediate problems on planet Earth, but it has given us new perspectives on them and caused us to look both outward and inward.” - Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) in 2015.
It has been 51 years since humans took their fist steps on the Moon. The Apollo program sent six missions to the surface of the Moon between 1969 and 1972. These missions have show that with the right commitment, giant leaps were possible. Since then, no human has ever set foot on the Earth’s satellite. There have been a great deal of foiled plans to go back, public interest in space travel waned rapidly. In the U.S., it has been a political issue. Although NASA has been working on concepts for human lunar exploration ever since the end of Apollo, changes in priorities from one U.S. administration to the next, and lack of financial support from Congress, resulted in a series of canceled programs (Constellation and Resource Prospector Moon rover among the latests). From 2007 to 2018, Google had set aside $30 million for its Lunar X Prize Competition: Whoever was to land a robot, travel on the surface, and send back pictures was going to grab the prize, however it remained unclaimed, and was eventually canceled...
THE MOON: WHAT’S FOR THE TAKING?
It’s also an economical issue and comes with a big price tag. Setting up a human presence on our nearest celestial neighbor will be a big step for further exploration of the Solar System, just a hop away from the Lagrangian points, an ideal location for a cislunar propellant depot. It would be easier to drop satellites into Earth orbit from the Moon thanks to its much lower escape velocity than our planet. Up to this day, there is nothing stopping private companies claiming property rights and mining the Moon. Earth’s satellite offers a wealth of natural resources ready for the picking that will certainly be exploited in the near future: Helium-3, water, mercury, gold, silver, platinum group metals, and rare earth metals. Helium-3 (which has a projected value of $40,000 per ounce), could potentially be a safer nuclear energy in a fusion reactor, since it is not radioactive and would not produce dangerous waste products. Atomic Oxygen (45% of the lunar regolith, the Moon dust) and solar power can be harvested in almost inexhaustible quantity. Ice water, which was discovered at the Moon’s poles in 2009, could be mined by future colonists, hydrogen and oxygen used for rocket propellant. The raw minerals present on the Moon would be used to build up an industrial infrastructure and support life in cislunar space. According to a recent study, the tens of billions of tons of Moon water could generate $2.4 billion of revenue annually.
THE MOON VILLAGE
The establishment of a lunar base is a question of when and how as public support is now stronger than ever. The last decades witnessed a new emphasis on returning to the lunar surface: The ESA, Roscosmos, NASA, the Indian and Chinese space agencies, and private companies all have worked on a multitude of Lunar base projects. In 2006-2007, Japan and Russia announced plans for a Moon base by the 2030s. In 2007, Jim Burke of the International Space University (France) proposed creating a “Lunar Noah’s Ark”, a Moon laboratory where a DNA bank and a pool of species would be preserved. There are a number of challenges in setting up a manned lunar outposts. Extreme temperature fluctuations (during the day the temperature on the Moon can reach 123° Celsius, while at night it can drop to -233° Celsius), the danger or solar and cosmic radiation, and micrometeorites that hit at 18kps to name a few. The solution to this threat could be protective domes, built from lunar regolith blocks using 3D printers, if the electrostatic nature of this dust can be handled. Others have suggested building the lunar colony underground or using insulated lava tubes. Using a phased approach, the future lunar village could grow and become almost self-sustainable. The Moon Village Association, based in Vienna, set the goal to create a global forum for the development of the Moon Village, where both international cooperation and the commercialization of space could thrive while conducting research, extract resources, and reap the benefits of new technologies.
The intentions of the space agencies and private firms are clear: Humans will be going back to the Moon to stay. The permanent Moon outpost will also be a proving ground for the far more epic – and perilous - Mars adventure and a stepping stone to Venus’ higher atmosphere, the Asteroid Belt, and Titan. “By going to the Moon we can learn how to extract what we need in space from what we find in space. Fundamentally that is a skill that any spacefaring civilization has to master. If you can learn to do that, you’ve got a skill that will allow you to go to Mars and beyond.” - Paul Spudis (1952-2018) in 2011.
Written by Dr. Eric G. L. PINZELLI
Thank you for your support! Please keep the engines burning!
Michal & PHALANX Team
Interview
about 4 years ago
– Sun, Feb 02, 2020 at 05:58:41 PM
Hello Rocketeers,
In the first campaign update we have published a Designer's Diary article written by Martin Wallace. And now we can give you a follow up, as we have asked Martin a few additional questions.
Martin Wallace playing Rocketmen at CanCon 2020.
What board games do you like to play, were any of them an inspiration for Rocketmen?
I generally prefer to play more complex Euro games such as Terra Mystica. I also enjoy Concordia. To be honest, I do not get much time to play commercial games, most of my time is spent playtesting. I do try to play the latest games but usually only get a single play in, so they rarely become favourites. I’ve played other deck-building games but am not a massive fan of them. I think the main reason is that many of them use the mechanism where you have to dump any unused cards. This feels overly restrictive to me. I like the option to hold on to some cards that you know will be important in later turns. I think the only space game I have played is Lift-off by Task Force Games, which was many years ago. It was a luck-fest then and probably has not aged well.
And what about the digital games? What role in creating board games are having digital games nowadays?
There is a two-way street between board games and digital games. Some board games are versions of video games while there are many apps that emulate board game. I do not play many of these myself, although I thought the Through the Ages app was very good, much better than the board game. I think there is a lot of synergy between the two forms and the markets do bleed into each other. At some point when I have some time I would like to explore what possibilities there are to bring more board game design sensibilities to digital game design.
Where did the idea to work with PHALANX come from?
That is a challenging question, requiring me to dig through my memory cells. I think I first became aware of Phalanx when I dealt with the Dutch version of the company, as started by Michael Bruinsma. When that folded the relationship with Phalanx Poland continued. They produced the Polish version of God’s Playground and then become the Polish partners for Discworld Ankh-Morpork. Phalanx have always been a very supportive company and after I ended Treefrog Games they continued to ask me to submit designs, which result in Rocketmen.
What board game are you waiting for in 2020?
I do not usually buy games, I’m not a collector. However, I do like the sound of Oath from Cole Wehrle. I think he is one of the more imaginative game designers working in the field today.
Thanks for the interview, Martin!
Social Goal
Since yesterday you have scored 121 interactions with our social media banners. We need 129 more to add to the game 12 new images for Personal Goal cards.
Please like, share, and comment on these social media links:
And now let's look into one of the most promising goal of modern space race.
21st CENTURY'S “GOLD RUSH”: ASTEROID AND COMET MINING
This could be the next -very- profitable business. According to Natalie Starkey, member of the former NASA Stardust mission, asteroidscould be worth billions or trillions of U.S. dollars, a fact confirmed by the Asterank database mentioning 711 known asteroids with a value exceeding $100 trillion! Although it takes large investments to reach and mine them, the return is potentially gigantic (Catching Stardust: Comets, Asteroids and the Birth of the Solar System, 2018). Bear in mind that there is no international law or treaty that explicitly prohibits the commercial use and extraction of space resources and it might even be good for our planet: extracting resources available in space could help to preserve Earth’s already depleted environment.
Asteroids and comets are leftovers dating back to the formation of the Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. There are three main types of asteroids: C-type (c. 75% of the asteroids), S-type, and M-type, which correspond to those that are largely composed of clay and silicates, silicates and nickel-iron, and metals. To this day, there are c.18,000 known near-Earth Asteroids. Many are easier to get to than the Moon. Comets are a rather small mix of rock, dustand volatile ices in orbit around the Sun in highly elliptical orbits. When approaching the Sun, the solar wind melts the ice and vaporizes, the debris appears as a tail. In 2004, NASA's Stardust spacecraft had collected samples of comet Wild2 and successfully returned those samples to Earth in 2006.
The technology to reach asteroids and comets is already available and demonstrated. Ryugu is a near-Earth Apollo asteroid of the C-type with a mass of about half a billion ton that was first spotted in 1999. Japanese space agency’s Hayabusa2 space probe, launched in December, 2014, traveled some 250 million km to reach the asteroid. Most of the mission went as planned, as Hayabusa2 deployed three of its four rovers successfully in 2018. The team involved learned more about what will be needed for deep-space primitive body exploration and sample return, a field in which Japan is now a leader. This new accomplishment paves the way to asteroid and comet mining in the near future. The Ryugu asteroid, which is composed of nickel, iron, cobalt, water, nitrogen, hydrogen, and ammonia, has a potential estimated value of over $80 billion.
Most asteroids and comets are small, and have extremely tiny gravity, which make relatively easy to mine: “Getting asteroidal materials is not a risky business, like launching materials up from Earth or the Moon. Transporting asteroidal materials is all ‘interorbital’, no risks of crashes, no huge rockets. The gravity of the asteroids is negligible. A person can jump off any but the largest asteroids with leg power alone.” - Don Nardo, Comets and Asteroids, 2003.
Before asteroid mining can really begin on a large scale, every asteroid and comet will need to be properly identified and assessed for the precise value of their minerals and resources. The privately-held British Asteroid Mining Corporation, as the U.S. Planetary Resources and Bradford Space companies arealready a step ahead, planning to prospect asteroids and identifying which presents the strongest economic case for mining, looking especially for Platinum Group Metals, some of the most rare and useful elements on Earth. Many experts believe that by the time space mining becomes widespread, only a small percentage of the materials mined will actually have to be sent back to our planet: A major portion of these resources will be used to construct and sustain human colonies in space.
Among the drawbacks, some scientists are already worried that once companies start mining and making a fortuneselling the materials back on Earth, it might start a rush, leaving our solar system over-mined, with eventually no space wilderness left at all. Should humanity use every resource available in space, or should this new frontier be protected from the predatory ventures of future interplanetary companies? For now, without regulation, the race is on to be the first to mine an asteroid profitably and become space’s most powerful corporation!
Written by Dr. Eric G. L. PINZELLI
During the upcoming weekend we won’t post updates and will be less responsive, to get some rest. But we will be back on Monday, with new campaign content. Have a great weekend!
Michal & PHALANX Team
Polychloroprene
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Feb 01, 2020 at 07:56:40 AM
Hello Rocketeers,
This is a common process, when innovations from military or space sectors are ultimately used on a massive scale in the civil sector. Invented in 1930 in pursuit of synthetic rubber, polychloroprene is used in a wide variety of applications, like protective clothing, laptop sleeves, mouse pads and… playing mats for board games! We call them neoprene mats.
The synthetic feeling of neoprene fits Rocketmen theme perfectly, adding another drop of immersion to your playing session. Just take a look at these photos!
To get the Rocketmen with these gorgeous mats please add them as an add-on to your Earth Pledge or switch your pledge to Mars or All-in Pledge. Thank you!
Social Goal
And now we would like to invite you to our first Social Goal event, which if met would pimp-up your game with new graphics. That in exchange for a few seconds of helping to promote the game in social media.
The game will be enriched by new Mission cards images if the following posts receive a total of 200 interactions. Please like, share, and comment on these social media links:
Meeting the target would also open a new, exciting Social Goal! So the faster you get this nailed, the better! And talking of reaching the goals please check the below story...
VIRGIN GALACTIC: SIR RICHARD BRANSON’S SPACE TOURISM COMPANY
In October 2017, when Sir Richard Branson vowed he would fly to space onboard his own company’s SpaceShipTwo within six months, not many people took him seriously with his track record of delays and failed predictions. This year, with Sir Richard’s 70th birthday coming up in June, Virgin Galactic will attempt to finally send the British billionaire in sub-orbital space. As the Chairman of one of the biggest conglomerates in the world, this attempt will be scrutinized by the entire planet. It might change the future of aerospace and human travel forever.
In 1999, envisioning the beginning of a new exciting era, Sir Richard registered a new company called Virgin Galactic, part of the Virgin Group. From the outset, Virgin Galactic focused on suborbital flights. Since these flights would require much less energy and infrastructure than orbital journeys, tickets could be cheaper. At the time, there were particularly ambitious projects of sending tourists to a Virgin space hotel within five years. In 2005, Branson and Burt Rutan, a renowned aircraft designer, founded The SpaceShip Company, a joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites.
Together, they designed and built the WhiteKnightTwo mothership that releases SpaceShipTwo at 13,000 m before the spaceship fires its hybrid rocket engine and climbs up to 90 km, below the Kármán Line. The company claims it may be able to go even higher. Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft resembles the X-15 rocket-plane operated by NASA and the U.S. Air Force from 1959 to 1968, but this Virgin Galactic version has a capacity of two pilots and six passengers. Once in sub-orbital space, the spaceship’s wings pivot into feathered position, and the ship is aligned for re-entry before gliding back to Earth. The entire flight lasts two and a half hours, for five precious minutes of some unique weightlessness experience.
Since 2008, Virgin Galactic uses the California Mojave test center, the first facility to be licensed in the U.S. for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, as the building and test site for its WhiteKnightTwo carrier airplane and SpaceShipTwo rocket plane. The major concern for any prospective customer remains the safety of space travel. In 2014, an accident during the VSS Enterprise test flight killed the co-pilot Michael Alsbury when the craft broke up in-flight, while the pilot miraculously survived. After harsh criticism from aeronautics experts and redesign, the company restarted testing in 2016 on its lone completed spaceliner, VSS Unity.
Virgin Galatic’s CEO, George Whitesides, a former NASA Chief of Staff, is keen on vertical integration from design to building, testing, and post-operation support, enabling quick progress and full control of the entire manufacturing process. Spaceport America in New Mexico is the new facility designated for operating the spacecrafts. The ongoing transfer to New Mexico serves as a signal that passenger flights are coming soon. The company plans to begin flying passengers after June 2020. More than 600 people have already booked for the £250,000 wild ride, and thousands more have expressed interest to fly with Virgin Galactic.
In October 2019, Virgin Galactic became the first publicly traded space tourism company in the world, and this year Branson is determined to gamble everything: If he goes sub-orbital and returns safely, commercial services will follow. On the other hand, an accident, especially with Sir Richard aboard, would probably doom the entire venture as Virgin Galactic’ shares could plummet in an instant to $0. Many experts still view the idea of commercial space travel as irresponsibly risky. Brushing any doubts or fears aside and always a step ahead, Branson recently registered the name “Virgin Interplanetary”: the British billionaire has faith in the future exponential growth of space tourism. If he is proven right, Virgin Galactic could well become dominant in this new and seemingly unlimited new industry!
Written by Dr. Eric G. L. PINZELLI
Last but not Least
There is a useful tool to track the course of Kickstarter campaigns, called Kicktraq. Please visit this page
and check out all the interesting data hidden behind the current funding level of this campaign. If you click the green ‘ Visit Project’ button, you will help us to show this project to other users of Kicktraq, so please do this as well. Thank you!
It is great to have you on the deck of this rocket. Please keep the engines burning!
Michal & PHALANX Team
3..2..1..Launched!
about 4 years ago
– Sat, Feb 01, 2020 at 03:15:53 AM
Hello Rocketeers,
Thank you very much for such a successful launch! That is something that every game designer and publisher dreams about. It seems that the game’s theme is close to your hearts - good to know, as it is the same on our part. We are very excited to run this project together!
The opening day is a good moment to invite the single most important person that is working on this project - the game’s designer. Ladies and Gentlemen, please read on to find out what Martin Wallace wants to tell you about the Rocketmen…
Designer’s Diary
The idea for the game came from Phalanx. They were keen to get a new design from me so I asked them to suggest some themes. It is really hard to design something on a blank canvas, but as soon as you are given restrictions then the creative juices start to flow. Their suggestion for a modern ‘space race’ game did not initially thrill me. I had played games such as ‘Lift Off’, based on the 1960s space race, and was not convinced you could design a good game on such a theme. However, setting the game in the present where you have private investors funding research rather than behemoth governments gave me options that a 1960s based game would not.
The first thing I do when tackling a subject is to go read up on it. There is not a massive amount of literature on the modern space race, but enough to give me a grasp of the field. The most useful books I read focused on Elon Musk’s Space X project, to the extent that the working title of the game was ‘Elon’. The problem with the old space race games is that you essentially build your rocket and then roll some dice to see if it gets to where you want it to go. Modern space flight is no different, each rocket launch is a roll of the die. The twist that gave me a way to make this process more interesting was the fact that these private pioneers still needed to make a lot of money from other projects to fund their dreams of space travel. Now I have a lot more elements to play with, which helps build a more interesting ecology within the game.
As some of you may be aware, I’ve moved around a bit since 2013. That year Julia and I moved to New Zealand. Then in 2017 we emigrated to Australia. In between we lived in a number of different places, which is not conducive to a game designer who has a ton of components and books to drag around with him. Once I got to Australia ‘Elon’ was the first design I focused on. I do not remember exactly how the first version worked but it was absolutely awful, hence why I’ve purged it from my memory. I’ve used deck-building in a number of my designs and as much as possible now I try to stay away from it as a mechanic, mostly due to the fact that I hate the idea of being reliant on one way of doing things. However, as the first version of the game was so bad I had to break down and smash the ‘Deck Building’ emergency glass. That pretty much did the trick. All of the elements that I wanted to represent in the game suddenly fell into place.
Within a fairly simple system I could have a range of cards that represented different forms of technology and business pursuits. Not all cards were focused on the space race, some are just about making more money to fund your research. The deck-building approach also allowed me to have players actively build their space ship with cards. You choose a mission and then decide how many cards are going to be included in your rocket. You can spend many turns building up an elaborate rocket that has a good chance of succeeding or knock something together quickly and hope that it does not blow up on the launch pad.
One of the first things I do when I move to a new area is check out the local gaming scene. That’s one of the great things about the hobby, you can quickly get to meet people over a board game. In moving to Brisbane I was lucky enough to be contacted by Jason Kotzur, who hosts a board game design group. Every Thursday we meet to play whatever designs folks bring along. For me this makes life a lot easier, as there is no question of playing a commercial game, so you are not asking gamers to forego their valuable gaming time on something that may or may not work. One of the members of this group is one of the best game testers I have ever met, Steve Deng. He broke the new version of ‘Rocketmen’ in about five minutes. He’s the type of gamer who will push a game to its limits on the first playthrough, even though he’s only just been introduced to the game.
With the help of Jason, Steve and the rest of the folks at the design group I managed to cobble something that held together nicely. The next test was to see if Phalanx were happy with it.
I sat down and played it with Jaro, Waldek and Michal at the UK Games Expo in 2018. Fortunately the response was positive. Having said that Phalanx then did a lot of development work on the game. I’ve dealt with a number of different games companies over the years and it is surprising the wide variance in development skills. Some companies do almost no development, they just publish what you give them. Others really work at it, such as Space Cowboys who did an amazing job with ‘Via Nebula’. Phalanx also put a lot of work into the development process and having played the final version I can only applaud them for the job they have.
The game is now a lot more streamlined and focused, without changing the core. An example of this is the way the symbol bonuses work. At some point in the game you have to launch your rocket and whether it succeeds or not depends on what cards you draw. My version gave bonuses on the cards for having certain symbols as part of your ship (computers, material science, biology and rocket strength). Whether you got the bonus or not was random. Phalanx simplified this by saying that the bonus depends on where you are going, so now computer technology always adds to Earth orbit missions, while material science always adds to missions to the moon. This has reduced the randomness in the game and given players an extra element to think about, as another rule development is that you cannot have duplicate named cards in your rocket. You have to think carefully about which cards you draft as they will tend to favour certain missions over others, and you really do not want to fill your deck with cards that quickly become redundant.
Over the years I have reduced the number of games companies that I do business with, mostly to keep my life simple. I like to work with companies that I can build a good personal relationship with, it’s not always about the money. Phalanx is one of that small group of companies that I am more than happy to work with. They have always been helpful and supportive towards me. They did an amazing job on Nanty Narking. They care about the games they put out and do the best they can by them. I am very happy with what they have done with ‘Rocketmen’. Hopefully you, the public, will enjoy the game too.
Thank you Martin for the great story and kind words! We are confident with the help of this most magnificent crew, the sky won’t be a limit!
And speaking about inspirations, we would like to introduce you to already know and loved Dr. Eric G. L. PINZELLI, who provides great articles for our Kickstarter campaigns. This time Eric will be with us to give you the most interesting facts about the current space race. As the game’s codeword was ‘Elon’, let’s start with…
ELON MUSK’S AMBITION: ENABLE HUMANS TO BECOME “A MULTI-PLANETARY SPECIES”
“The goal of Big Falcon Rocket is to enable anyone to move to the Moon, Mars and eventually outer planets.” - Elon Musk’s Tweet, May 13, 2018.
The Cold War is decades behind us and billionaires, not states, are now taking the lead in space exploration. Among them is Elon Musk, born in South Africa in 1971, probably the most revolutionary and inspirational of the new breed of space entrepreneurs.
Elon Musk, CEO of the electric car maker Tesla, Inc. and co-founder of Paypal, launched SpaceX in 2002. The aerospace company declared long term goal is to develop technology and resources suitable for the human colonization of Mars. Humanity hasn't been back to Earth's nearest neighbor, or even left Earth low orbit since the end of the Apollo missions in 1972: “If you look at rocket technology, it actually got worse other time: In 1969 we were able to go to the Moon, and with the space shuttle we were only able to go to lower Earth orbit, and when the space shuttle went away, we weren't able to go to orbit from the United States… That's a negative trend line.” Elon Musk, Mars (2016) – Inside SpaceX.
Elon Musk was determined to change this situation without knowing exactly how yet. In late October 2001, he traveled to Moscow with a small entourage to buy a refurbished Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. The billionaire figured it would be a good vehicle for sending a plant or some mice to Mars to “galvanize public interest” about space exploration again. After a fruitless third trip to Russia, Elon Musk decided he would develop his own rockets. Consequently, Space Exploration Technologies was founded in May 2002. “We started off with just a few people who really didn’t know how to make rockets.” - Elon Musk, 2017. An early series of three failures in a row between 2006 and 2008 on the Falcon 1 rocket did not deter the tech entrepreneur. The fourth and fifth launches were the first in a series of important milestones for the company.
At the core of Space X’s ambitious plans, reusability was the key to bringing down the huge cost of transporting mass to space, and to interplanetary destinations: “If one could figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.” - Elon Musk. Based on this revolutionary concept, SpaceX rockets are designed not only to withstand reentry, but also to return to the launch pad for a vertical landing. Some customers do prefer reused already tested boosters over new boosters.
Since its creation 18 years ago, SpaceX pulled out a series of impressive feats: it became the first private company to reach low Earth orbit with the fourth launch of a Falcon 1 (2008), to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (2012), and to achieve a vertical take off and landing with the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket (2015). On February 6, 2018, SpaceX launched successfully its first Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket launched from the US since the Saturn V Apollo missions, and from the same Kennedy Space Center’s pad LC 39. Musk’s own Tesla Roadster, included as payload, was sent into an elliptical orbit between Earth and Mars. More than a phenomenal use of cross-promotional marketing, this bold show demonstrated just how Elon Musk takes space exploration seriously and personally. Musk stated that SpaceX would not be publicly traded until the conquest of Mars was achieved.
In 2019, SpaceX used Falcon Heavy to launch larger payloads, while the company is at work on an even bigger rocket and vehicle called Starship, which is destined to ferry people to bases yet to be built on the moon, Mars and beyond. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has already booked a round-the-moon trip aboard Starship, which is targeted to launch in 2023. Genius or eccentric, Musk is profoundly convinced that humans will have no other alternative but to live and work on the red planet since “there will be some eventual extinction event” on Earth (New Space journal, June 2017).
According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk has now a net worth of $30 billion. This accumulated fortune will continue to fund the inspirational tech leader’s grandiose vision, his “biggest contribution to making life multi-planetary.”
