Kerbal Space Program

Teaching the Solar System with a Video Game

"Teaching the Solar System with a Video Game" presents Wentian, a Unity-based educational game designed to teach solar system astronomy by combining scientific accuracy with engaging gameplay grounded in game-based learning theory.

• Wentian is a Unity-based educational game teaching solar system astronomy, built on a 1:10,000 km scale with NASA textures and Kepler's and Newton's laws for orbital motion.
• The authors argue that existing tools (Universe Sandbox, Kerbal Space Program, NASA Eyes on the Solar System) each lack some combination of interactivity, structured objectives, or accessible content that Wentian aims to provide.
• A user study with 13 participants, mostly males aged 20 to 30, found statistically significant positive feedback on all ten questionnaire items under one-sided binomial tests (p < 0.05).