Like Zathura, but less fantasy? Or Monopoly, but no money? How about a solar system colonizing game but insted of battles, challenge the success of imaginary colonies or space stations?

Maybe start thinking about the actions that are space related, that players would do.

Is it about politics? Resource management? Is it more like playing a hero-character and fighting stuff? Are you searching for stuff (exploring) and you need something to complete a mission (-> racing condition)?

Game name: Orbital Mechanics.

Board: Eight planets orbiting counter clockwise around the Sun. Their orbits are the correct number of astronomical units from the Sun. (The exact number of centimeters would be based on the size of the board. The orbits would be marked as circles on the board.

The board are tiny squares. Spacecraft move from one square to another.

Board Set Up: Planets would randomly placed on their orbits. Spaceships for of all players are placed on Earth at the start of the game. Though there is no reason players couldn't start on/orbiting another planet. There is no reason players couldn't start on/orbiting different planets.

Numbers 1 through 8, but not including 3, are placed in a box. Each player draws a number from the box. 1=Mercury, 2=Venus... 8=Neptune. This becomes their target planet. The first player reaching their target planet is the winner. One obvious issue is that reaching Mars should be easier than reaching Neptune. I haven't figured out how to deal with this.

Play Movement: Players take turns moving diagonally toward their target planet.

Their first move is 1 square. Their second move is 2 squares. Third move 3 squares. Each move is more squares. But halfway to their target they must start moving 1 less square so the spacecraft allows down.

After each round of play all planets are a number of squares along their orbit. Neptune is moved one square. Uranus two squares. Saturn three squares. ... Mercury 8 squares.

A spaceship sitting within 2 squares behind the planet when it moves will add the number of the planet's move to the spacecraft's future moves. For example, if a planet moved 5 squares on the move putting it on Jupiter's orbit. When Jupiter moves 4 squares along its orbit, the spacecraft moves 9 on its next move and adds 9+6 moves on the next move.

A spaceship sitting within 2 squares in front of a planet when it moves will subtract the number from the spacecraft's future moves.

When a spacecraft reaches the halfway point in the trip, the spaceship needs to move one less move on additional moves to slow down the spacecraft. The spacecraft can only land on the target planet in one move. If spacecraft are moving too fast when reaching the planet, spacecraft must orbit the planet slowing down one each move, until spacecraft can land in one move. First, spacecraft to land on the target planet in one move wins.

Well, I figured getting to space, for Humanity, is really going to be an everybody effort. Study Ernest Callenbach, current state of the art in post scarcity, and build that game that slowly gets people ready for a world wide effort.

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