A hands-on space-colony building game where students keep explorers alive by balancing power, air, water, food, and people — one smart decision at a time.
Students land on a world — the Moon, Mars, Venus, Enceladus, or Europa — with four colonists and a small landing pod. Their job is to grow a thriving colony by building the right things in the right order. Every building is part of a system: a solar array makes power, that power runs an oxygen generator, that oxygen keeps colonists breathing, and happy colonists invite more colonists. Nothing works in isolation, so children constantly practice systems thinking, cause-and-effect reasoning, planning, and troubleshooting — the heart of computational thinking — while soaking up real space-science and engineering ideas.
The game is friendly and forgiving (no violence, no timers that punish), and a guided Mission Control walks students through their first colony step by step. It can be read aloud for emerging readers.
On the start screen, students pick a destination. Each world has different sunlight and ice, so the same plan won't work everywhere — Venus is sun-soaked but dry; Europa is icy but dim.
Tap a building card at the bottom, then tap the ground to place it on the grid. Rotate with R, and drag to draw Walkways. 40 buildings across 7 categories.
The top bar shows live amounts and + / – per-second rates for Metal, Oxygen, Water, Food, and Science. This is the data students read to make decisions.
Solar Arrays make power only in sunlight; a Battery Bank stores it for the long lunar night; Reactors run around the clock. Watch the SOL day counter.
Oxygen Generators, Ice Extractors (water), and Hydroponics Farms (food) keep colonists alive. Run out and colonists get unhappy — then leave.
New colonists arrive when there is housing, healthy food/air/water, and enough happiness — boosted by Parks, Canteens, and a Medical Bay.
Regolith Mines, Refineries, and Research Labs need workers — output grows as more colonists staff them, teaching supply and staffing.
Banking Science promotes the colony through Touchdown → Foothold → Expansion → Frontier City, unlocking better buildings — a clear goal ladder.
Walkways, Transit Tubes, Rover Garages, and Monorail Stations connect buildings so colonists (and vehicles) can get around the base.
The OBJECTIVE card gives one clear task at a time (16-step campaign), modeling how to break a big goal into small steps — then opens into free play.
A speaker button reads each objective aloud in a clear voice — an accessibility feature so emerging and non-readers can play independently.
Demolish removes a building (50% refund) and Disable switches one off — letting students isolate and fix problems in their colony.
Pause / 1× / 2× / 4× control time; drag, pinch, and rotate to look around; progress autosaves so a colony can continue next session.
Lunar Outpost is not a coding environment — students don't write code — so this guide aligns to the computational-thinking and engineering-design practices the game genuinely exercises. Codes and titles below are quoted verbatim from the CSTA K-12 CS Standards (2017), Level 1B (grades 3–5) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
| Code | Standard (verbatim) | How Lunar Outpost addresses it |
|---|---|---|
| 1B-AP-11 | Decompose (break down) problems into smaller, manageable subproblems to facilitate the program development process. | The Mission Control chain models decomposition directly: "build a self-sufficient colony" becomes power → air → water → food → housing. Students learn to attack a big goal one buildable step at a time. |
| 1B-AP-15 | Test and debug (identify and fix errors) a program or algorithm to ensure it runs as intended. | When oxygen drops or the grid browns out, students diagnose the cause on the dashboard and fix it — add a generator, build a Battery Bank, or Disable a power-hungry building to test a theory. Classic debugging of a system. |
| 1B-AP-08 | Compare and refine multiple algorithms for the same task and determine which is the most appropriate. | There are many ways to power a base. Students compare Solar + Battery vs. a Reactor, and refine their plan for each world (Venus favors solar; Europa favors reactors), choosing the most appropriate approach. |
| 1B-DA-07 | Use data to highlight or propose cause-and-effect relationships, predict outcomes, or communicate an idea. | The live +/– resource rates are data. Students read a falling number, propose the cause ("too many buildings, not enough oxygen"), and predict what happens next — then act before colonists leave. |
| 1B-DA-06 | Organize and present collected data visually to highlight relationships and support a claim. | In Lesson B, students record power generated by day vs. night into a simple chart and use it to support the claim that solar power alone can't survive the lunar night. |
| 1B-IC-19 | Brainstorm ways to improve the accessibility and usability of technology products for the diverse needs and wants of users. | The game's read-aloud narration and large touch targets are accessibility features. Students evaluate who they help (emerging readers, tablet users) and brainstorm further improvements — designing for real users. |
| Code | Performance Expectation (verbatim) | How Lunar Outpost addresses it |
|---|---|---|
| 3-5-ETS1-1 | Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost. | Keeping colonists alive is the need; the criteria (positive oxygen/food/water) and constraints (limited metal, power, and grid space) are visible on screen the whole time. |
| 3-5-ETS1-2 | Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. | Students weigh building choices (which power source? which world?) against cost and payoff, comparing solutions before committing precious metal. |
| 3-5-ETS1-3 | Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved. | The Disable and Demolish tools let students change one thing at a time and watch the rates — a fair test — to find and fix a colony's weak point. |
| 4-PS3-4 | Apply scientific ideas to design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another. | Solar Arrays convert sunlight into electricity that powers the base. Students design and refine a power system, seeing energy transform and flow from source to use. |
Students will break the goal "keep colonists alive" into an ordered list of steps and follow it to build a working starter colony.
Students will collect power data during day and night, chart it, and use it to explain and predict why solar-only colonies fail in the dark.
Students will define the criteria and constraints of a colony, generate and compare two power/water plans for two different worlds, and refine one through fair testing.
Ask these while a child plays or shows off their colony — they turn play into reflection.
The task: Pick any world and grow a colony until it reaches at least the Foothold tier and houses 8+ colonists. Then present it: name three buildings and explain how they work together as a system, and describe one problem you solved.
| Criterion | 1 · Emerging | 2 · Proficient | 3 · Exemplary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Systems thinking | Names buildings but not how they connect. | Explains one clear chain (e.g., solar → oxygen → colonists). | Explains several linked chains and how a change in one ripples to others. |
| Planning & sequence | Built in a random order with lots of stalls. | Followed a sensible order (power & life support first). | Planned ahead for the night and for growth before problems appeared. |
| Using data | Did not reference the dashboard. | Used the +/– rates to spot one problem. | Used data to predict and prevent problems, citing specific numbers. |
| Troubleshooting | Got stuck and needed rescuing. | Fixed a shortage after it happened. | Diagnosed the cause with a fair test (Disable/Demolish) and fixed it deliberately. |
| Communication | Few details when presenting. | Clearly describes buildings and one solved problem. | Uses vocabulary (system, resource, constraint) to explain choices and trade-offs. |