19 Board Games About Exploring Space

09/16/2026 •0•0

In this article, we'll go over some board games that allow you to explore the cosmos from the comfort of your own kitchen table.

Written byTabata Marques

Translated byEditorial

Revised byJoey | Let

19 Board Games About Exploring Space

Our fascination with the cosmos has always been fueled by our curiosity, and in the world of board games, the vastness of space comes alive through mechanics that force you to be an active participant of the journey. It's quite different from watching a movie, for example. Games centered around exploring space put you in control of real orbital physics, the tense politics of the historic Space Race, the rigorous scientific method, and the huge logistical challenges involved in colonizing new worlds.

Let's go over 19 board games in which science, exploring different planets, and conquering the cosmos take center stage!

Terraforming Mars

One of the biggest titles in the modern board-game era, Terraforming Mars puts players in control of megacorporations and asks them to turn the inhospitable Red Planet into a proper home for humankind in the 25th century.

Its greatest strength is how it incorporates real geoengineering concepts into its fascinating card system. To make human life possible, players must work together on three planet-wide tasks:

- Raise the average temperature from 30 degrees below zero.

- Increase the oxygen level in the atmosphere by creating forests.

- Cover part of the surface of Mars with oceans by melting polar ice caps or bombarding the planet with ice-rich asteroids.

Although all players must terraform the planet, the battle for corporate leadership is ruthless. You'll have to plan everything in the long term and manage resources such as steel, titanium, energy, and heat to the letter to win.

High Frontier 4 All

High Frontier is a faithful and “realistic” take on spaceflight. Created by former rocket engineer Phil Eklund, it is almost like an academic simulation of how we'd explore the Solar System.

The main board is an incredibly detailed orbital-physics map centered around Hohmann transfer equations, Lagrange points, gravity wells, and realistic fuel-burn trajectories.

You must calculate the specific impulse of each type of propellant, build industrial refineries on asteroids to extract water and metals, and deal with cosmic radiation as humankind expands from the orbit of the Earth to the far reaches of Pluto.

Leaving Earth

Set between 1956 and 1976, Leaving Earth recreates the golden age of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union with raw mathematical precision and lots of suspenseful moments.

As you lead a national space agency, your goal is to complete historic missions before your rival, from putting the first satellite in orbit to sending probes to Venus, landing humans on the Moon, and returning them safely. The system is unforgiving: every rocket component adds mass, which in turn forces you to add extra fuel stages. You'll calculate those using the classic Tsiolkovsky equation.

You must also test your tech exhaustively on the ground. Starting a mission with experimental technology can lead to catastrophic explosions on the launchpad, so every countdown is full of suspense.

The Search for Planet X

This game was inspired by contemporary astronomers’ real-life search for a ninth planet at the edge of our Solar System. In it, players are scientists, and, armed with a companion app, they must point their telescopes toward different parts of the night sky.

As the rounds go by, you'll check for asteroids, comets, dwarf planets, and gas clouds and publish academic theses to earn the respect of the scientific community. Cross-referencing observable data with celestial navigation requires razor-sharp deductive reasoning, that is, until someone finally calculates the exact location of Planet X.

Apollo: A Game of NASA Moon Missions

Apollo takes players straight into NASA’s control rooms and inside space capsules during the historic Apollo missions to the Moon. In this coop game, players share key responsibilities: one player is the astronaut aboard the spacecraft, carrying out critical procedures and maneuvers, while the others are at the flight-control consoles in Houston, managing telemetry, trajectory, and life support.

Clear communication and answering telemetry failures quickly are essential to make sure the crew reaches the surface of the Moon and returns safely to Earth.

On Mars

Designed by acclaimed designer Vital Lacerda, On Mars is one of the most sophisticated heavy strategy games about colonizing the Red Planet.

It doesn't center around terraforming but rather the meticulous logistics involved in building and living in a functioning colony. Players share their time between the space station in orbit, where they develop new technologies and hire specialists, and the arid surface of Mars, where they operate construction robots (rovers), expand power plants, oxygen mines, hydroponic farms, and pressurized shelters.

Every life-support system is linked, which means that you must time each action with millimetric precision to avoid overloading the infrastructure of the colony.

Spacecorp: 2025-2300AD

In Spacecorp, you lead humankind into the far reaches of space over nearly three centuries of technological progress and expansion.

The experience unfolds across three consecutive eras, each played on a different board:

- The Mariners Era focuses on the first expeditions and mining the Moon and the orbits near Earth.

- The Planeteers Era expands human infrastructure to Mars, asteroids, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

- The Starfarers Era takes humankind beyond the boundaries of the Solar System, building starships to reach the nearest star systems.

With a fast, elegant card system, this game combines exploration, corporate rivalry, and constantly discovering rare space resources.

Under Falling Skies

Inspired by classic retro games centered around alien invasions and defending the planet, Under Falling Skies is a critically acclaimed solo experience in which a massive mothership gradually descends toward Earth.

As commander of the human resistance, you use dice to operate the facilities in an underground base: digging new tunnels, generating power, shooting down enemy fighter fleets with anti-aircraft batteries, and above all, investing in scientific research to decipher alien technology before the city on the surface is pulverized.

The dice you use to activate the facilities in the base also determine how quickly enemy ships dive toward the ground that same turn, so every moment of the game will be full of suspense.

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine

The Crew is a card-based, silent coop campaign centered around exploring space. Players in this game are astronauts on a dangerous mission to the edge of the Solar System, where they'll investigate mysterious signals from an unknown planet. They must also face 50 sequential scenarios with increasingly complex objectives.

The challenge is the limited communication: in space, crew members cannot discuss the cards in their hands openly and must use radio tokens very carefully to time their actions at exactly the right moment.

First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet

Built on the acclaimed engine from Robinson Crusoe, First Martians puts a team of astronauts up against the hostile conditions of the Martian surface in an app-integrated coop survival simulator.

Their daily routine is one of the key parts of the game: keeping solar panels clean, repairing hydroponic modules, comforting stressed crew members, and conducting geological experiments far from the base. Any mechanical failure can trigger a dangerous chain reaction in the life-support system. Every scenario is a stressful race against dwindling resources and dust storms.

Planet Unknown

In Planet Unknown, players colonize unexplored planets using a rotating plastic tray nicknamed “Lazy S.U.S.A.N.”.

Each round, the main space station rotates and gives different polyomino-shaped terrain pieces to all players simultaneously. You must place water, biomass, energy, and other resources on your grid while you also move rovers across the terrain to collect supply pods and explore dangerous meteorites that crash onto the surface.

This game stands out for its brisk pace: everyone plays at the same time, developing technology that makes each space corporation unique.

Kepler-3042

Set in the year 3042, this eurogame centers around humankind as it peacefully and sustainably expands across the Milky Way under strict resource constraints. Rather than focusing on cosmic warfare, Kepler-3042 challenges you to map real star systems, colonize distant planets, research advanced propulsion technologies, and explore cosmic anomalies.

The main mechanic requires you to manage three fundamental resources (matter, antimatter, and energy) really well, as using them recklessly affects how much you can produce for the rest of the game.

Black Angel

When Earth becomes uninhabitable, the biggest nations on the planet join forces to build Black Angel, the largest automated ark ship ever created. It will transport the human genetic code to a distant habitable planet.

Players in this game are rival artificial intelligences controlling the ship through its journey across the stars. They must manage robot crews, defend the ship against space invaders, and negotiate with the neutral alien civilizations they meet along the way, all while the ship makes its way to its new home.

Ganymede

In Ganymede, players act as corporations that must recruit settlers on Earth and transport them aboard shuttles to Ganymede, the largest moon orbiting Jupiter, where giant colonizer ships are docked.

This game shines when you manage to set up cascading combos: recruiting specialists (scientists, engineers, doctors, and pioneers) immediately affects stations on Mars and the Moon and allows you to move passengers faster and launch great vessels before your rivals.

Race for the Galaxy

Race for the Galaxy challenges you to build the most prosperous space empire in the galaxy by setting up futuristic civilizations, investing in science, and developing planets.

The game revolves around playing different roles all at the same time: Explore, Develop, Settle, Produce, or Consume. Anticipating what your opponents will do in a round allows you to piggyback on their turn and make your card engine as efficient as possible without wasting time.

Roll for the Galaxy

This game adapted the space-exploration formula in Race for the Galaxy into a dice-driven format. Roll for the Galaxy makes managing workers the heart of the race for the cosmos.

The colored dice represent all your explorers, scientists, settlers, and industrial workers. Secretly, behind your player screen, you roll and place your dice to colonize new worlds, manufacture space goods, and research technologies that will change your galactic infrastructure permanently.

Beyond the Sun

Beyond the Sun centers around one of the most fascinating technology trees ever created for a board game. Controlling human factions that all want to prevail over the others in the age of interstellar travel, players research shared technologies across four main branches:

- Spacecraft propulsion and celestial navigation.

- Scientific advances and automation.

- Planetary economics and infrastructure.

- Military engineering and land control.

As new technologies are discovered, the board opens up and allows you to deploy fleets and colonize distant star systems. It's a tactical struggle in which every decision affects every player.

Eclipse: Second Dawn for the Galaxy

If you're looking for the "4X" experience (Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate), Eclipse sets up interstellar civilizations on a collision course for control of the galaxy.

Its defining feature is its meticulous approach to technology and ship physics: you can customize each type of cruiser or dreadnought by adding powerful warp drives, deflection shields, plasma cannons, antimatter reactors, and advanced target computers.

The balance between working on your economy, managing energy consumption across your star systems, and engaging in epic space battles makes Eclipse one of the most respected space games.

Warp's Edge

Our last space-themed board game is a solo combat challenge. Warp's Edge allows you to lead a lone starship stranded behind enemy lines after a wrong hyperspace jump.

Through a bag-building mechanic, you get maneuvers, lasers, and energy shields each round to face alien fleets and try to bring down the gigantic enemy mothership. The main time-travel mechanic means that when your ship is defeated, the battle resets in a time loop, so you can carry over the upgrades you've earned and try to get it perfectly on your next try.

Conclusion

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!

References cited

Board Game

High Frontier 4 All

High Frontier 4 All is a space-exploration strategy board game designed by Phil Eklund and published by Sierra Madre Games.

Board Game

Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars is a board game designed by Jacob Fryxelius and published by FryxGames in 2016. Players represent corporations developing Mars, raising temperature, oxygen, and ocean coverage to make the planet habitable.

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Tabata Marques

Tábata Marques, Cards Realm editor-in-chief and Magic player in her spare time, besides managing tournaments, Streams and feeding cats.

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