Let's play Aurora 4x - part 13 - "Surveying Mars"
77As Mars is our next target we continue working on the goal to get there. A manned ground survey is being conducted while we continue researching and upgrading our industry to prepare for the colonization effort.
From the wiki: Aurora is a 4X (eXpand, eXplore, eXploit, and eXterminate) science fiction strategy game. Players develop their interstellar empire from the humble beginnings on their homeworld to conquer the universe, or be pummelled into the ashes of history by opposing races.
Some say it has the graphical charm of an income tax assistant software from the late nineties, but a playing depth that more than rivals any commercial 4X game. Aurora is different because it places emphasis on fleet operations and detailed tactical combat.
The game is under constant development and there is an active and friendly player community in the forum that will help you with any question or problem you might encounter.
You can get the game here: http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php/board,10.0.html
You can find the wiki here: http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
The game was created in the year 2004 by Steve Walmsley. The version I am playing is latest available at the moment of start (27/07/13) 6.21.