Rockets. Aliens. The Moon made of cheese. Space is a wonderful place, even if you’re a stickler for facts and refute the alien-ish cheesy elements.

If your children are staring up at the night-sky wistfully, you may like to give them a go on Jetpack Journeys, a lovely new iOS app aimed at pre-schoolers from Inkology.

It’s pitched as a way for kids “to explore and experience our solar system in a fun and imaginative way and be inspired about the wonders of Space for the very first time”.

It’s not a dry educational app, though. It’s more about galactic exploration: choosing a character (from five available), building a spaceship then flying between the eight planets to see what surprises they have in store.

We really like the spaceship-building part of the app, which uses drag’n’drop controls to put parts together, from the serious to the… Well, let’s just say NASA hasn’t yet tried an ice-cream or robot shape for its real-life spacecraft.

Each of the eight planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – has spaceship parts and stars to collect as your children zoom around on their jetpack. The controls are simple to get to grips with even for young children.

And something else we’re always happy to see: extra materials to help you discuss the game with your children, in the form of a Jetpack Journeys magazine that can be downloaded from Inkology’s website. It’s a sign of the care and attention that’s gone into the app.

Jetpack Journeys costs £2.49 / $3.99 for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store.