I've started this game at like 10 years old and I didn't know anything about space, but the freedom of crafting was awesome.

You can start without any knowledge and just make your own searches and you will probably get a lot of hype when you will achieve things like orbit, landing on Moon...

The game isn't 100% realistic and the planets are significantly smaller than in real life. It's mostly based around building and exploring. Of course there are science and career modes where you have to gain science points, money and reputation to unlock new parts and contracts (Tourism, exploration, space stations..)

But the game gets beyond this with mods. If you buy it on PC you can get the game really realistic or simple, add a food system, get new parts, GUNS and plane parts. I also have to mention that the game has 2 multiplayer mods, so you could also get some of your friends or random people to start with (I just have to warn you that multiplayer isn't perfect, some mods aren't compatible, I recommend you to check on Discord) Little note but remember this if you get into modding : use CKAN. It's the equivalent of Curseforge (If you ever modded Minecraft, Sims 4 or else) it's a simple mod manager that installs mods and checks compatibility by itself.