Is there any space sims that let you actually get out of your ship and explore alien planets or confront aliens?
Hey Jacky1313 welcome to SSC
Off the top of my head I can only think of a few:
Salvation Prophecy
The Precursors
Parkan II
Blackstar (MMO)
All are WIP (Work in Progress) but Parkan II. I might be missing some more but maybe someone else can chime in.
I would add Space Ranger II,Universal combat and the remake of starflight/sundog check the thread
or the links page. The still being made Northstar is another one,very old 2d rps game like Megatraveller
1 & 2,Hardnova,sentinel Worlds and Space Rogues.you will need to do a bit of Googleing to find the games
and use dosbox to play them.