Interesting. It's been awhile since I've seen a spectacular space game. There were some decent space combat simulators, but they were basically just flight combat in space.

I remember a very old pc game (came on 3.5" diskettes) called "Nomad." that I really enjoyed back in the day. It was primarily resource management, with some combat and inter-planetary politics. The best part was that it was based on actual science. It's old, but it might be an inspiration, as well.

Good luck with your endeavor. I hope it's a success!