Life & fun · November 15, 2025
Celestial Vehicle Propulsion Simulator
3D simulator that models planets, orbits, propulsion systems
What it does
This simulator uses real astronomical data and physics calculations to demonstrate the challenges, and scale, of space travel just within our own solar system. Distances and travel times are based on actual orbital mechanics and propulsion capabilities. You can choose from existing propulsion methods such as chemical rockets, ion drives, solar sails, but also hypothetical ones like anti-matter, light speed, and an Alcubierre Warp Drive.
Does a similar job
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Hello HN! Sharing a recent side project of mine, the Atlas of Space, that I built out to explore the Solar System. As a long-time space nerd, I realized recently that I didn't have a good intuition on the scale, speed, and relative orientation of the celestial bodies around us. So over the break I built out a kind of spatial Wikipedia to click around and learn about planets, moons, asteroids, and other bodies orbiting the Sun. The physics is all simulated in the browser using simple Newtonian mechanics. There's a lot left to do from here, including modeling objects in non-Keplerian orbits…
- GIGravity – Interactive solar-system simulator, from Newton to EinsteinJun 2026 · qunabu.github.io · ▲217
Just for fun and self education, I've built this over a weekend to teach myself why orbits exist, not just show planets going around. Something that was never clearly explain to me in school. It opens with a guided tour that builds the idea up step by step: two bodies and the equal/opposite force, inertia (the Sun is removed and Earth just drifts straight), then "an orbit is falling and continuously missing," cosmic velocities with a little rocket, Voyager 1 & 2's real gravity assists (the clock runs the actual 1977–1989 dates so the planets orbit into their grand-tour alignment and the…
- LLLunar lander-type game with computational fluid dynamics2018 · github.com · ▲660
- RLRocket Launch and Orbit SimulatorJan 2026 · donutthejedi.com · ▲166
I (17y/o) have been developing a rocket launch simulation that allows the user to explore what it's like launching a rocket from earth and putting it into orbit. This idea originally started as an educational simulation but as i've gone more down the rabbit hole the more i've wanted to make it realistic. The problem is that I've never had a formal orbital mechanics class or anything like that so I don't know what I'm missing, what I currently have implemented is: Variable gravity Variable Atmospheric drag (US Standard Atmosphere 1976) Multi-stage rockets Closed-loop guidance /…
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Did this a few years ago. Seems apropos. Sources and more here: https://github.com/EngineersNeedArt/Mooncraft2000
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