Aphelion

Aphelion is a space exploration sandbox built using Grok. Shape your orbit, fly Keplerian paths to distant worlds, explore planetary globes, and walk their surfaces.

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🌌 Aphelion

Plot your orbit. Fly the transfer. Explore another world.

Aphelion is an interactive spaceflight and planetary exploration sandbox built using Grok for the BDBI x SpaceXSI Grokathon.

Begin in Earth orbit aboard Vesper, shape your trajectory, and follow a Keplerian path to a planet, a Kuiper-belt world, or the Sun. Reach your destination, explore its globe, and step onto the surface.

🚀 Try Aphelion here: https://branch-arch-fleet-zinc.vercel.app/

🛰️ Shape Your Journey

Take control of your orbit through impulse burns and interactive sliders.

  • Prograde, normal, and radial burns let you change your trajectory.
  • Apply burns at your current position, periapsis, apoapsis, or an orbital node.
  • Adjust apoapsis, periapsis, and inclination with the shape sliders.
  • Preview your next orbit before committing—the pale line shows the path you are about to fly.

🎯 Find Your Landing

Fly the approach yourself or let Auto-land handle the journey.

Auto-land waits for the launch window, coasts through the transfer, and matches the target’s motion. If you arrive manually, Land now becomes available when you are close enough and moving slowly enough relative to your destination.

🪐 Discover Each World

On arrival, explore a rotating globe whose rendering draws on the body’s mass, radius, distance, and atmosphere.

Discover cloud bands, surface heat maps, and twilight scattering along the limb. Switch between three views:

View Explore
🎨 Albedo Surface reflectivity
🌐 Composite The world’s combined appearance
🌡️ Heat Surface temperature patterns

👨‍🚀 Step Onto the Surface

Leave the orbital view behind and explore on foot. Surface markers and the codex explain the features around you.

Control Action
W / S Move forward / backward
A / D Turn left / right
Space Jump
Mobile stick Move and turn on a phone

🔭 Explore Beyond the Kuiper Belt

Catalog worlds beyond the Kuiper belt open in the same globe explorer using published data.

These distant worlds are available for direct exploration through the catalog; they are not destinations for a simulated ballistic flight.

🛠️ Built for the Grokathon

Created using Grok for the BDBI x SpaceXSI Grokathon, Aphelion brings orbital mechanics, planetary visualization, and surface exploration into one playable journey.

🌍 Your journey starts in Earth orbit. Where will you go?

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