Soft Landing
On the Moon it comes from the laser altimeter and camera of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (the CGI Moon Kit): Tycho crater, Copernicus crater and the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed.
The facts
- Shelf
- Arcade
- Kind
- Built from a recipe
- Sound
- Yes
- Licenses
- Public domain, Apache-2.0, MIT, BSD
How to play, in the Playground
Tap or press Space to play. ← → tip the lander, ↑ or Space fires. Land slowly and upright on level ground.
Its controls
| Control | Kind | Range | Start |
|---|---|---|---|
| Play or pause | Tap | ||
| Play | Button | ||
| World | List | 2 choices | The Moon |
| View | List | 2 choices | 2D |
About it
The ground here is real. On the Moon it comes from the laser altimeter and camera of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (the CGI Moon Kit): Tycho crater, Copernicus crater and the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed. On Mars it comes from Mars Global Surveyor's laser altimeter: Gale crater, Jezero crater, Valles Marineris and Olympus Mons, colored by height. Heights are drawn taller than life so the shapes read; the site's card says how much.
Gravity pulls the lander down and the engine pushes it the way it points. Touch down slowly, upright and on level ground (the green lights mark flat spots) to score, with more for fuel left; land badly and it breaks apart. 2D is a true slice through the ground; the 3D button lifts the camera to show the whole patch of terrain around the slice, and the flight goes on.
Sources and credits
| Work | By | License |
|---|---|---|
| The Moon's ground: LRO's laser altimeter (LOLA) and camera (LROC), the CGI Moon Kit | NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio (Ernie Wright), from the LOLA and LROC teams | Public domain |
| Mars's ground: Mars Global Surveyor's laser altimeter (MOLA), the MEGDR at 16 pixels a degree | NASA's Planetary Data System, the MOLA Science Team | Public domain |
Libraries
- Apache-2.0
- Basic Pitch, ONNX (lane Audio piano, October 21, 2026)
- MIT
- omggif 1.0.10
- MIT
- ONNX Runtime Web 1.30.0 (its modules)
- MIT, Apache-2.0, BSD
- PDF.js 6.3.289
