Lunar Lander: Final Approach

Executive Summary

A small utility lander, a crater full of momentum, and a crew waiting for a ride. Switch between chase, cockpit and downward landing views. Choose Final Approach to rescue the survey crew, or Ridge Relay to deliver a 420 kg battery across a crater ridge. Land at your objective, wait for boarding or unloading, then return to Tranquility Base. Earn separate precision, fuel and time medals.

Before You Play

Use a desktop or laptop with WebGL 2 and a keyboard or standard controller. The flight area needs at least 1024 × 640 pixels. Try landscape orientation or Full screen when the available flight area is too small. Flight School and mission notes remain readable on a phone.

Hold Space to fire the engine. Small burns and early braking help. Flight School inside the game explains the controls and lunar science. Reading or leaving the flight pauses it.

Controls and Accessibility

WASD or arrows

Tilt north, west, south or east; directions stay fixed across views.

Space / Shift / X

Main thrust / reduce sideways drift / precision tilt.

1, 2, 3 or C

Chase, cockpit and landing views; C cycles.

Escape

Pause and release inputs.

Remap keys, choose reduced motion, adjust sound/music separately and lower graphics in Settings. A controller uses left stick, right trigger for thrust, left trigger to stabilize, left bumper for precision, Y for views and Start to pause. Release held triggers when switching devices.

Menus support keyboard navigation. Flight depends on the visual world and is not a nonvisual flight experience. Only preferences are stored locally; refreshing starts a new mission.

How We Made This with Generative AI

Mike developed the direction with Codex, approved concept imagery and a written design, then approved the first playable. AI-assisted code was checked with deterministic flight tests, browser recovery tests and a complete rescue driven through real keyboard inputs. Those checks do not replace a person's judgment of the game's feel.

The Gory Details

Lunar gravity is 1.62 m/s². The fictional lander models thrust, inertia, fuel and the mass of crew or cargo. An attitude assist levels it; an upward takeoff keeps its gear level until it clears the pad. The landing forecast uses the same flight and contact rules. It predicts what happens if you hold the current controls, rather than promising a landing after you change them.

A safe landing requires all four feet inside a pad, at most 2.8 m/s downward speed, 1.5 m/s drift, 10° tilt and 1 m of foot-height spread. Orbital mechanics and full tumbling are outside this arcade simulation.

Credits and acknowledgments

Created by Mike Besso for Renaissance Solutions, with AI-assisted implementation and testing in OpenAI Codex. Mike directed and approved the concept, first playable and Game Room integration.

The craft, terrain and effects are generated by original project code. The soundtrack and radio cues are synthesized. Approved AI-generated concept imagery is retained as design reference and is not shipped as a game backdrop.

Inspired by the lunar-landing arcade genre. No original arcade-game code, artwork or sound is included.

Open-source components

Three.js (MIT) renders the world. Vite and TypeScript support the build. The RS frame uses Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, Newsreader and IBM Plex Mono under their bundled font licenses.

Three.js license · Atkinson license · Newsreader license · IBM Plex Mono license

NASA sources and the distinction between lunar science and arcade assists are linked inside Flight School.