How to play

Five rounds, five worlds. Each round you set a single entry angle with the slider and hit COMMIT — you get 30 seconds to decide, and the clock commits for you if you can't.

Too steep and the heat shield gives out. Too shallow and you skip off the atmosphere into the dark forever. Inside the corridor, you land — the question is how close to the pad.

Four rounds are landings drawn from real worlds (Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, and one exoplanet); one round is Jupiter, where nobody lands — aerobrake through and exit at the capture speed instead.

The flight computer offers an estimate, clearly labelled low confidence. It models less drag and a kinder shield than reality. It is close. It is not right.

Free flight shuffles the worlds; the daily flies the same five for everyone, one attempt.

Scoring

• Each round pays 0–200 by distance to the pad (or exit-speed accuracy at Jupiter) — 1000 is a perfect mission.
• Burning up or skipping out scores zero for the round. The daily and free flight keep separate boards.

Tips

• The corridor's shallow edge is treacherous: near it, a hundredth of a degree moves the landing by a continent. Err slightly steep of the computer's suggestion.
• Every world is different on purpose — Mars forgives steep, Venus forgives nothing, and Titan is nearly impossible to burn up in. Read the blurb.
• The physics is deterministic: the same angle always flies the same trajectory. Your daily zero was not bad luck.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the flight computer lie to me?

It's honest about being wrong — it runs a cheaper model of the atmosphere than the one you're about to hit. Trust it for the neighborhood, not the house number.

What am I supposed to do at Jupiter?

Not land. Skim through the upper atmosphere to shed speed and exit as close to the capture velocity as you can. Going in deeper is called 'joining Jupiter'.

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