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Terrain-Relative Navigation: Landing Hazard Avoidance

Watch a planetary lander descend toward an unmapped hazard field. Compare a naive fixed-target descent against Terrain-Relative Navigation: a live onboard scan that detects boulders, craters and steep slopes and re-targets the touchdown point in the final seconds.

Space & Astronomy3DAdvanced60 FPS🌍 Earth

A lander descends toward a randomized field of boulders, craters and a steep-slope zone that were never visible from orbit. Toggle between a naive descent that always continues to the original fixed target regardless of what is underneath it, and Terrain-Relative Navigation, which scans the ground during the final descent phase and re-targets to the nearest safe patch it detects. Run repeated randomized descents in both modes and compare the landing success tally.

⚙ Under the hood

A lander descends toward an unmapped field of boulders, craters and a steep slope. Compare a naive descent that always flies to the original fixed target against Terrain-Relative Navigation, which scans the terrain live during final descent and re-targets to the nearest safe patch, tallying landing success across repeated randomized runs.

terrain-relative navigationhazard avoidanceautonomous landingplanetary descentguidance and controlThree.js

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install