SOLAR: an interactive 3D solar system on real JPL orbits, in your browser

A developer built SOLAR, a non-commercial browser-based interactive 3D solar system that computes planet positions from real JPL orbital elements rather than pre-baked animation. The project, built with React, Three.js, and TypeScript, solves Kepler's equation client-side via Newton's method to produce accurate positions for any date between 1800 and 2050, with tests covering all eight orbits. It offers a cinematic tour mode with non-linear distance compression and a mobile-first top-down ecliptic map showing the asteroid and Kuiper belts.

Live: http://xtotam.com http://xtotam.com SOLAR is a non-commercial side project: an interactive 3D solar system in the browser where you fly between planets, and their positions are computed from real JPL orbital elements instead of a pre-baked animation. Stack: React + Three.js + TypeScript, written mostly in pair with Claude Code. Planet positions come from JPL's table of orbital elements and rates valid for 1800–2050 . Kepler's equation is solved with Newton's method right on the client, so any date in that range gives a real position, not an interpolated frame. The math is covered by tests on all 8 orbits: at the edges of the validity interval, at perihelion/aphelion, against the J2000 reference position of Earth, and for retrograde periods. There are deliberate simplifications, documented openly: UTC is used as an approximation of TDB without the seconds-level correction, Earth's orbit represents the Earth–Moon barycenter, there is no full N-body integration, and moons are not modeled. The visual mode compresses distances non-linearly so the inner planets don't collapse into each other and lets a slider set the upper bound of time acceleration — the actual rate ramps up smoothly and brakes before arrival. Accumulated simulation time is shown separately from flight duration. There is no manual piloting and no crashes: it's a cinematic tour, not a flight sim. The top-down ecliptic map is a separate mode built mobile-first: on a phone it's a full-screen sheet, the sidebar only appears from 761px up. Tapping a body on the map immediately plots a route. Two distance scales: compressed power-law and true. It also shows the asteroid belt 2.1–3.3 AU , the Kuiper belt 30–50 AU and a marker for your ship. React, Three.js, TypeScript, Vite. Accounts and autosave: Node API + PostgreSQL. Self-hosted deployment: Docker + Caddy. Planet textures by Solar System Scope CC BY 4.0 . Happy to answer questions about the orbital math or else.