An open-source, real-time 3D visualization of NASA's Artemis II crewed lunar flyby mission — built with Three.js, powered by JPL Horizons ephemeris data, live spacecraft telemetry, and an AI assistant that can answer questions about the mission as it happens.
- Real-time 3D trajectory — Earth, Moon, Sun, and Orion rendered in a fully interactive Three.js scene with true-scale positioning from JPL Horizons vectors
- Live spacecraft tracking — Orion's position updated every 2 seconds from NASA's public telemetry stream (Google Cloud Storage)
- Full mission trajectory — the complete 10-day Earth-to-Moon-and-back flight path drawn from 1,285 ephemeris data points
- AI Mission Assistant — a LangGraph agent (Claude) with tools to query ephemeris data, read live telemetry, search the web, analyze screenshots, and do orbital mechanics math
- Computed mission timeline — key milestones (apogee, TLI, lunar flyby, max distance, splashdown) derived automatically from actual trajectory data
- NASA live feed — embedded YouTube stream from NASA TV, collapsible
- Accurate lighting — the Sun's position is computed from real ephemeris, so Earth and Moon lighting/shadows are physically correct
- True-scale Orion model — NASA's official Orion capsule STL with procedural service module and solar panels, oriented along the velocity vector
graph TB
subgraph Browser["Frontend (localhost:5199)"]
Scene["Three.js Scene<br/>Earth, Moon, Sun, Orion"]
HUD["HUD Overlay<br/>MET, distances, velocity"]
Timeline["Mission Timeline<br/>computed milestones"]
Chat["Chat Panel<br/>collapsible"]
Feed["NASA Live Feed<br/>YouTube embed"]
end
subgraph Backend["Backend (localhost:8000)"]
WS["FastAPI WebSocket"]
Agent["LangGraph Agent<br/>(Claude)"]
subgraph Tools
Horizons["Horizons<br/>ephemeris query"]
Telemetry["Telemetry<br/>live reader"]
Search["Web Search<br/>Tavily"]
Screenshot["Screenshot<br/>vision analysis"]
CalcTool["Calculator<br/>orbital math"]
TimelineTool["Timeline<br/>mission phases"]
end
end
subgraph External["External Data Sources"]
JPL["JPL Horizons API"]
GCS["NASA GCS Bucket<br/>live telemetry"]
Tavily["Tavily Search API"]
end
Chat -->|WebSocket| WS
WS --> Agent
Agent --> Tools
Horizons --> JPL
Telemetry --> GCS
Search --> Tavily
Scene -->|proxy /api/horizons| JPL
Scene -->|direct fetch| GCS
sequenceDiagram
participant U as User
participant F as Frontend
participant B as Backend (Agent)
participant H as JPL Horizons
participant G as GCS Telemetry
Note over F: Page loads
F->>H: Fetch ephemeris (Moon, Artemis, Sun)
H-->>F: 1,285 state vectors each
F->>F: Render trajectory + position bodies
loop Every 2 seconds
F->>G: Poll live telemetry
G-->>F: ~78 parameters (JSON)
F->>F: Update HUD
end
U->>F: "Where is Orion right now?"
F->>B: WebSocket message
B->>H: horizons_query tool
H-->>B: Current state vector
B-->>F: Streaming response tokens
F->>F: Render markdown in chat
# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/your-username/aii.git
cd aii
# Add your API keys
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and TAVILY_API_KEY
# Start everything
docker-compose up --buildOpen http://localhost:5199 and explore the mission!
Backend (Python 3.12+):
cd backend
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate # or venv\Scripts\activate on Windows
pip install -r requirements.txt
# Add your API keys
cp ../.env.example .env
# Edit .env
uvicorn main:app --port 8000Frontend (Node.js 22+):
cd frontend
npm install
npm run fetch-ephemeris # pre-fetch trajectory data from JPL Horizons
npm run dev| Source | What it provides | How it's used |
|---|---|---|
| JPL Horizons | Predicted trajectory vectors (position + velocity) for Artemis II, Moon, and Sun | Full trajectory line, spacecraft position, Moon position, Sun direction/lighting |
| NASA GCS Telemetry | Live telemetry (~78 parameters, updated every ~1 second) | Signal status indicator, raw parameter inspection by AI assistant |
| NASA Blue Marble | Earth texture (5400x2700 equirectangular) | Earth sphere rendering |
| NASA LROC | Moon texture (2048x1024 from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) | Moon sphere rendering |
| NASA 3D Resources | Orion capsule STL model | 3D spacecraft model with procedural service module |
The chat assistant has 7 tools:
| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
horizons_query |
Query JPL Horizons API for position/velocity of any body at any time |
read_telemetry |
Fetch summary of current live telemetry (position, velocity, MET) |
inspect_telemetry |
Full dump of all ~78 telemetry parameters, grouped by category |
mission_timeline |
Get computed milestones with real distances/speeds from ephemeris |
web_search |
Search the web for Artemis II news and orbital mechanics info |
analyze_screenshot |
Capture and analyze the current 3D view with Claude's vision |
calculate |
Evaluate math expressions with orbital mechanics constants |
graph LR
subgraph Root["aii/"]
DC["docker-compose.yml"]
ENV[".env.example"]
README["README.md"]
LIC["LICENSE (MIT)"]
subgraph FE["frontend/"]
FEDoc["Dockerfile"]
HTML["index.html"]
subgraph Src["src/"]
Main["main.js"]
SceneJS["scene.js"]
Bodies["bodies/ (earth, moon, sun)"]
ChatMod["chat/ (ui, ws, markdown)"]
HUDMod["hud/ (hud, timeline)"]
Traj["trajectory/ (ephemeris, interpolator)"]
Craft["spacecraft/ (marker, telemetry)"]
end
subgraph Pub["public/"]
Data["data/ (ephemeris JSON)"]
Tex["textures/ (NASA images)"]
Mod["models/ (Orion GLB)"]
end
end
subgraph BE["backend/"]
BEDoc["Dockerfile"]
BEMain["main.py (FastAPI)"]
Graph["graph.py (LangGraph)"]
subgraph BETools["tools/"]
H["horizons.py"]
T["telemetry.py"]
WS["web_search.py"]
SS["screenshot.py"]
TL["timeline.py"]
CA["calculator.py"]
end
Tests["tests/ (22 tests)"]
end
end
You need two API keys:
- Anthropic — for the Claude-powered AI assistant. Get one at console.anthropic.com
- Tavily — for the web search tool. Get one at tavily.com (free tier available)
The app works without these keys — you just won't have the chat assistant.
| Event | MET | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | T+0 | — |
| High Orbit Apogee | T+13.4h | 76,528 km from Earth |
| Trans-Lunar Injection | T+25.2h | 6,581 km (perigee), 10.6 km/s |
| Lunar Flyby | T+120.4h (day 5) | 8,325 km from Moon |
| Max Earth Distance | T+120.6h | 413,184 km |
| Skip Reentry & Splashdown | T+217.4h (day 9) | Pacific Ocean |
All values computed from actual JPL Horizons state vectors, not estimates.
Contributions welcome! This project was built during the live Artemis II mission. Some ideas:
- Improve telemetry parameter labels (we're reverse-engineering from value patterns)
- Add more celestial bodies (other planets visible from Orion's position)
- Trajectory playback / time scrubber
- Earth atmosphere glow shader
- Mobile-responsive layout
- Production build with static file serving
- NASA — for making mission data publicly available and inspiring humanity
- JPL Horizons — for the incredible ephemeris service
- Three.js — for making WebGL accessible
- LangGraph — for the agent framework
- Anthropic Claude — for powering the AI assistant
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to NASA, JPL, or any government agency. It is an independent, open-source educational project that uses publicly available data and APIs. Trajectory data comes from JPL Horizons (a public service), telemetry is read from a publicly accessible Google Cloud Storage bucket, and textures are from NASA's public domain media. The AI assistant may produce inaccurate information — always verify critical data against official NASA sources.
MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
NASA imagery and data are in the public domain per NASA Media Usage Guidelines.