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Interstellar: Ad Astra

What if understanding a black hole began with a journey, rather than a diagram?

Code Video Cerebral Valley

Core trick

Numerically integrates general-relativistic light paths and a timelike geodesic for the probe in a WebGL2 browser renderer, with progressive refinement and cached transport maps.

Tags

scienceeducation

Description

What if understanding a black hole began with a journey, rather than a diagram? Interstellar: Ad Astra is an open-source, Interstellar-inspired browser mission built with GPT-6 Astra. It combines a Kerr black-hole renderer with a human-scale story: give a crewmate the return seat, release your probe, and take the descent. Change your viewpoint, watch gravitational lensing respond, switch between cabin and exterior views, and steer through a debris encounter. The exterior optics numerically integrate general-relativistic light paths; the probe follows a timelike geodesic. Progressive refinement and cached transport maps put this on the viewer’s GPU through WebGL2, with no server GPU required. Our aim is to make fundamental physics something people can explore on hardware they already own. This is a reduced-scope prototype, not film-equivalent rendering: the physical model stops outside the horizon, and the memory-space finale is explicitly speculative fiction.
richafltr/kerr-blackhole★ 00 forksTypeScriptCreated Sep 8, 2026 · last push Sep 9, 2026

README excerpt

# interstellar: ad astra / Kerr Black Hole

## Playable versions

| Version | Live game | What it preserves or adds |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Original submission | [Play the submitted game](https://kerr-blackhole.vercel.app/) | The preserved narrated cinematic game and original exterior Kerr checkpoint. |
| More physical descent | [Play the improved version](https://kerr-blackhole-physical.vercel.app/) | A parallel-transported Kerr observer frame, a live 3D cockpit, sky-driven lighting, shared cabin/chase orientation, fuel-limited roll control, and contact-direction collision response. |

The improved version is maintained separately on [`feature/physical-descent`](https://github.com/richafltr/kerr-blackhole/tree/feature/physical-descent). The original game remains available at its existing URL. Both retain the approved ElevenLabs narration and Scott Buckley score.

The new physical-descent checkpoint passes **49 CPU tests**, TypeScript, authored-code lint, GLSL compilation/link checks, and the Vercel build. It still models the **exterior**: the scientific renderer stops outside the horizon, and the memory-space finale remains speculative. It uses **WebGL2/GLSL**, not a WebGPU backend, and makes no new measured FPS or film-fidelity claim. [Physics improvements, controls, assumptions and remaining milestones](https://github.com/richafltr/kerr-blackhole/blob/feature/physical-descent/docs/PHYSICAL_DESCENT.md).


**Public simulation:** https://kerr-blackhole.vercel.app

A first-per

Team