A deck. A ship.
A very long way home.

Build your spacecraft one card at a time. Outsmart orbital hazards. Bring the science home.

Challenge: Space Mission Design Game

Team: Dammit Jim, I'm a vibe coded game not a mission simulator

Krzysztof Radomski · NASA Space Apps 2026

Actual game capture · AI-assisted original text, code and vector illustrations · Silent demo

Real choices
in a hand of cards.

Play systems to install them in four spacecraft slots. Solar Wings provide energy, the Survey Camera collects data, and protective systems help the hull survive. Tactics offer immediate help at an energy cost.

Tap and play, drag a card onto the table, or use the keyboard. Most systems come online on your next turn.

AI-assisted original text, code and vector illustrations · All card statistics are teaching values

A hazard’s turn
is never a mystery.

Ready systems engage once per turn. Resolve enough pressure to clear the encounter before damage overwhelms the hull. Armour absorbs hull damage, but some hazards also damage every installed system.

Actual game capture · Fictional engineering-card combat metaphor

Earn help for
the road ahead.

Clear an encounter and choose one new card. Your installed systems stay with the spacecraft. Decide whether the next challenge needs power, protection, communications or repair capability.

Actual game capture · AI-assisted original vector illustrations

Onboard data
is only the beginning.

Use Downlink or Data Burst to return science to Earth. Clearing all three hazards is not enough if the mission’s science target has not been met.

Actual browser run: 3 encounters cleared, then a separate final downlink

Mission principles.
Explicit simplifications.

NASA’s Design and Develop Science Missions informs the connected launch, spacecraft, ground and user segments. CubeSat 101 informs spacecraft-system and ground-communications trade-offs.

Card costs, Resolve, hull, armour, hazards and rewards are invented teaching rules. Systems do not physically fight eclipses or solar weather. The game uses NASA resources, not live observation data.

Full NASA references, limitations and AI disclosure ↗

AI-assisted text, code, original vector illustrations and procedural sound effects

A mission you can
play, revise and explain.

A real browser playthrough cleared three encounters on turn 9 and returned 8 science. The game also supports losing the hull, a causal flight record and a fresh attempt.

Next step: classroom playtests to see whether players can explain a power–protection–communications trade-off. Learning outcomes are not yet measured.

Actual game capture · AI-assisted original text, code and vector illustrations