# Mzu 3D Solar System — factual product guide

## What it is

Mzu 3D Solar System is a free WebGL experience built with Three.js. Visitors can rotate and zoom the scene, click celestial objects, focus on individual planets, and follow a short guided tour. The site is designed for casual learning, visual exploration, classroom demonstrations, and space-themed embeds.

## What it is not

The scene is not a real-time model of the current Solar System. It does not calculate positions for a selected date and must not be used for observation planning or scientific research. Visual radii, orbit distances, and animation rates are deliberately compressed. Some textures and surface treatments are artistic or procedural.

## Public pages

- Home explorer: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/
- Mercury: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/mercury.html
- Venus: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/venus.html
- Venus expedition: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/venus-expedition.html
- Mercury expedition: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/mercury-expedition.html
- Earth: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/earth.html
- Mars: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/mars.html
- Jupiter: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/jupiter.html
- Jupiter descent: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/jupiter-expedition.html
- Saturn: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/saturn.html
- Saturn ring cruise: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/saturn-expedition.html
- Uranus: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/uranus.html
- Uranus sideways ring flight: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/uranus-expedition.html
- Neptune: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/neptune.html
- Neptune storm-layer flight: https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/neptune-expedition.html

## Interaction

- Drag to orbit the camera.
- Scroll or pinch to zoom.
- Select an object to reveal its available data and track it with the camera.
- Use the planet tour for a short introduction to the eight major planets.
- Use Share view to copy or send the current focus URL.
- Use Save image to download the rendered canvas as a PNG.
- Use Copy embed to copy a responsive iframe snippet. `?embed=1` hides the main interface for embedding.
- The orbital scene includes the Sun, eight planets, many moons, and the dwarf planets Pluto, Ceres, Eris, Makemake and Haumea. A visual asteroid belt and a Kuiper belt are scenery, not a named catalog. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have rings. A Halley-type comet and a long-period comet are examples, not live positions. High and Balanced quality load shape models of Bennu and Itokawa; Low skips them.
- Scale is Artistic, Real distances, Real sizes or True scale. Speed is Artistic or real orbital and rotation periods at 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year per second, with spins faster than 2 turns per second capped. Music and orbit glow are optional toggles. Press G to hide the guide.

## Moon surface expedition

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/moon.html is a separate first-person lunar exploration experience. Visitors can walk with WASD or arrow keys, jump with Space, follow a guided route, and record five discoveries using E or a touch-friendly button — three are served by quick travel, two can only be reached on foot. Walking leaves footprints and landing kicks up ballistic dust. A helmet visor frame and optional suit-internal sounds (footfalls, life-support hum, radio chime; M toggles) frame the view. Pressing G compares Earth gravity (9.8 m/s²) with lunar gravity using the same takeoff push. The featured rock can be rotated in a specimen viewer. Photo mode pauses movement and exports a PNG.

The scene is a science-inspired artistic reconstruction, not a scan of a real landing site or an identified rock sample. Jump gravity is 1.62 m/s²; takeoff strength, walking pace, and camera motion are experience settings rather than a full spacesuit simulation. Earth's placement and apparent size are artistically composed.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface. Terrain detail can be adjusted for device performance.

## Mars surface expedition

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/mars-expedition.html is a separate first-person Martian exploration experience built on the same engine as the Moon expedition. Visitors walk with WASD or arrow keys, jump with Space, follow a guided route, and record five discoveries using E or a touch-friendly button — three are served by quick travel, two can only be reached on foot. Walking leaves boot prints and landing kicks up dust; mostly a deep silence prevails, broken by an occasional faint synthesized gust, matching what Perseverance's microphones recorded. Pressing G compares Earth gravity (9.8 m/s²) with Martian gravity (3.71 m/s²) using the same takeoff push. The butterscotch sky, dust haze, blue-tinged solar halo, layered mesa, dune field, and weather-mast prop are artistic reconstructions informed by rover imagery, not survey data.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface.

## Venus surface expedition

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/venus-expedition.html is a separate first-person Venusian exploration experience built on the same engine as the Moon and Mars expeditions. Visitors walk with WASD or arrow keys, jump with Space, follow a guided route, and record five discoveries using E or a touch-friendly button — three are served by quick travel, two can only be reached on foot. Pressing G compares Earth gravity (9.8 m/s²) with Venusian gravity (8.87 m/s²) — about 91% of Earth, so a jump feels almost like home. The dense orange sky hides the Sun except for a brighter patch of haze; the volcanic terrain includes fractured basalt slabs, a lava channel, a pancake dome, and ridged tessera-like highlands. A Venera-13-inspired lander honours the Soviet probes that photographed the surface. The dense atmosphere carries a low rumble, slow heavy wind swells, and rare muffled thunder paired with a brief brightening of the clouds. Terrain, props, and observation points are artistic reconstructions informed by Venera photos and Magellan radar maps, not survey data.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface.

## Mercury surface expedition

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/mercury-expedition.html is a separate first-person Mercurian exploration experience built on the same engine as the Moon, Mars, and Venus expeditions. Visitors walk with WASD or arrow keys, jump with Space, follow a guided route, and record five discoveries using E or a touch-friendly button — three are served by quick travel, two can only be reached on foot. Pressing G compares Earth gravity (9.8 m/s²) with Mercurian gravity (3.7 m/s²) — nearly identical to Mars on a much smaller world. The airless sky is black at noon: stars share the sky with a Sun that looks two to three times wider than from Earth, plus Earth and Venus as bright points — all clickable. Terrain features include a central-peak crater, a lobate scarp ridge formed by planetary contraction, a field of bright hollows found only on Mercury, and an ejecta block that opens in the rotatable specimen viewer. With no atmosphere to carry sound, the suit-internal audio (fan hum, conducted footfalls, radio chime) is the same near-vacuum design as the Moon. Terrain, props, and observation points are artistic reconstructions informed by Mariner 10 and MESSENGER imagery, not survey data.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface.

## Jupiter atmospheric descent

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/jupiter-expedition.html is a separate first-person experience on the same expedition engine, but with a different interaction model: Jupiter has no surface, so the visitor rides a descending probe instead of walking. The probe sinks continuously at a terminal-velocity drift scaled by gravity; holding Space fires an ascent thruster, and WASD or arrow keys drift horizontally. Telemetry shows altitude and descent rate rather than distance walked. Pressing G compares Earth's 9.8 m/s² with Jupiter's 24.79 m/s² by scaling the sink rate.

The scene renders banded cloud decks with a billowing top layer, a giant storm vortex inspired by the Great Red Spot, drifting ammonia-ice crystals (one opens in the rotatable specimen viewer), a Sun five times smaller than from Earth, and periodic lightning flashes with muffled thunder in the deeper haze. The view darkens and the fog thickens with depth until, near the bottom of the corridor, only flashes remain — honouring the 1995 Galileo probe's descent. Five discoveries sit at different altitudes (cirrus veil, ice crystal, storm rim, lightning shelf, the abyss) and require matching the layer, not just the position. Audio is continuous wind rush plus radio static and thunder. All content is artistic reconstruction, not mission data.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface.

## Saturn ring-plane cruise

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/saturn-expedition.html is a separate first-person experience on the same expedition engine, again with a different interaction model: there is no surface and no descent — the probe cruises forward on its own through Saturn's ring plane. WASD or arrow keys drift and change speed, Shift is faster, Space rises above the sheet, and C sinks below it into the ring shadow. Telemetry shows height above the ring plane and speed. Pressing G compares Earth's 9.8 m/s² with Saturn's 10.44 m/s² by easing the ring's gentle tidal pull toward the plane.

The scene renders a translucent ring sheet with bright bands, the dark Cassini division, and dimmer inner haze; an instanced field of tumbling water-ice chunks recycles endlessly around the probe; a shepherd moonlet and a propeller swirl sit in the sheet; the banded Saturn globe hangs half-submerged on the plane with its real alpha-mapped ring disc; and NASA's actual Cassini spacecraft model holds formation off the port bow. Audio is a quiet cabin hum, radio hiss, and ice grains ticking off the hull in dense bands. Five discoveries (ring vista, ring ice specimen, the Cassini division, shepherd moonlet, propeller swirl) record via E or a touch-friendly button. All content is artistic reconstruction informed by Cassini mission findings, not survey data.

## Uranus sideways ring flight

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/uranus-expedition.html reuses the ring-flight engine with a completely different character: Uranus's rings are thirteen narrow, charcoal-dark bands instead of a bright ice sheet, and the Sun hangs almost directly over the tipped giant's pole, pouring down nearly perpendicular to the ring plane. The probe cruises forward on its own; WASD or arrow keys drift and change speed, Shift is faster, Space rises, and C sinks below the sheet. Telemetry shows height above the ring plane and speed. Pressing G compares Earth's 9.8 m/s² with Uranus's 8.87 m/s² — nearly identical, which is the surprise.

The scene renders a sparse sheet of thin dark bands, an instanced field of nearly black ring particles recycling endlessly around the probe, a shepherd moonlet riding a gap, and a small tilt-marker globe demonstrating the famous 98° axial tilt with a vertical ring of its own. The featureless turquoise Uranus globe hangs half-submerged on the plane with its narrow rings edge-on, and NASA's real Voyager 2 model — the only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus — holds formation off the port bow. Audio is a quiet cabin hum, radio hiss, and rare grains ticking off the hull inside the bands. Five discoveries (ring vista, dark ring fragment, the dark gap, shepherd moonlet, the 98° tilt marker) record via E or a touch-friendly button. All content is artistic reconstruction informed by Voyager 2 findings, not survey data.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface.

## Neptune storm-layer flight

https://www.3dsolarsystem.net/neptune-expedition.html reuses the cruise engine inside Neptune's atmosphere instead of a ring plane: the probe flies a deck of methane cirrus lanes spiralling around a Great Dark Spot-inspired vortex on the horizon. The probe cruises forward on its own; WASD or arrow keys drift and change speed, Shift is faster, Space rises, and C sinks toward the deck into deepening blue haze. Telemetry shows height above the storm deck and speed. Pressing G compares Earth's 9.8 m/s² with Neptune's 11.15 m/s².

The scene renders a translucent deep-blue deck with pale cirrus streak bands, an instanced field of methane-ice crystals recycling endlessly around the probe, a slowly-turning dark vortex disc on the deck, a white Scooter-style racing cloud marking the wind shear line, a small spinning-disc marker demonstrating the vortex, captured moon Triton hanging in the haze, and NASA's real Voyager 2 model — the only spacecraft ever to visit Neptune — holding formation off the port bow. Audio is a cabin hum under a restless wind howl, radio hiss, and ice grains ticking off the hull inside the lanes. Five discoveries (storm vista, cirrus crystal specimen, the storm wall, the shear line, the vortex spinner) record via E or a touch-friendly button. All content is artistic reconstruction informed by Voyager 2's 1989 flyby, not survey data.

Discovery progress is stored locally in the visitor's browser when storage is available. No account or AI API access is required. The initial interface is English, with an optional Chinese interface.

## Data shown

Selectable objects may expose their name, type, visual radius, radius in kilometres, semi-major axis in astronomical units, visual orbit distance, and eccentricity. These values are reference fields; their on-screen rendering is not to scale.

## Technical notes

- Runs in modern browsers with WebGL.
- Uses a reduced-detail profile on smaller or lower-capability devices.
- No account or installation is required.
- Background music is optional and starts only after user action.