I built an orbital mechanics game with a tiny AI model inspired by NASA’s Artemis II mission

Sal Stabler — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:32:57 +0000

I wanted to make something that feels like learning spaceflight by playing instead of reading another wall of formulas.

So I built Infinite Orbit: a browser game where you start with a few basic elements — Thrust, Gravity, Velocity, Angle — and combine them to discover real orbital mechanics concepts. The goal is to work your way toward an Artemis II-style Moon mission.

What made this project fun was not just the gameplay. It was the architecture.

The game has 83 core orbital mechanics combinations baked in for speed and correctness, but when players try something new, it can fall back to an AI model running on Nexlayer. That means the game stays fast for the common paths, but still feels open-ended when players start experimenting.

The model detail is the part I think people will find interesting: I used qwen2:0.5b. That’s a small model, and that was the point. I didn’t want a huge model for simple concept generation. I wanted something lightweight enough to stay practical, but still smart enough to handle the weird combinations players try.

That tradeoff mattered a lot. For this kind of game, a smaller model feels more right than a heavyweight one. It keeps the experience responsive, reduces overhead, and makes the whole thing feel more like a clever system than an AI demo trying too hard.

The NASA inspiration came from the mission-planning side of space exploration. Real orbital mechanics is full of constraints, transfers, burns, and trajectory decisions, so it seemed like a good fit for a discovery game. The Artemis II framing gave it a real destination, which helped make the game feel grounded instead of abstract.

A few things I like about this build:

It works in the browser.

It’s mobile-friendly.

It doesn’t require sign-up.

It mixes deterministic logic with AI in a way that actually serves the game.

It’s simple enough to fork and remix.

I also like that it doesn’t pretend to be bigger than it is. It’s just a focused little project that tries to make orbital mechanics feel approachable and fun.

If you want to check it out:

Play: https://zen-antelope-infinite-orbit.cluster-se1-us.nexlayer.ai/

Repo: https://github.com/sasdeployer/infinite-orbit

Nexlayer is experimenting with GPU's and has a free GPU tier that let's you tinker. Join the slack community if you need help.

https://join.slack.com/t/nexlayercommunity/shared_invite/zt-3ns0038s0-16GWdSAD1aPdyxDzmbGaiw

I’d love feedback from people who are into space, educational games, or small-model AI deployments.

DEV Community: Sal Stabler

I built an orbital mechanics game with a tiny AI model inspired by NASA’s Artemis II mission