🎯 Five Ways to Reach a Destination

Even a single destination flies completely differently depending on how you arrive. You can race straight there, match speed and ride alongside, settle into orbit, slingshot past for a free boost, or touch down on the surface. Every scene below reaches the same destination — Earth to Mars — five different ways, each captured live inside the game. Tap a photo to view it larger.

※ Every approach is booked the same way: ① arm Mars as the target on the Destination monitor, then ② pick a mode on the Flight Plan monitor. Below, each method explains when to use it and how to book it.

1. Fastest arrival transit

When: to minimize arrival time. The most direct route to a stationary body or a moving target alike.

  • Book it: arm Mars → book Fastest arrival (transit) on the Flight Plan.
  • What happens: a fuel-unlimited bang-bang burn — max-accelerate toward the target, flip 180° at the switch point, and max-decelerate so you arrive co-moving with the target at a dead stop.
  • Physics · trade-off: the fastest but harshest acceleration (high fuel/γ cost). For a moving target it uses lead pursuit, aiming where it will be at arrival.

2. Rendezvous transit · track

When: to ride alongside a moving target — a comet, probe, or another ship — to observe it or hold a set distance.

  • Book it: arm the moving target → transit catches up matching its velocity, while track closes to a set distance, nulls the relative velocity, and station-keeps there as you travel together.
  • What happens: the target's live state is re-solved every tick for lead pursuit (aiming at where it will be). Even an orbiting planet like Mars is met by matching its velocity this way.
  • Physics · trade-off: the added cost of matching speed buys you the ability to stay beside the target instead of flying past.

3. Orbit insertion orbit

When: to circle and stay near a body — a stable base for observation, waiting, or the next maneuver.

  • Book it: arm Mars → book Orbit insertion (orbit) on the Flight Plan.
  • What happens: auto-cruise to the body, then circularize at orbital velocity; on arrival, station-keeping holds your radius and speed.
  • Physics · trade-off: you settle at a safe altitude without touching down — a great staging point for a later landing or swing-by.

4. Swing-by swingby

When: to borrow a big body's gravity to accelerate, decelerate, or bend your course for free (a gravity assist).

  • Book it: arm a large body → book Swing-by (swingby) on the Flight Plan.
  • What happens: orient toward the body and burn, and the N-body gravity field bends your trajectory automatically (the server manages the approach). Just passing near a large body can trigger an auto swing-by.
  • Physics · trade-off: it changes your speed and direction with almost no fuel, but the geometry is finicky — better for course changes than precise arrivals.

5. Landing land

When: to touch down on a solid surface (a soft landing). Airless or atmospheric bodies (Mars, Earth, Venus, Titan, exoplanets) all work — only gas giants are refused.

  • Book it: arm Mars → book Landing (land) on the Flight Plan.
  • What happens: a powered descent corridor — atmospheric bodies fly a re-entry corridor, airless ones a braking descent. Afterward, launch returns you to free flight.
  • Physics · trade-off: the most delicate control — the autopilot accounts even for the time to slew the nose around, descending at a speed it can still stop from before the surface (safe even on tiny moons).
Braking is not instant. In every mode, deceleration is a flip-and-burn — turning 180° takes time (physically correct), so the autopilot factors that rotation in and approaches at a speed it can stop from before arrival.