Newton's Orchard
Browser-based space/gravity playground
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Hi HN!My son spent a lot of time in 5th grade playing with the 2-dimensional PhET gravity/space sims[1]. His STEM class uses it, and he was playing with it at home, and has been looking for more. I found several space sims/playgrounds online, including NASA's Eyes on the Solar System[2], but nothing that seemed to offer a real progression from what he was getting out of the PhET sims, so I built Newton's Orchard over the summer for him.https://newtonsorchard.appThe source is also published at https://github.com/andrewchilds/newtons-orchardIt features deterministic time scrubbing, all bodies are editable, different preset systems and experiments, missions to complete (complete 3 to unlock the blackhole object type and mission), and a gallery for user submissions.I would very much appreciate feedback from HN - particularly from the lens of making it engaging and illuminating for students, and anyone that would like to just get a feel for how gravity works. Thank you![1] https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/gravity-and-orbits/lates... [2] https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/solar-system/
HN · launched Sep 1, 2026 · 32 upvotes (top 19%) · 0 views
Niche: physics and engineering simulation software · 104 launches, 8 in the last 7 days ▲ +14% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Content generation
- B2C
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 104 launches in physics and engineering simulation software →
Could you build this?
Yes A 2D space and gravity sandbox in the browser can be easily built using HTML5 Canvas or Three.js/Pixi.js alongside a straightforward N-body physics integrator with standard LLM assistance.
Discussion
7 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Stellarium
Concerns raised: Can it solve/help with three body problem?
Feature requests: Spaceship piloting mode with gravity assists, 3D strategy battles like Homeworld, Walkthroughs/tutorials for beginners
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 150 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #40 of 151 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 298 days after the earliest competitor.
- Gravity · hn · 2026-06-09 · 217 upvotes · similarity 0.59
- DailySpace, Android app for exploring space photos and rocket launches · hn · 2026-01-14 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.49
- Aether Gravity · ph · 2026-10-10 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.44
- A browser game where you navigate home to Earth using pulsars · hn · 2026-11-01 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- A solar system simulation in the browser · hn · 2025-12-29 · 13 upvotes · similarity 0.43
- farseer.space · hn · 2026-09-15 · 11 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- SOLAR · ph · 2026-09-25 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.42
- Rocket Launch and Orbit Simulator · hn · 2026-01-09 · 166 upvotes · similarity 0.41
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