CS 360 Graphics Project by William Poe

Basic Idea

I thought of this idea because of the recent Artemis II mission and I thought creating a version of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) in three.js would require a fair amount of work but would allow me to gain new experience and learn. This project interests me because it would also allow me to work extensively with modeling, animation, lighting, and texturing. The project would also involve many stages because rockets are complicated and have stage separation events, which would make them complex to model and animate.

This picture is what inspired me:

sls rocket at launch pad. — SLS rocket sitting at LC-39B awaiting Artemis II mission. Image credits

You might need to use the chmod command, as needed, to ensure that the permissions for the files and subfolders of your project folder are okay.

My Project

For this project, I tried my best to model the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) using three.js, leaving some small details out. The project turned out to be as difficult as I expected, because modeling the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs), Core Stage, Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), and European Service Module (ESM) separation was not an easy task. Also, adding exhaust smoke to the SRBs was slightly difficult, though I was unable to give the exhaust the volume of smoke I would have liked. An issue I encountered while working on the project was that as the height of the rocket increased, the camera would slowly zoom out and move away from the rocket, but I was able to solve this issue.

Source Code

Here is a link to the project source code.

rocket sitting a launch pad. — SLS rocket at the launch pad with the crew arm attached to the rocket.

rocket lifting off from launch pad. — SLS rocket lifting off from the launch pad.

core stage separates from upper stage. — Core stage of the rocket separating from the upper stage of the rocket.

The Running Project

Here is a link to the project itself.