How I Built a Browser-Based 3D Solar System with Three.js (And Why It Was Harder Than I Expected)

Introduction When I started building Cosmic Explorer, I thought it would take a few weeks. It took much longer — and I learned more about browser-based 3D rendering than I ever expected. Cosmic Explorer is a fully interactive 3D solar system that runs in your browser, built with Three.js and vanilla JavaScript. It includes real planetary data, a flyable spaceship, wormhole travel, and a complete asteroid escape mini-game. No downloads. No installs. Just open a tab. Live demo: https://rtm20.github.io/cosmic-explorer/ The Tech Stack Everything is built on: Three.js for 3D scene management and WebGL abstraction Custom GLSL shaders for the wormhole effect and planet atmospheres Vanilla JavaScript — no frameworks for the core engine Procedural generation for the asteroid fields Web Audio API for the ambient soundtrack The final codebase is approximately 6,000 lines, all handcrafted. Conclusion Browser-based 3D is far more capable than most developers give it credit for. If you have been cur