# Cosmic Voyage Control

![Cosmic Voyage icon](pwa-192x192.png)

Your phone is the flight deck for [Cosmic Voyage](/cosmic-voyage/appinfo). Browse 27 illustrated destinations, discover facts and spacecraft missions, and steer the shared display. Designed for explorers aged 10 and up.

![Cosmic Voyage phone controls](screenshot.jpg)

## Join a voyage

Scan the display's QR code, or open [Cosmic Voyage Control](/cosmic-voyage-c/) in the same RCWeb room as the display. When Cosmic Voyage launches from the app menu, existing room controllers follow automatically.

Any number of people can browse; one device controls the shared view at a time. Choose **Manual** to take control. The status shows whether you or another device has control. No name is needed.

## Two simple tabs

Use **Solar system** for worlds and moons, **Spacecraft** for Voyager, Webb, the ISS, Perseverance and Ingenuity, or **Beyond** for distant stars, nebulae and galaxies. **All** shows every destination.

Travelling to Perseverance or Ingenuity takes the display down to the surface of Mars. Select **Mars** to return to the planet view. Their cards show the updated surface scenes.

- **Destinations:** search or filter the illustrated list. Tap a destination to expand its measurements and facts directly below the selection. Open **Spacecraft & journeys** there for mission dates, travel times and sources. Tap the destination again to collapse it. Browsing does not move the display; **Travel to** takes control and starts the journey in Manual mode. **Find** opens the destination currently on screen.
- **Pilot:** look with the pad and hold a flight button to move. Release to stop. **Recentre**, **Stop** and **Home to Earth** help you navigate. Less-used controls are tucked under **Display settings**.

**Demo** and **Manual** are above both tabs. Demo continuously visits destinations, pausing about 24 seconds at each. The viewer starts in Demo. Manual stays selected until you explicitly start Demo again.

**Hold view to read** pauses the shared view and rotating facts. **Next screen fact** advances the display's fact. These act on the destination currently shown on the display.

Display settings control the information panel, QR invitation and graphics detail. **Lean** is useful for older screens. The mission button displays a schematic spacecraft at the current destination, where one is available.

## Real science, illustrated travel

The app's roughly four-second journeys are accelerated. Real mission times are approximate launch-to-event intervals; a flyby, an orbit and a landing are different milestones. Telescopes observe distant objects without travelling to them.

The scene uses compressed distances, enlarged bodies and illustrated surfaces. Destination artwork is AI-generated, except for the schematic Sagittarius A* radio-view diagram. It is an interactive learning model, not live tracking or a precise atlas. Facts link to NASA, ESA or ESO. The catalogue was reviewed on 10 October 2026, with the Sagittarius A* explanation updated on 11 October.

## Connection and accessibility

Buttons give visible feedback when another person takes control. Releasing a flight button, leaving the Pilot section or losing the connection stops your input. If the display disappears, you can still browse facts while waiting for it to return.

The steering pad also accepts arrow keys when focused. Hold Space or Enter on a focused flight button to move. Controls have large touch targets and keyboard focus outlines. Facts require no audio.

**Back to apps** returns this phone to the app list in the same room while leaving the display running.