My undergrad program had us write Java code by hand for some beginning assignments and exams. The TAs would then type whatever we wrote into Eclipse and see if it ran. They usually graded pretty leniently, though.

Gimme a ~$112 million budget and I’ll at least get it a few feet closer. No promises, though.

If you’re on PC and you find you absolutely can’t make progress, consider modding the game. https://outerwildsmods.com/

Just casually scrolling, I saw a few that modify movement and a few cheat mods that go so far as to just allow you to teleport places. Obviously just teleporting around would lessen the surprises the game offers, so I’d recommend that as an actual last resort.

This and the Send Me to Heaven app (throw your phone as high as you can, higher height means higher score) were two of my favorite early apps clearly designed to mess with people buying expensive devices as status symbols.