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Simon Sapin, a Factorio player, describes using matrix math to plan factory production and has released a free online calculator tool to model the game's Quality system introduced in the Space Age expansion. The tool helps players calculate probabilities and outcomes when using quality modules to upgrade items through the game's five tiers, from normal to legendary.
A team led by Jim Wild of Lancaster University, publishing in Space Weather, re-examined an 1871 Nature report describing a magnetic disturbance that delayed trains in Exeter, England, previously dated to 1841. The researchers concluded that date was likely a transcription error, and the actual rail disruption occurred years later, meaning the Carrington Event of 1859 need not be displaced as the earliest documented case of severe geomagnetic interference with British rail signaling.
NASA astronauts on the International Space Station recently performed a standard walk-off procedure with the Canadarm2 robotic arm, after which the arm and its mobile transporter became unable to move. As of Sunday evening, teams were still investigating whether the fault lies in software or hardware, and NASA had not provided further comment by Monday morning.
NASA sources say the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm and its mobile transporter became stuck after a standard 'walk-off' repositioning move. Engineers are investigating whether the failure stems from a software or data glitch or an actual hardware fault in the arm or transporter. NASA had not publicly commented on the issue as of Monday morning.
Florida startup Star Catcher is launching a prototype system on a SpaceX rocket to beam concentrated solar energy via laser to a separate orbiting satellite. CEO Andrew Rush says the system, called power nodes, gathers and refines sunlight into concentrated wavelengths that can then be directed as a laser beam toward satellites needing power.
A visit to the British Interplanetary Society's London headquarters, the world's oldest space advocacy group founded in 1933, finds members like 71-year-old fellow Jerry Stone still preoccupied with the prospect of human missions to Mars. The society's library holds decades' worth of books and speculative literature on Martian exploration, propulsion systems and colonization schemes.
Author Caroline M. Yoachim has released a satirical interactive short story structured as a branching 'choose your own path' narrative, set aboard a space station medical clinic between Saturn and Uranus. The piece follows a reader-protagonist who suffers an insect bite and must navigate absurd bureaucratic and medical scenarios with multiple lettered outcomes. The story is also included in the anthology 'The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2017,' edited by John Joseph Adams and guest editor Charles Yu.
A web-based compiler combines any base font (like Inter or Roboto) with a chosen tokenizer (such as DeepSeek, GPT tokenizers, or Llama 3) to produce a 'token-space font' where every token occupies the same visual width. Users can preview text in the browser, upload custom fonts or tokenizers via Hugging Face links, and export compiled fonts, with an optional 'lite mode' for smaller file sizes.
Dr. Tony Phillips of spaceweather.com has built a method to track Earth's upper atmosphere by analyzing orbital decay data from SpaceX's Starlink satellites, along with constellations from Planet Labs, Amazon Kuiper, and Eutelsat OneWeb. He uses the 'B-star' drag term buried in Space Force tracking data to measure how much the atmosphere expands in response to solar activity, finding a roughly two-day lag between solar radio flux changes and atmospheric response.
Seven years after its founding, Starfish Space will send its first Otter spacecraft into orbit next month aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter mission. The demonstration flight, called SSPICY, is being conducted for NASA and will have Otter approach several defunct US-owned satellites to gather data on their spin rates and condition without docking.
Wube Software's Friday Facts reveals it has been developing 3D-printed physical models of Factorio components, starting with a Wriggler figure made during a 2024 Space Age playtesting event with Prusa Research. The team has since focused on transport belts and inserters, designing a grid system that mirrors in-game placement and producing two versions of each model - one for precise push-fit assembly and one with looser clearances for gluing.
Scientists are exploring how yeast could help produce construction materials for future Mars settlements, offering an alternative to transporting heavy machinery and resources from Earth. The approach would use biological processes to convert available materials into usable building components on-site.