Latest news with #Starfall
Mint
26-05-2025
- Science
- Mint
SpaceX pushes to get Starship rocket ready for Mars by next year
SpaceX is shifting personnel and resources to its powerful new rocket, hoping to have the vehicle ready for a Mars mission next year. Elon Musk's space company is making an enormous bet on Starship, which stands roughly 400 feet tall at liftoff and remains in an experimental phase. SpaceX is aiming to address the technical challenges ahead with Starship while continuing to fly the operational spacecraft and rockets that made the company a powerhouse. In recent months, employees have been moving into Starship roles, including some Dragon spacecraft staffers who were reassigned in mid-May, according to people familiar with the matter. SpaceX has also been making big investments in its complex in Texas for the vehicle, and has similar plans for Florida. The company faces near-term pressure to show that Starship can function as Musk and other executives have promised. It is behind schedule on work preparing a variant of Starship for a National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission to the moon currently set for 2027, people familiar with those efforts have said. This year, SpaceX struggled with back-to-back Starship flight tests that ended in explosions. The incidents disrupted airline traffic in Florida and the Caribbean region as debris fell. SpaceX is planning another test flight of the vehicle Tuesday evening. In a statement Friday, the company said it had conducted extensive testing to understand the failure of its latest mission and made changes for the next one. Reaching its goals with Starship 'won't always come in leaps," SpaceX said. 'It's definitely been a rough start of the year for Starship," Shana Diez, an engineering executive at SpaceX, said in a post on X after the second recent explosion. A single issue can cause a launch to fail, she said, and when factoring in costs and time, 'the overall problem can feel quite daunting." One of the Starship-related projects that SpaceX staff recently moved over to is called Starfall. It is tied to a military effort to one day use the vehicle to whisk military gear around the globe, the person familiar said. Military officials and space companies for years have researched using rockets to rapidly move cargo. The idea is spacecraft could ferry large amounts of material to bases or remote locations an hour or so after launching and flying through space. SpaceX in 2017 posted an animation online showing people in New York boarding a Starship on a barge and flying through space to Shanghai in 39 minutes, but executives haven't spoken much lately about so-called point-to-point Starship efforts. The company said in a legal filing last year it aims to conduct a rocket-cargo mission for the Air Force where Starship would attempt to transport and land more than 66,000 pounds of government cargo. It then said it expected to receive about $149 million tied to further developing Starship for the cargo efforts. Musk has been pushing SpaceX to try to launch a Starship spacecraft on an uncrewed mission to Mars next year. Taking a shot at the red planet on that time frame would require SpaceX to overcome engineering obstacles. An advantage of possibly flying there in 2026 is that Earth and Mars will be closer together, making a flight easier. One major challenge for any mission: in-orbit fueling. Rockets and spacecraft typically are loaded with all of their fuel on the ground, but SpaceX aims to fuel up Starships while they are in orbit for deep-space missions. Staffers have discussed Starship making a trip to Mars with three in-space refuels, people familiar with the matter said. Transferring propellant in space at the scale SpaceX is proposing for Starship hasn't been done before, and the company hasn't attempted to move fuel between two vehicles in orbit. The propellants must remain at super-cold temperatures or they can boil off. SpaceX's goal of flying to Mars next year might dovetail with the Trump administration's new priorities at NASA. In a recent budget proposal, the White House called for adding $1 billion in funding for Mars-focused efforts and large cuts across many other agency programs. Musk founded SpaceX more than two decades ago to ultimately try to send people to the red planet, and has described making humanity multiplanetary as an animating feature of his life. The chief executive of SpaceX, Tesla and other companies has said he wants to include a robot under development at Tesla on a Mars flight in 2026. 'Starship departs for Mars at the end of next year, carrying Optimus," Musk said in a post on X in March. Write to Micah Maidenberg at and Becky Peterson at
Business Wire
09-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Starfall, a Nonprofit, Goes to Court to Protect Our Kids
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starfall Education Foundation, a publicly supported nonprofit, has filed a lawsuit in Denver federal court today against Tencent Holdings Ltd (TCEHY), a Chinese technology conglomerate designated by the Pentagon as an agent of the Chinese military, and it's Singaporean subsidiaries, Level Infinite Pte Ltd and Proxima Beta Pte Ltd. (collectively 'Tencent'), alleging that they hijacked Starfall's U.S. trademarks to attract children to violent computer games and collect children's personal private information including email addresses, and assigning a personal ID. Starfall alleges that Tencent is using the STARFALL Mark to promote a pass "to allow players to log into multiple games," some of which involve "assault rifles to blast and kill." Starfall further alleges that children will "believe that there is a relationship of source, sponsorship, and/or affiliation" between Starfall and Tencent. In 2002, Starfall was founded by Stephen Schutz as a social enterprise to help teach young children to read. "I consider myself an expert in this field because I couldn't read myself until the 5th-6th grade," said Schutz who went on to graduate from MIT and get a Ph.D. in physics at Princeton. Over the years, Starfall became widely used and expanded its games, movies and books to include math and social-emotional learning, Starfall became a nonprofit (501c3) in 2015 and has developed educational games for children up to the 5th grade. To promote understanding and respect Starfall developed a kindness activity six years ago that has recorded over 71 million acts of kindness on its website. Starfall is now developing interactive kindness exhibits for children's museums in the U.S. and around the world.
Geek Girl Authority
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
Mobile Game Monday: ONCE HUMAN
Greetings, friends, and welcome to Mobile Game Monday, where we chat about games you can play on the go. If you like gaming on a phone or tablet , this is the place for you. Join us every week as we go on all sorts of adventures. Once Human Once Human (2025) is a multiplayer open-world survival game from Starry Studio, NetEase Games, and Exptional Global. Originally released for PC last year, the recently launched mobile version was one of my most anticipated April releases so I could not wait to get my hands on this one. No thanks to the reckless experiments of the Rosetta Corporation, a world-ending event known as the Starfall has turned the world into a post-apocalyptic nightmare. An alien pollutant, stardust, has contaminated most of Earth and has mutated its inhabitants into horrific monsters called deviations. Meta humans, such as yourself, were created by Rosetta and have the ability to control stardust. RELATED: May's Most Anticipated Video Games Unfortunately, you awaken with amnesia into this apocalyptic nightmare. However, a friendly deviant named V offers guidance as you explore the world and gradually discover the true horror of the Rosetta Corporation. Screenshot courtesy of Cassie Holguin. First, I have to mention the sheer depth of the character creator in Once Human. Right out of the gate, I was overwhelmed with options and spent my entire first day of play in character creation. It is a great indicator of the attention to detail present in the rest of the game. Controls Controls in Once Human consist of on-screen buttons for everything from moving, jumping, crouching, and shooting. As of now, there is no controller support which is unfortunate because this game could really use it. For the most part, the on-screen buttons feel organic during gameplay and there are even a few customization options that let you move things around a bit. Screenshot courtesy of Cassie Holguin. Moving around objects in tight spaces can be tricky with these controls which can get you cornered and surrounded by enemies. I struggled the most with controlling the vehicles with D-pad-style arrow controls. Although the on-screen buttons can be frustrating, after a little practice, it feels more natural. Dear devs, please add controller support soon! RELATED: Video Games Are Becoming a Luxury Few Can Afford Don't Just Survive, Thrive! Surviving in this post-apocalyptic nightmare is a huge part of Once Human and this all depends on building a proper territory. Gather supplies from the environment around you to build just about anything you can imagine. Once you get the basics down, you can customize everything from the floors to the furniture. If you want, you can eventually make yourself a fancy mansion and thrive rather than survive. 1.90.3-B3G7XTSKQDFK3S77IJ5NHU44WI.0.1-2 Any good survivalist knows you won't make it far without food or water. After building a stove, collect and boil water to satiate your thirst. Then, cook up some grub using gathered ingredients and recipes. Surviving the apocalypse is dangerous but thankfully, you can make bandages, medicine, and adrenaline to keep yourself alive and sane. On top of keeping yourself fed and alive, you also have to stay sane. Being around high concentrations of stardust will take a toll on your mental health. If your sanity depletes too much, it will begin to eat into your health. Sleeping will restore your sanity, much like in real life. Nothing makes me feel more out of sorts than losing sleep. RELATED: Can Nostalgia Save the Games Industry? To keep you safe from the things that go bump in the night (and day), make your weapons and armor from blueprints found while playing the game. You can build, upgrade, and customize weapons extensively. For example, you can choose the type of scope, silencer, or mag that your gun uses. This is just one more example of the tedious attention to detail that allows players to completely customize their experience. Luckily, pretty much anything you need you can create yourself as long as you have unlocked the mimetic requirements from the skill tree. Your best bet for finding pretty much anything is simply exploring the world and crafting what you cannot find. There is nothing more satisfying than making something with your own two hands, even in a game. Deviations and Deviants Stardust has mutated humans into monsters that look like something straight out of a Lovecraftian fever dream. Seriously, these are some of the creepiest monsters I have ever seen. As you play the game, they just get bigger, and creepier. Most deviations are violent creatures that will attack you on sight. RELATED: F2P Friday: MONSTER TILES TD However, those known as deviants can be harnessed by metahumans who can use their abilities. Some deviants will help you in battle while others will do chores at your territory. Collecting and using deviant abilities adds an entirely new mechanic to the game that I surprisingly enjoyed the most. Very early in the game, I felt drawn towards finding deviants more than anything. Screenshot courtesy of Cassie Holguin. For each area in Once Human , there is a monolith that houses a big bad boss deviation. Defeating bosses and closing monoliths is how you progress through the story and unlock new parts of the map. If you are brave (or stupid) enough, you can try to take on the horror alone. As for the rest of us, team up with friends or other online players to down the big baddies more easily. Survive in Style Once Human is free to play so of course there is an enormous selection of in-game goods for real-world money. However, these items are cosmetic and even though you may really want that pretty gun skin, you will survive just fine without it. RELATED: STAR WARS: Most Powerful Sith Lords This is a game I see myself sinking a lot of time into so I don't mind spending a little cash to look cool. You can also get cosmetic items from bosses, exploration, or completing challenges. This means you can be thrifty and get sweet new gear. Our Adventure Ends Here The only thing I feel Once Human is missing is controller support, especially when it comes to driving the vehicles. Controller support might make this a near-perfect game. Overall, game progression feels natural,l although sometimes it is unclear what I am supposed to be doing or the game would start tracking a different quest while I was walking toward an objective, leading me the wrong way. However, I didn't mind this much because I would just explore wherever I ended up. While playing, I would set out with a quest in mind and very quickly wander off to explore. The next thing I know, hours have gone by and I never completed what I initially set out to do. I love games like this because it means I am completely immersed in the experience. RELATED: My Time at Toronto Game Expo 2025: A Recap This game also does a great job of telling you how to unlock or where to get things. For example, if you need more arrows, clicking on the object will tell you to craft them at your territory. It keeps the survival aspect from getting overwhelming because you can simply look up what you need when you need it. Screenshot courtesy of Cassie Holguin. The supernatural elements in Once Human remind me of some of my favorite games including Silent Hill , Resident Evil , and Bioshock. Fans of Dying Light and The Last of Us will appreciate the survival horror aspects. It is such an expansive experience that is seriously impressive, especially for a mobile port. With other mobile ports of large games like this, I always feet the need to play on another platform, but that is not the case here. Although I have not played on PC, the mobile version feels like I am playing a fully developed RPG on PC. The game has so much content, looks amazing, and runs without any issues (for me anyway). Keep in mind that game performance depends on various factors such as your device, internet connection, and more. I play on a Samsung Fold 5 and so far have not run into any issues. RELATED: Read all of the Mobile Game Monday adventures here! There is so much to do in Once Human that I haven't even discovered everything yet. It is one of the most detailed mobile games I have ever played. I'll leave it to you to check out all the various scenarios, challenges, and more that the game has to offer. After all, exploration and discovery are a huge part of this adventure. So far, I have only scratched the surface and it is early in the year but from what I have played, Once Human is a serious contender for mobile game of the year. Once Human is free in the Play Store and the App Store. Take it easy and play it safe, gamers. F2P Friday: CHECKOUT CHAMP
