[vibe42]

Something related and fun is parsing a simple CSV file of exoplanets.

https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TblView/np...

Download Table -> All Columns, All Rows.

Tried a few new, open, local AI models by giving them the CSV file and asking them to write a simple python script:

1. Parse all rows and build statistical distribution of mass, radius etc.

2. Use those distributions to generate fictional exoplanets.

Playing with this for a space game idea where star systems are populated with fictional exoplanets, but all their params are from the real statistical distributions of all known exoplanets.

A way to get some harder sci-fi using real world data :)

[maxnoe]

Keep in mind that our current instruments are not really sensitive to most exoplanets that would be interesting for a sci-fi setting.

Current instruments are mostly good at finding large planets around small stars, we are basically blind to earth-like planets around sun-like stars.

See e.g. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2019/queloz/lectur...

[vibe42]

That's a very good point! And an opportunity for game worlds; extrapolate those blind spots by assuming small planets and planets further out from their stars are more common than what's been confirmed so far.

[Teever]

Thank you for the data source. I'll eventually add it to the project that I'm working on

I've got a little orbital dynamics simulator written in C that I've been tinkering with for the past little while. I've got the solar system planets and some asteroids going, I was going to work on moons and artificial satellites / probes next.

My goal was to tinker with simulating a solar system based economy that used Aldrin cyclers for lunar / asteroid mining.

The author of this software posts on HN quite frequently, but I can't remember their username: https://caltech-ipac.github.io/kete/

[vibe42]

Thanks for the link! Looks like pretty useful tools.

I'm playing with a space game idea of physics simulation somewhere between the fidelity of KSP and Eve Online. More robust ships and easier gameplay than KSP, but much more in-depth physics than Eve.

A bit too early (and too much AI slop code!) to share but can push to github if useful - wrote some scripts to parse the gaia DR3 release: https://gea.esac.esa.int/archive/

Parses all rows of the gdr3/Astrophysical_parameters/ files and filters out all objects within X ly of our solar system.

Same idea there as with the exoplanets; build a statistical distribution from real-world data and use it to generate fictional solar systems.