Overview
New Year, same big swings. Space is front and centre with Mars plans, a roaring Starlink factory, and a mesmerising view of the Sun. On Earth, AI takes over sales desks while mathematicians call foul, drones tidy solar panels, and XPeng logs a record year. Hardware bets span humanoid robots and soul-computer glasses, while creators kick off 2026 with quick-fire Blender scenes and a buggy joyride in Flight Simulator.
The big picture
Mars on the calendar, the physics behind the plan
SpaceX’s path to Mars is not straight. It is a Hohmann transfer orbit, an ellipse that saves propellant when Earth and Mars align. The post highlights late 2026 as the target window, with uncrewed Starships pencilled for November to December. Elon Musk’s clip walks through the 6 to 9 month coast and credits Starlink revenue as fuel for the programme. Replies mix bold hopes for settlement with grounded worries about heat shields and re-entry, with some saying 2028 may be more realistic.
Starlink goes from fast to faster
SpaceX aims to double Starlink kit output in 2026 to nearly 50,000 units per day, an annual pace of 17 million, all U.S. made. The report notes 4.6 million new customers and reach across 35 countries. A factory video shows Bastrop, Texas scaling from an empty shell to 70,000 kits each week, with vertical integration driving 2025’s leap past 20,000 daily units. V3 satellites, built for Starship launches, are slated to lift capacity by an order of magnitude, with direct-to-cell on the horizon.
The Sun, up close and alive
ESA kicks off 2026 with a Solar Orbiter clip of a dark prominence, a vast loop of plasma held by magnetic fields soaring more than 100,000 km above the surface. The footage ties to a burst of activity in November 2025, including X-class flares and CMEs that stirred geomagnetic storms. Beyond the spectacle, it is a reminder that space weather touches satellites, power grids, and comms on Earth.
AI agents take the sales floor
Lenny Rachitsky spotlights Jason Lemkin’s experiment: 10 salespeople replaced by 20 AI agents plus 1.2 humans, with revenue flat. The post questions whether scripted bots waste leads instead of growing the pie, citing a 45 percent lead-loss stat from real estate as warning. It also flags the uneasy feel of near-human bots, with reports in 2025 noting customers ghosting them and brand trust taking a hit.
Mathematician’s verdict on today’s AI
Joel David Hamkins says current models are no help in serious maths. They produce wrong answers, then defend them. His view lines up with work showing top systems solving a small slice of proof problems. Replies push back with anecdotes about creative sparks, but the gap between inspiration and reliability is clear.
Jensen Huang’s Optimus drumbeat
Nvidia’s CEO calls Elon Musk an extraordinary engineer and says Tesla’s Optimus could kick off a multi trillion industry. He points to shared work on AI compute and autonomy, and argues Tesla’s manufacturing muscle gives Optimus an edge in scaling from demo to production.
“Soul computer” hits the market
Pickle 1 launches as AR glasses with a memory-first OS and a privacy pitch, wrapped in a slick video. The internet asks for basics: 12-hour battery life drew a cheeky response about wearing glasses 18 hours a day, and prescription support looks tricky. The idea is bold, the all-day realities are still in question.
Clean panels, more power
A short clip of drones washing dusty solar arrays in a city setting gets praise for being simple and useful. Clean panels can gain 20 to 30 percent output according to studies, and Chinese makers are pushing practical kit for rooftops and big farms. Suggestions in replies include hose-fed designs to save weight and water.
XPeng’s record year
XPeng reports 429,445 deliveries in 2025, up 126 percent from 2024. The video montage tours factories, overseas launches, and autonomous demos. December growth was modest and Q4 guidance was missed, yet the annual print shows share gains at home and in Europe, which adds pressure in the premium EV race.
Altman’s startup crib notes
Sam Altman’s classic YC talk is condensed into 14 points, with product-market fit, teams, moats, and market choice front and centre. The through line is focus and momentum, plus founders who rally users. It is bite-sized but grounded in years of pattern-watching.
10-minute Blender build
A quick rooftop path scene shows modular Japanese-style assets dropped into place under a cloudy HDRI. It is a neat showcase for fast world-building, and the comments swap tips on lighting and terrain modules for richer cityscapes.
A buggy, a mountain road, and Flight Simulator
A 62-second clip of a dune buggy bouncing down a snowy Colorado road in MS Flight Simulator 2024 doubles as a love letter to the sim’s terrain system. It sparked calls for a dedicated driving title that taps the same world scale.
Why it matters
Space is not just rockets, it is logistics and infrastructure. A Mars window needs physics, Starlink’s scale pays the bills, and ESA’s space weather watch keeps our tech safe. Together, they form the scaffolding for the next decade beyond Earth orbit.
AI at work is hitting a trust wall. Replacing teams with agents may cut costs today, but brands live or die on how people feel when they engage. Maths is a hard test case, and until models stop arguing for wrong answers, humans will stay in the loop.
Robotics and AR are moving from demos to usefulness. Tesla’s manufacturing know-how could matter more than a flashy prototype, and AR glasses will have to win on comfort, battery, and prescriptions before they win hearts.
Clean energy depends on upkeep as much as new capacity. Autonomous cleaning that lifts solar output by double-digit percentages is low drama, high impact, which is exactly what the grid needs.
EV competition is widening. XPeng’s surge means better choice and likely sharper pricing, which accelerates adoption and pushes rivals to improve.
Creative tools and playful hacks remind us who this tech is for. Fast asset kits and globe-scale sims make room for more voices to build, share, and have a bit of fun, which is how new ideas often start.
