Per Fabrica Ad Astra (through crafting, to the stars) is an extension (mod) of the game Minecraft. Broadly, it aims to enrich the science and engineering content of the game. The overarching goal is to instill love and knowledge of both disciplines in the heart and mind of the player. Since reality is often stranger and more interesting than fiction, many of the ideas are directly inspired by nature and actual science. Of course, gameplay takes precedence over realism, because if no one plays, no one learns.

Per Fabrica Ad Astra plans to be a collection of independent yet tightly integrated modules, each corresponding to a Forge mod. Players and server administrators may choose which to enable through configuration. Currently, there is only one working mod: Geologica. It adds realistic and interesting geology to Minecraft, with the goal of enhancing the mining experience. Geologica defines new types of rocks and minerals and relies on the Custom Ore Generator mod (which we also maintain) to place them in the world. Vanilla stone is completely replaced by the new types of rocks. Mineral deposits, including metal ores and industrial minerals spawn in psuedo-realistic veins and clouds, accoding to the type of rock.

Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to very much with the minerals. That is the point of chemistry and thus the Chemica mod that is only just beginning to take shape. However, we use the Forge ore dictionary so that some common minerals can be processed via other mods, in particular GregTech.