Thanks for the feedback!
Yeahhh... We kind of left explainations to the last minute, making for an unenjoyable playing experience. If you're willing to try again, the expected game from starts with you clicking on asteroids to attach miners to them, then spawning combiners/splitters/smelters/coolers and connecting the emitters from the miners to the receivers on the factory components by clicking one then the other in succession. That should allow you to make factories