Be an astronaut for a day

The four things you protect as an Astronaut

• 🎯
  Mission

  If Mission reaches zero, your day ends early with “The mission was scrubbed”. The goals slipped and the mission was cancelled. The station is cleaning up.

  23% of the choices in this role lower it, and 33% raise it.

• 💓
  Crew

  If Crew reaches zero, your day ends early with “A crew in trouble”. The crew’s health and spirit broke. An early return was ordered.

  33% of the choices in this role lower it, and 38% raise it.

• 📦
  Supplies

  If Supplies reaches zero, your day ends early with “Out of supplies”. The supplies ran short. A resupply ship was called in a hurry.

  21% of the choices in this role lower it, and 6% raise it.

• 📡
  Contact

  If Contact reaches zero, your day ends early with “Signal lost”. Contact with ground dropped. Station Kestrel is very quiet and very far away.

  6% of the choices in this role lower it, and 35% raise it.

Tips for a better day as an Astronaut

1. Do not chase one number. In every role, a day with all four meters between 50 and 70 beats a day with one meter at 95 and another at 10. As an Astronaut, the danger is rarely the big mistake. It is the quiet neglect of one meter.
2. Watch Crew most closely. In this role, 33% of choices lower it, which makes it the meter that slips away fastest. Contact is the most forgiving, with 6% of choices lowering it.
3. Read your advisors as opinions, not answers. Each one backs the option that helps the meters they care about, so when they disagree, ask which meter you can least afford to lose today.
4. Look for the choice that gives you something back. Many of the best options cost one meter a little and help two others. The tempting “easy” option often costs more than it seems.
5. Remember that choices can come back. A decision in the morning may return as a follow-up situation later in the day, so a quick fix early on can be expensive at six in the evening.

A sample day, step by step

Here is one example of how a careful player might get through a day as an Astronaut. It uses six of the sixteen situations, picks the option with the best overall balance each time, and shows what each choice did. Your own day will be different, because situations are drawn at random and some choices bring follow-ups later.

1. 7:00 AM

   Sleep schedule

   Your crew is three hours out of rhythm. Everyone is tired and slightly cranky.

   Chosen: “Fix the schedule for everyone”. A hard day and a good week.

   🎯 Mission −5💓 Crew +10

   The road not taken: “Keep working as planned”. The mission goes on and the coffee runs out.

   Standing after this call: 🎯 45 · 💓 60 · 📦 50 · 📡 50

2. 9:30 AM

   A mysterious tapping

   You hear a soft tapping from a wall. It stops when you listen and starts when you leave.

   Chosen: “Investigate with the crew”. You find a loose cable and a lot of laughter.

   🎯 Mission +5💓 Crew +5

   The road not taken: “Ignore it”. The tapping gets louder.

   Standing after this call: 🎯 50 · 💓 65 · 📦 50 · 📡 50

3. 12:00 PM

   The last pack of favourite food

   There is one pack of your crew’s favourite curry left. It is also your last one.

   Chosen: “Share it among the crew”. A joyful dinner and a warm night.

   💓 Crew +15📦 Supplies −5

   The road not taken: “Eat it yourself”. Delicious and awkward.

   Standing after this call: 🎯 50 · 💓 80 · 📦 45 · 📡 50

4. 3:00 PM

   The visiting capsule

   A supply capsule has a docking delay of two hours. Your supplies are thin and your crew is hungry.

   Chosen: “Ask ground to speed up”. They try their best.

   📡 Contact +5

   The road not taken: “Use the emergency rations”. You eat a lot of crackers.

   Standing after this call: 🎯 50 · 💓 80 · 📦 45 · 📡 55

5. 6:00 PM

   A spacewalk selfie

   A crewmate on a spacewalk asks if she can take a quick selfie with Earth behind her. The clock is ticking.

   Chosen: “Allow it at the end of the walk”. A nice reward for finishing early.

   🎯 Mission +5💓 Crew +10📡 Contact +5

   The road not taken: “Say not now”. Safe and sensible.

   Standing after this call: 🎯 55 · 💓 90 · 📦 45 · 📡 60

6. 9:00 PM

   A solar flare warning

   Ground control warns of a solar flare in three hours. It is probably small, but not definitely.

   Chosen: “Shelter in the shielded module”. Safe, cramped and a lot of lost work.

   🎯 Mission −10💓 Crew +10📡 Contact +5

   The road not taken: “Carry on as normal”. It turns out to be small. You hold your breath.

   Standing after this call: 🎯 45 · 💓 100 · 📦 45 · 📡 65

Situations you may face

Every game uses six of these sixteen situations, so you will not meet them all in one day. There are also 3 follow-up situations that return after specific choices and 3 surprises that can appear without warning.

• A tiny hiss. A faint hiss comes from behind a panel in the science module. It sounds a lot like air leaving.
• The plant experiment. The seedlings in your experiment are about to give important results. It is also bedtime.
• The last pack of favourite food. There is one pack of your crew’s favourite curry left. It is also your last one.
• A solar flare warning. Ground control warns of a solar flare in three hours. It is probably small, but not definitely.
• A call from home. Your family is on the video link. You have a spacewalk to prepare for in an hour.
• The stuck hatch. The hatch for tomorrow’s spacewalk is stuck. A bolt will not turn.
• Two crewmates, one argument. Two of your crew are arguing about whose turn it is to clean the filters. The argument is now about everything.
• A mysterious tapping. You hear a soft tapping from a wall. It stops when you listen and starts when you leave.
• The water recycler hiccups. The water recycler has started to make a glugging sound and the water looks cloudy.
• The perfect photo. The planet below is glowing in a perfect shade of blue. The window is open for ten minutes.
• A spacewalk selfie. A crewmate on a spacewalk asks if she can take a quick selfie with Earth behind her. The clock is ticking.
• A strange smell. A strange smell is drifting through the station. It smells a bit like burnt toast.
• Sleep schedule. Your crew is three hours out of rhythm. Everyone is tired and slightly cranky.
• The visiting capsule. A supply capsule has a docking delay of two hours. Your supplies are thin and your crew is hungry.
• A school asks a question. A class of children is live on the radio and asks, “Can you see our school from space?”
• The exercise machine breaks. The treadmill that keeps your crew’s bones strong has stopped working.

Every ending (spoilers)