I have some suggestions. I started the game and got completely overwhelmed by the workload, then proceeded to play almost two months in infinite mode to git gud, so sorry if some of the things I suggest are already somewhat present in the story mode.
`fishing for specific signals could be a big part of the game. Maybe the player could get special requests from one of the scientists to get, for example, signals from gas giants, and doing so would increase your relationships with the specific scientist, which would make them send you bonus mail with their personal lore and advice about more esoteric game mechanics, like the rituals, that regular players would otherwise only learn about from reading the wiki?
There could also be specific requests, like getting a signal that is sure to show up at a certain coordinate on the star map that day.
And to that end, there should be a little more to detection in general, like, maybe signals could have different tells, which could give away what type of object the signal is from?
`some rare signals could be super difficult to download, but in an engaging way: they could change their polarities, fooling auto-polarity detection mod, and they could shift their frequencies, requiring you to sit there and actively fish them. They could be the late game challenges.
`listening to some signals could cause special events to happen, like with that white box that crashes your entire grid if you try to save it's signal- you should be afraid that what ever is there in the void knows that you heard them. There could also be special objects in space, like massive cosmic animals whose signals are invisible on the screen, but don't dissapear, so you can find them by carefully hunting them blind and poking around.
`and add more interstellar space jams! I still keep the Hobburg data drive on my desk.
`for a game about working with intricate machinery, there could surely be more to fixing stuff than pressing a button? Everything should be able of breaking in more ways, and some maintenance should require higher interaction, like with the oven, and the first step of fixing should be inspecting the thing to figure out what exactly is the problem. There could be some "manual of repairs" put in the base, which would detail such interactions, like in the game "Tin Can". Have you heard of it? I think that game is very topical here.
`I wish there were more interactions with the spirits than just burning the mannequins and destroying the deer carcass, like with that disgusting bucket-kvass and the nightmare demon. And with the wisps too. There could be rituals to befriend them, perhaps to the extend of making them mostly ignore the player, allowing them to observe and learn something from them.
`Mannequins are very annoying in general- they just teleport behind you and fall over. They could at least be malicious by default- making the player trip on any contact with them, so the player could be minding their own business, then suddenly get tackled by one.
`Fall damage is way too high- no monster or alien is deadlier than a three meter drop. Reloading is the devil of gaming, so suddenly having to reload because you missed a drop just sucks.
`There is no reason why in this game "dying" couldn't just make you wake up several hours later with badly crippled max health. Reloading is the killer of immersion.
`Ragdolling is always fun, but why not allow the player to clumsily crawl during it? That would allow some really cloustrophobic caving, and would allow the player to survive a broken leg.
`The hints say that mailbox only transfer items around the same type of games, but it doesn't and that is for the best, I hope you won't change that.
`If you sleep in the lower bunk and get woken by a nightmare, or just choose to ragdoll there, you glitch out and die. That's not right.
`What about brushing teeth? You hold a tooth brush, use tooth paste, get 5 stamina every 8 hours.
`Why no rare, stalker-like anomalies? It would be fun to investigate anomalous areas with weird gravity or some other changed game physics' rules.
`There could be extra form to request vacation days. Maybe the player could get an off-day "token" every week, but then could wait and stack a few of them to later request a four day vacation, or something? Also, loans are stupid. How about 1000 credits, return 1100 in two weeks?