I grin and reach for Parda’s hand, forgetting for the millionth time I can’t touch her.
It certainly seemed that way, listening to the episode. Every time the protagonist forgot Parda wasn't real, she'd keep a running commentary on it. I ended up groaning out loud after the sixth or seventh time that the narrator informed the audience of that fact. The narrator should mention it to the audience a few times to avoid confusion, then show, don't tell. It would have added much more poignancy if the above quote were changed into
I grin and reach for Parda’s hand then quickly withdraw it, my smile vanishing.
Something like that.
I also wonder where the air came from for the donut ship after we're explicitly told the protagonist is almost out of air, certainly oxygen can be extracted from ice, but the audience is never informed of this. The breathable oxygen seems to appear out of nowhere.
By the time the ship has a breathable atmosphere, I have less than an hour of air left in my suit.
Considering how much of the story is given over to our protagonist running out of air, this is important information the audience never receives.
Thanks to anti-tech religions like the Seekers, NASA barely has the funding for a single blipper.
If a giant comet were to appear and threaten to destroy humanity, I wouldn't be surprised if a few Doomsday cults sprung up, but anti-technology religions so powerful that they're de-funding NASA so that Earth gets smacked by a dinosaur-killing-sized comet? I have huge issues with this. The story needs to go into more depth about this, or not bring it up to begin with. And really, the thing to do is not mention because it's not needed.
And, considering that a killer comet is on the way to Earth, one would think that Roscosmos, the ESA, the Indian Space Research Organization, JAXA or the Chinese National Space Agency would be interested. We never hear about any other space agency than NASA.
It was a good attempt on behalf of the author, but the story had issues and I feel it should have gone thru another draft.