Ostranauts Stations & Travel Beyond OKLG

OKLG teaches solvency; the rest of the solar system teaches ambition. After the Fire in the Hold milestone and the 2026-08-03 1.0 launch, Ostranauts treats outbound travel as a core loop — not a post-credits novelty. Venus adds acid atmospheres and aerostat economies; Ceres adds faction politics, proxy wars, and the combat zone where pirates and corporate militias overlap. This page covers staging, nav tools, and the practical limits of fuel, power, and hull design when you leave Ganymed.

Pair it with How to Fly and Dock, Rescue When Stranded, and fusion torch drive builds before your first multi-day burn.

Nav map literacy

The navigation map uses diamond markers to communicate station maturity:

• Solid white diamonds — Full-content hubs like OKLG and the Venus region after Fire in the Hold.
• Dashed gray diamonds — Legacy placeholders from Early Access; many filled in by 1.0 patches (Mars Tharsis, Deimos Voltaire, Luna Jade Rabbit, etc.).

Triangles inside diamonds distinguish ground sites (gravity, sometimes atmosphere) from orbital ports (spin, clamp approaches, no natural horizon). Ground landings at Venus without preparation end quickly; orbit-first staging exists for a reason.

Long-range aids added across milestones include improved course plotting, autopilot assistance, super fast-forward transit options, and high-acceleration torch drives that shrink weeks into days — at reactor and remass cost.

Venus and VORB (Venus Orbital)

Venus is not a bigger OKLG. The planet rotates fast, gravity is punishing, and the carbon-dioxide atmosphere carries sulfuric acid droplets that chew non-plastic hulls over time. Surface-adjacent stations and aerostats sit inside that corrosive shell; reaching them safely requires ships built for aerodynamic drag and acid-resistant materials — often Caylon plastic hull segments and contaminant scrubbing beyond basic CO2 control.

VORB (Venus Orbital) is the safe harbor outside the atmosphere — a rapidly moving target whose orbital velocity makes docking a skill check. Successful VORB clamping opens three common paths:

1. Buy a Venus-ready hull or modules from orbital vendors.
2. Salvage nearby derelicts to bootstrap upgrades without factory prices.
3. Pay ferry services to ride down to inner stations if you would rather spend credits than build atmospheric capability immediately.

Expect roughly as much content density around Venus as OKLG after Fire in the Hold — new gigs, visas, and station maps — so treat VORB as a second home, not a day trip. Prep Life Support Parts with Contaminant AtmoScrubbers and coolers before you commit.

Ceres, Ring Station, and the combat zone

Ceres is the largest body in the Belt — anchor for mining conglomerates, private military contracts, and the Ceres conflict zone where two factions prosecute a proxy war while pirates scavenge kills. Ship combat gear — point defense cannons, mass throwers, missile launchers, decoys, armor cladding — ties to this region, sold at stations like:

• BCRS (Ring Station) — Coalition for Ceres Resource Extraction admin hub in near-Ceres orbit; nicknamed “The Mint” for its bright centrifugal habitat.
• BCER (Ceres Resource Extraction) — Surface-adjacent industrial port tied to Calico City settlements.

Reputation gates purchases: some weapons require Trusted standing with the Galilean Confederacy; others appear at Neutral faction tiers on BCER or BCRS. Combat is optional for salvagers who avoid contested routes, but Ostranauts 1.0 also resolves long-running Ceres Affair story beats — war causes, VHS mysteries, Ben Choong threads — for captains who engage.

Short-range gigs on Ceres stations help broke pilots earn dock fees without undocking — a 1.0 quality-of-life addition when combat repairs drain accounts.

Travel prep: fuel, power, and range

Every outbound plan balances RCS remass, torch remass (if installed), battery storage, and life support endurance:

Fuel and remass — Inner-system hops from OKLG may survive on starter RCS and chemical habits; Venus and Ceres expect dedicated remass reserves and sometimes N2 tied to intake regulators. Running dry mid-transit triggers PASS taxi economics — expensive, humiliating, survivable — detailed in Rescue When Stranded.

Power — Nav consoles, transponders, antennas, autopilot, and fast-forward modes draw continuous load. Torch burns multiply demand. Pack spare batteries or reactor fuel before super-fast-forward; dark avionics mid-burn strand you legally and physically.

Life support duration — Food, water, toilet access, hygiene supplies, sleep bunks, and CO2 scrubber cartridges define crew-safe days away from OKLG refills. Solo captains vent more; crewed torch ships scrub or die. Use the atmosphere checklist tool when adding berths for multi-day routes.

Hull aerodynamics — Atmospheric entries punish boxy salvage tubs. Streamlined segments and plastic shielding reduce drag and acid exposure — see Ship Building when refitting for Venus.

Permanent visas and station services

Fire in the Hold introduced permanent resident visas and station-specific paperwork between OKLG and Venus — bureaucracy as gameplay. Visas affect which berths, discounts, or gigs you access; read kiosk text after dock instead of assuming OKLG prices transfer.

Each full station map ships unique vendors, clinics, finance terminals, and faction boards. Update your PDA notes when a patch adds a formerly dashed-gray destination.

Suggested progression route

A pragmatic captain path after mastering OKLG:

1. Solvent boneyard loop — Salvage Economy plus mortgage discipline.
2. Torch or high-range refit — Builds hub and nav training.
3. VORB staging — plastic hull, contaminant scrubbing, ferry or aerostat entry.
4. Ceres arrival — neutral faction standing, optional combat loadout, story gigs.
5. Return paths — sell combat salvage or aerostat modules at the station that pays best, not whichever is closest.

Related pages

• OKLG & Boneyard — home map and permits
• Map hub — nav symbol legend
• Review — 1.0 difficulty and audience fit
• Crew AI — scheduling crew on long burns
• Updates — new station maps post-launch