Also, remember with the apolo misions, most of these tools are light weight and folded up, so maybe they are dropped to the surface in a folded state and you need to help unfold them. maybe the break if done improperly or slightly damaged and need repair to fully unfold? the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was cool, and folded up awesome aswell. with a local transmitter that required the lunar lander for earth coms (maybe you need to stay in radio contact with a hub or radio tower for nav?

just look at the folding part of my comment tho, maybe a travois can be made from aluminium tubing and tape, maybe its foldable to carry with you when not in use?

Maybe like the ISS, they have Laptops everywhere and they usualy are either for projects, but all of them are connected to the internal network. This means that they can check the global stats from almost every station. maybe some larger laptop like hab terminals with the live status on them aswell? so you dont even have to open the terminal to see the current oxigen production or electric status (in a color) and just the title of the device to open it.

As time passes, I understand a black screen, but would a small animation of the work being done be nice? maybe like in Portal when you just leave the elivator, that style of animation (but your own) like a general education video showing how a NASA or whatever employee is suposed to repair a Carbon filter or how to properly install a portalble solar panel.

I understand that requires alott more thinking and drawing works or maybe hiring a animator for such transitions, but I gues an animation would make it another game, search for all animations :D ... or just a text describing why time is passing.

I had the same ideas, but maybe allow 3 custom small vital HUD. let the player decide (default on: hydration, food and overal health) and if the user wants, change a checkbox in the more detailed pad next to a vital. this way, a user can select wich vitals are more important during a certain mision, like on long walks, food might be dificult to consume, while on local repairs, the hab is nearby, so just oxigen and liquids are important.

eating isnt posible in a suit I gues, so its kinda most important next to hydration and oxigen. (forgive my english)