There is an introductory adventure in the back, but it is a nearish future one-off - though a Referee could expand it to fit into a campaign. Even today, there's a mix of people flying - let's ignore the suborbital and just look at Axiom: NASA insists on one of their former astronauts (best of the best - there's a career for that, if you can roll 15 on 2D), because it's going to the ISS, but the other three can be anyone. And as for Crew Dragon - Isaacman has already signed up for three flights - the last actually Starship, if the Fish and Wildlife people end up up approving the deluge system before the government shuts down again (okay, no more commentary on that, Geir).
Pioneer is something Matt asked me to 'Traveller-ify' some more. And I wanted to do hard science fiction, without waving any hands. I chose to stick with relatively mature technology, because that's what I think will fly. (Yes, I watched the Pulsar cartoon - no radiators, no concept of how to store cryogenic hydrogen, no mention of the tiny thrust they'd get or even how they're shielding that reactor. And four years from now, they'd still be filling out paperwork to allow a nuclear reactor to fly in space, much less building one. I'm sure they make nice ion thrusters, though).
The third iteration of my rethink came while stuck in a place where I could not write much, but was able to binge-watch For All Mankind. Which, ironically, though set in an alternate 20th century with fusion power, pretty much covered 'things we know how to build' except the fusion reactor - which predisposed a lot of lunar assets and H3 mining. Their race to Mars in the third season (almost realistic, except that NASA nuclear shuttle, and the fusion drive, but still, a lot closer than most. The Russian design was realistic, and look where that got them. Not sure how those Koreans expected to get off the Red planet though - sorry, tangent) was a good template for that Mars book (I want to mock-up a pork-chop plot for 2033 - but since Matt already made me put the formulas in the back of the book, that might be a stretch). Other than updated NERVA or higher-powered ion/plasma , I don't see nukes taking us to Mars anytime soon. Tellingly, SpaceX isn't even planning to go down that road - conventional engines all the way.
So to answer the 'what do we want to see', it makes sense to focus on that 10-year-out possibility for the Mars mission (well, maybe 8 by the time it goes to print). And back to the For All Mankind template - look at what NASA had planned post-Apollo, at least in the late 60s - the infrastructure was based on what a Saturn V or a 'routine' shuttle ecosystem could build. Well, that didn't pan out because it was essentially unaffordable (and the shuttle wasn't anything like what was hoped) back then, but now, if Starship flies, we will have have that. If it doesn't fly we will still have Falcon and Falcon heavy, and probably a couple of Chinese clones, and Neutron out of Rocket Lab. And then Blue Origin because Bezos might be slow, but he is relentless.com (sorry, odd reference) and some dark horse out of the dozens of PowerPoint and Spreadsheet designers with a graphics department.
So what for Pioneers to do in Pioneer? Mars Race, Near Earth Asteroid mining - or at least prospecting, Moon bases, private orbital stations.
Another mental template of the tech is the first half of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, well except the parts about the moon blowing up and the backhanded character assassinations of thinly disguised actual people.
As for thinly disguised actual things, I did thinly disguise and fictionalise things like Starship and a variety of smaller at least partially reusable launch vehicles. Modularised most things into Lego-ish 5,10, 20 ton blocks, snuck in the framework for a design system (and then used it to design stuff - so I won't have to retcon designs). But maybe a step-through build of a Lego spaceship kit would be a good addition (oh, and I also realised I forgot to include a stackable Fregat-clone upper stage - and probably should not have cut out the nasty storable propellant option - better performance).
Alright, that's a lot of gibbering for a Friday morning. I had to put my asides in italics - I do actual proof-read most posts, so, yeah. Need to watch the caffeine intake.
rename the combat skill and combat section to conflict 
