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After the Selene sinks into the Sea of Thirst, it cannot be seen from the surface. The astronomer Lawson, on an orbiting observatory, helps locate it by finding a faint infrared trace of the heat the cruiser left along its path across the dust.
The dust that shields the buried Selene from the cold of vacuum also traps the heat produced by its passengers and machines, so rising temperature becomes a threat to survival. Some heat is carried upward by movement in the dust, which slows the rise but does not remove the danger.
Trapped people can die of panic and idleness before air or water runs out, so group morale should be managed as deliberately as oxygen. The leaders fill empty time with structured activity, such as reading books aloud and organized discussion, which keeps attention off the threat and stops fear from spreading. Boredom and uncertainty are treated as lethal variables with engineered countermeasures.