Thinking rn and getting really sad about how, since Rocky and Grace's personalities are quite different but incredibly similar at the same time, Rocky would've been in the same state as Grace after his fellow crewmates dropped one after another. I mean I still don't know how Rocky is supposed to have survived without even showing symptoms of ARS after having had to do all the tasks around the ship that got the other crewmembers killed – like, did he never leave his workstation for even a couple hours for 42 years? It's whatever I guess.
Y'know, much like Grace, Rocky seems like the type of person who is really artsy, a creative thinker and has genuine passion for his job (considering he uses his tools to make fun items of convenience like figurines and xenonite barriers, but is also quick to full on INVENT tools to aid the mission like the actually quite complicated predator collector contraption, the screen-to-texture translator and the breeder tanks), but would prefer to do it on a smaller, more laidback scale (like Grace, who prefers to be a school teacher for low pay rather than living up to his full potential as a globally recognized researcher), as he's a little quirky and, despite his outgoing nature, may be kind of forced into introversion because of his personality, evident by him mostly staying at his workstation in the back of the ship, which poetically assured his survival. Somehow. It appears also highly likely to me that Rocky only agreed to be part of the Tau Ceti mission because he was gonna be able to return to Erid alive, much like Grace probably would've. But when he realized that he might die in space all alone, never getting to save his planet, to never see Adrian again, I can just imagine Rocky having to go through the exact same depression as Grace when he got the news that he was the only one viable to go on the mission and, subsequently, that he was the only one left on the ship and that he'll, for a fact, die alone in space against his will – if not a worse one, considering he was fully expecting to go home having helped save his planet, and getting to do neither. Aren't we so happy these two odd parallels found each other and were able to complete not only their lost cause of a mission, but also each other?♡