also full spoilers
If you hang out in the cubby and time it right, you don't need thrusters (or if you crash your ship on the bridge and use it as cover, which I've seen too). You can just step forward onto the pad in the time window and the teleporter triggers before you are sucked up but the sand column. If you dont notice the covered cubby and try to come from the opposite tower for the ember twin, or if you leave the cubby too early, you have to fight against that gravity. You can use your downward thrusters, though, to counteract that and still make it.
kryptonianCodeMonkey
I saw a research thing from the creators once that said the thing that is most likely to keep players from finishing the game is failing to find one of the major secret locations in the first like 5-ish hours. They explore and find a bunch of information and places but don't manage to have a break through quickly enough to have that moment that gets you really hooked. In fact so many players quit with being so close to that moment. And the players that have that moment are then very likely to end up finishing the entire game.
Unfortunately, sounds like you fell into that camp. Only thing I can recommend, if you are interested, is come back at it with fresh eyes, read through the ship log again (everything listed there is significant in some way, none of it is a waste), poke at what makes you curious, maybe ask for a specific hint if you end up needing it, and get that first big "Aha!" moment. See if you're not hooked then.
And one of the favorite past times of fans of the game, since we can't have that same discovery experience again, is watching other people play and have those "Aha!" moments too. There are a lot of people that have played this game to completion and I have never once heard any of them be any less than in love with the game by the end. I promise the hype is deserved.
I saw a thing from the creators once that said the thing that is most likely to keep players from finishing the game is failing to find one of the major secret locations in the first like 5-ish hours. They explore and find a bunch of information and places but don't manage to have a break through quickly enough to have that moment that gets you really hooked. In fact so many players quit with being so close to that moment. And the players that have that moment are many time more likely to end up finishing the entire game.
Unfortunately, sounds like you fell into that camp. Only thing I can recommend, if you are interested, is come back at it with fresh eyes, read through the ship log again (everything listed there is significant in some way, none of it is a waste), poke at what makes your curious, maybe ask for a specific hint of you end up needing, and get that first big "Aha!" moment. See if you're not hooked then.
trying to figure out how to say this without giving away too much...
You would want to be at the right place. The problem is that there's a struggle to be at the right place when the conditions are right. You can get lucky and stumble into the right place. But if you're being more intentional, your thrusters can help you do that. Just... not how you usually use them most of the time. They serve dual functions.
Regarding your details...
Still trying to give no more than a hint here for any others that may read this. That one is probably the singular hardest puzzle to figure out. It really only has the one clue pointing out the twins' shared nature due to their proximity. Then on top of that, it basically requires you to use a your thrusters in a way that you really rarely ever have any other reason to use. It's a good way to make the solution well hidden even in plain sight, but it is typically a difficult one to figure out.
I highly highly highly recommend two things to you if you haven't played this game. 1) Play it. 2) Play it as absolutely blind as humanely possible.
One of my all-time favorite gaming experiences, and all the more precious because you can never have the experience again without suffering severe memory loss. The fun and the journey is in learning and understanding the world, the history, the science, and the mechanics that lead you to finding the ultimate ending. And oh what an ending it is (although there are a few alternates)!
Trust me, just pick it up and play without knowing anything at all about it. Don't watch videos, don't look up wikis, don't read articles and don't read forums. This game is best enjoyed without even the smallest spoiler. All of the information is in the game that you need and it's all very very well thought out and executed. You'll explore and find secrets that lead to more secrets. You'll sometimes find yourself struggling to solve a problem, to put some pieces together, and then something will click into place and you'll suddenly understand so much. It's a great feeling. That's what this game is about.
If you do need to get help, only look in fan forums or subreddits. People there are fans and understand the value of discovery in this game, so they will only give you some hints to point you in the right direction rather than outright answers, as it should be.
At one point in time advertisements were in dedicated sections of newspapers, magazines, posted in business windows and maaaaybe sent out in mailors. And that was about it. If you didn't want to be advertised to you didn't read the ads. When TV broadcasts first started there was an dilemma over whether people would tolerate TV commercial breaks, and whether they were even ethical since you couldn't just turn the page if you didn't want to read the ad. We're light-years beyond that mindset and level of consumer respect now. Ads that try to appear to be anything but ads, individually targeted ads, unskippable ads on CPR instructional videos, ads in search results, ads on floating billboards among the beach, ads on your refrigerator, ads on your personal tablet or laptop, ads on the damn gas pump... it's fucking dystopian.
You can't sue the federal government unless they give you explicit permission to. They have sovereign immunity except when they intentionally waive that immunity, such as with the Federal Tort Claims Act. You can challenge the constitutionality of a law or policy, fight to have it overturned, but you cannot seek repayment for damages caused by that law or policy without meeting the conditions under which the government has said you can.
The FTCA is the primary mechanism to sue the fed and the allowances of it are pretty narrow. Tariffs, even illegal ones, would likely fall under the discretionary function exception, which would mean that you couldn't sue. But even if it didn't fall under that exception, in order to sue, you must first submit an FTCA claim for repayment of damages to the goverment and wait for their response. Claims must be made within 2 years of the damages and they have 6 months to respond. Only once actually denied can you actually sue, and it must be within 6 months of their response. And then you have to materially prove damages directly caused by the federal government, specifically.
If the pattern fits for all cases, you've found the pattern (or one of multiple if there's more than one solution). I figured it out and I'm certain of it.
You're comment helped me solve it.
"Oops!" turns on trash compactor
None in particular, any of the hidden places where you learn major lore, mechanics, or clues for the end game.
places like...
The Statue Workshop, the Tower of Quantum Knowledge, the Tower of Quantum Trials, the Quantum Moon, the High Energy Lab, the 3rd Orbital Probe Cannon Module, the Sun Station, the Interloper, the Nomai Vessel, the Ash Twin Project, etc.