So I know it's not a new theory that Alterra's negligence was the cause of death for all the Aurora crew, but what if it WASN'T negligence...?
Let's look at what we know about the incident: The Aurora was supposed to build a phasegate but was also on a secret mission to investigate the disappearance of the Degasi on 4546B. It carried 157 people, nine of whom were passengers, and one was an emissary for Alterra's rival, Mongolia. Alterra had a lot of beef with Mongolia and was hoping the phasegate construction would allow them to surpass their rivals.
Finding the Degasi was meant to be a sort of peace offering. But what if Alterra had different plans? From Below Zero, we know that Alterra is shady as HELL, wanting to silence all who decide to step out of line like they did with Sam, and from hearing a couple of the crew members logs on the Aurora, specifically CTO Yu, I would assume that a few of the Aurora crew members were a bit too... free thinking... Sending the Aurora to a planet with two ships having gone missing (I'm including the mercury) with an important emissary on board and possible defecting crew would definitely work in Alterra's favor. Get rid of someone who is a head for your competitors, and get rid of troublesome employees. And even IF the defector part of my theory is false, Alterra is still a douchy company to forfeit the lives of people to reach their own goals.
The lifepods are the biggest piece of evidence for this theory. As pointed out by many, the lifepods are poorly equipped with limited food and water, faulty machinery, no defense measures, no diving gear or radiation protection, and easily interceptable radio signals. These aren't lifepods, they're floating caskets/ beacons for predators. Despite knowing that 4546B was an ocean based planet with leviathan class predators, they had made sure those lifepods were more of a death sentence than a salvation, no matter who got into them, unless you are Ryley, you're dead.
