I wonder how cold space would actually feel, given there is not much matter to transfer the body heat to. Here's a stack exchange thread where people try to calculate how long it would take to cool down.
What do you think of the industrialisation aspects in Tolkien's Legendarium?
Yes, I think today, SciFi / Space Fantasy works best to directly reflect current situations and dangers. It can naturally be constructed in a dystopical way and used as an example for a bad future.
For typical High Fantasy, imo it is way more difficult to pull something like that off, because it is usually closer related to our historical past. For topics like racism, discrimination or other social aspects (life during the plague?) it can still work nicely. But I agree, it's a delicate matter to not "overdo" it and ruin the escapism.
There are so many kinds of Fantasy, and all art imitates life in one way or another is what I'm saying :)
Fuck, i finally should read it, The Martian was amazing, and The Egg is a classic.