Nice-to-haves would include a consistent design- a very detailed and clunky feel, not many smooth curves. Exposed struts and empty spaces within the profile of the ship. Lots of widgets.
Mesh Loaders
I imagine there's a lot of GPL code already out there to support loading of all kinds of 3d formats beyond the simple .obj files supported currently. Currently, the interface need only support a load(string filename) and a draw() command that draws it in OpenGL. It would be great to support texturing.
Windows Port
I tried building this in devcpp once and ran into all kinds of problems with library linking erors and executables that don't do anything but exit immediately.
Space Skybox Textures
These would be six 1024x1024 textures that form a seamless view of the sky when formed into a cube. The image above shows a skybox near the terrain of some planet, but for this game it would be more fitting to put the setting in near planet orbit or deep space.
Email patternjuggler@comcast.net if you want to help.