I remember a connected series of science fiction children's books at my library from when I was a kid. This was 1983-1986, and the books might have been a few years old. These were not long books - maybe 25-35 pages each. Hardcover, and several illustrations per book. I remember the title font being that very traditional "computer font" from the early 80's.
The stories concerned the multi-ethnic crew of a space station dealing with various sci-fi tropes, such as plague in space, loss of life-support, etc. I remember it as being kind of a cross between Star Trek and Space 1999. The tone was serious, not cartoony. I remember the space plague book because they thought the plague was smallpox, but then solved it by using an old library book to identify the symptoms as chicken pox. I remember them carrying the library book out of the archive in a special container so it wouldn't crumble to dust.
One other standout detail that might jog someone's memory: one of the crew members had a pet. It was a semi-intelligent pink blob, about the size of a small dog, that could change its shape. It had a small box attached to itself that it could use to communicate via ticker tape. In one story the blob stretched itself out into a rope to climb through a pipe to rescue someone or perform some vital task.
