After a long break (from when this game used to be called Starfarer), I tried the most recent version, and I have to congratulate Alex on the fantastic progress made to date. What you did with exploration is fascinating, brimming with potential and tantalizingly close to doing something really ground-breaking with this genre.
Now I'm very curious to know where the exploration part of the game is headed.
Certainly, with the abundance of resources, the really in-depth game economy, and the vast expanse of colonizable/inhabitable space out there, it would seem like an awful "letdown" if the end-game for exploration was simply finding high quality data to sell to the highest bidder.
With not much extra effort, I think one of the sandbox gameplay vectors could easily become the exploration of solar systems and planets, and helping various factions set up new colonies, trading posts, mining stations, etc. At the start of the game, only the core systems are inhabited, but by the end of the game, it would be such a satisfaction if the sector were much more inhabited thanks to the player's efforts. Consider that we already have all the essentials for colonizing a planet - survey ships, fuel and cargo transport, passenger ships.
And of course, it would be equally awesome if the player could choose to make a planet, or a whole system a place to call home. Perhaps even founding a new faction
Alex, there is too much potential here, you're definitely onto something amazing. I hope you're working on some of these ideas!