Ships can explore the SpaceTraders universe by navigating between waypoints and jumping between systems.

Factions at the edge of the universe are more likely to trade in rare technology and trade goods.

Future: Some waypoints contain ancient ruins that can be surveyed for valuable resources and technology.

Some systems contain hidden hazards that can damage your ship and crew. Exploration is risky but can be very profitable.

Charting

Ships can chart a system waypoint to make the information available to other players. Without a chart, ships will need to use their scanner modules to detect waypoint information or travel to the waypoint to learn more about it.

Some information can only be found by flying to the waypoint, or by using more advanced scanners.

Asteroid Mining

Asteroid waypoints contain an abundance of valuable ores and minerals that can only be uncovered by sending ships to the location to survey and extract the resources.

Plotting yields over time can reveal the best locations to mine for certain ores (with and without surveying first). However, these sources are not infinite, and over-mining can cause the asteroids to collapse.

Future: Resources are actually finite, right now they're definitely infinite, though they can collapse, which strongly reduces yields.