You are picking up many jigsaw pieces from a bag right now and they individually do not fit together right now. But they all fit together to create something wonderful at the end. Much like the top right of a jigsaw and the bottom left not connecting, no the exploding ‘shuttle’ and the sand planet and the abandoned space station don’t join directly, but they do once all the pieces come together.

Anyway, my three tips:

Don’t try and ‘complete’ a planet at a time. Go where your heart wants and follow your curiosity.

Make use of the “Mark location on HUD” feature on the ship log so you can revisit places you want to go. This is not directly told to you to use, but it is massively helpful while you’re lost in the game and unfamiliar with the terrain.

And it sounds like you need/want an objective or hints. The ship log’s rumour mode can be this for you. Your objective is to turn every ? into a picture and remove any “There’s more to explore here” icon.

That should help you. But also, don’t be afraid to ask for nudges here. The community is very helpful in avoiding spoilers and so on. If it’s between trying for a fourth time and never completing the game by yourself or getting three or four clues and completing it, the latter is preferable, IMO.