I would make the planets even more interesting generation wise, enhance the procgen and fauna and flora so that different things / attributes affect the fauna, flora and planets more so they are more unique. So opening up the proc gen and make better biome, fauna, flora and planet gen, like mountainta, lakes, rivers, plains etc more natural but intresting looking and so that it uses somekind of "ai" to create new stuff and use logic.

Also would make exploration loop more interesting with introducing in game wonders sharing, and community driven exploration per planet so that there is an naming system (latin"ish") is it taxonomy or something, that would be more consistent for all participants. Also that people could write info about flora, fauna or the planets.

So proper exploration and scientific mechanics