Just done a 3,000ly round trip in an Asp doing some exploring.
Used the 10million prize for top 15% in the CG to kit out a ship with maximum range and fast scoops. I was getting no indications from detailed scans that the unexplored systems were really unexplored so I came back to civilisation to sell my data. Endured an age of messages telling me I'd dicovered new planets, so it does seem to work after all.
Now I'm wondering if I should get back to RES farming, because it's fun, or go out on a really long trek to find my own Earth-like...