Well a week of Nextcolony but no new planets found. The good news is Mission Control is now Level 2 which enables more missions to be sent out. Having an extra planet really does help with resource mining and ship skill building. At the moment I am trying to skill up on Corvettes but it seems to be taking ages and ages to get up to the max level.
Luckly I have not been attacked yet but that will end at some point so I have not been neglecting defences where possible. Explorations take precedence since you lose explorers from attacks, so its better to make hay while the sun shines. If I do get attacked then I may have to do some rethinking on that.
My Current Map
Having found a planet I am concentrating my exploration from there for now, trying to get as many missions out and back as quickly as possible. I have pretty much free rain on the left of the map but do compete a little on my neighbours side. I don't think the planets are actually already determined, I could be wrong about that, in which case it really doesn't matter where you explore.