Exploration

Each player has a private map. Systems on it are charted, then surveyed; bodies are seen, prospected, and deep scanned for what lies hidden in them.

The map

The map is rings of systems, from the hub out to the deadzone. GET /v1/rings describes them.
Each system has a star and bodies orbiting it. A system's designation and code (ring, sector, star) never change, even when it is renamed. A body's code adds its place.
GET /v1/systems lists known systems a page at a time. GET /v1/sectors lists sectors with charted systems. GET /v1/codes/{code} finds the system or body a code names.
A body's position at any tick follows from its orbit. GET /v1/systems/{id}/bodies/{body_id}/position?tick= forecasts it.
World rules change bodies over time, and each change is a world event.

State	Seen	How
Unknown	Nothing: a 404, as for a system that does not exist
Charted	Position, ring and name. No routes or gates (`not_surveyed`). Its bodies once a ship or station is there, but not what is on them	A ship arrives, or a survey next door charts it
Surveyed	Its bodies and what is on them as seen then, and the routes and gates leaving it	The hull or a surveyor surveys it

POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/survey surveys the ship's current system. More bodies take longer.
A survey charts every system its routes and gates lead to.
A new player's home starts surveyed, and its neighbours charted. A new company receives a copy of its founder's charts.
Another empire's surveys never show on a player's map.
The hull reaches only its own system, so a surveyor one jump away is beyond the Infonet and receives no orders there. It runs the schedule it left with: a program can jump, survey and jump back, and a jump with {"to": "unsurveyed"} goes to the nearest system not yet surveyed. The jump endpoint and group orders take it too.

What a player knows of a body is a sighting: its orbit, its surface, how many layers lie under the surface, and as_of, the tick it was seen.
A ship or station in a system keeps the owner's sightings there current every tick. Once nothing remains there, the view freezes.
Before a survey a body shows only itself: its orbit, kind, name, code and position. Its surface, the layers below, floating items, sites and history wait for the survey.
GET /v1/systems/{id} and GET /v1/systems/{id}/bodies/{body_id} show sightings, not the live world.
GET /v1/systems/{id}/bodies/{body_id}/history tells how a seen body in a surveyed system came to be, oldest first.
World events are seen only by players with a ship or station in the system when they happen.

POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/prospect, by a ship able to prospect, reveals every layer of the body the ship is at (body.prospected).
The body then shows layers as of prospected_tick.

A site is hidden at a body from the start: a deep deposit of one resource, a derelict adrift in orbit, or a ruin on the surface. Prospecting never shows one.
POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/deep_scan, by a ship with a deep scanner fitted, searches the body it is at for a set time.
Each minute, each site not yet found has a chance to turn up. Deeper sites are harder to find, and scanners add up.
site.found reports a find. A body's sites lists the owner's finds. Finds are private.
A site follows its body's inside: into a body that absorbs it, or into the first fragment when it splits.

POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/land sets a lander down on the body it is at. POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/launch returns it to orbit, which it needs before moving or jumping.
The surface and orbit meet only through landed ships. A surface station or landed ship trades only with another at the same body.
POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/excavate digs out a found deep deposit, or takes apart a found ruin, at the lander's body.
A landed lander builds surface stations and nothing else. A deep drill there mines what orbital miners cannot reach.

Derelicts and ruins are what the builders left. A found one shows its history: when it was made, when it was left, and how far it has decayed.
A salvage ship, such as a scrapper, takes apart a found derelict with POST /v1/fleet/ships/{id}/salvage and site_id. A landed lander takes apart a found ruin with excavate.
Each part becomes scrap. The last part gives up any relic and record (derelict.taken_apart).
A relic, relic:<kind>:<type>, is studied for its blueprint. See Research and Designs.
A record, record:<id>, is a data core. Its holder's side reads it at GET /v1/records. Some name a system where the builders also built. Holding such a record charts that system for the side, without surveying it.