When you first enter a new system in the Expanse you can only get as far as the Jumpgate from this position the system is not known to your Navigation Computer. So before you can progress into the system you first need to survey it.
This is currently done with the aid of Basic Survey Drones. These have to be crafted first and for each 1 unit crafted you get 10 Survey drones.
Each 24 hour period you get 200 survey drone uses and 1 use equals 1 drone so if you wish to do 200 surveys you would use 200 drones.
The use of drones is the same as for exploration EDK’s on explorable planets, namely you deploy a drone and it either returns a positive result, a negative result or no result. The one part which is different is that with each positive result it add 1 point to what is know as Astrogation Scanning.
Now each system has set number of Astrogration Scanning Points and once you reach that number via positive survey results the whole system become available to you Navigation Computer and you are able to see everything in the system.
Once you have fully surveyed a system it is then treated as a normal system by your Navigation Computer and you may come and go from the system as normal without having to re-survey the system.
Also ever player has to survey every system for themself before he/she can progress further into the Expanse.