Making Progress in NextColony and What's Next?

I hit what feels like a major milestone in nextcolony today. I now have the ability to make Explorer ships.

While I say it feels like a major milestone, it may not be. From seeing other people's posts, it might still be a lot of sitting and waiting for something to happen. I've heard reports of people making hundreds of explorations, losing ships, and not finding another planet.

I'm starting to wonder if I should begin working on some of the other ships. Assuming I do find another planet, is there a way to transport resources between planets? I would guess this is what the Transporter ship is for, but can anyone confirm this?

In order to get more uranium, I had to build up my uranium mine and in order to build up my uranium mine I had to build up my copper mine. So, I'm finding myself with a surplus of copper and nothing to do with it. I was wondering if this would right itself when I started building ships, but the Explorer ship uses a disproportionately low amount of copper. It takes uranium to build it and uranium to run it, but not copper. My thought is, if I do find a different planet I can start running surplus resources over to it to help speed up production. Not knowing what the other ships do or how another planet works yet this is all just theoretical, but if I do get something going I will be sure to report back.

I previously stated that I wasn't really interested in battling. Depending on how it's implemented, I may not have a choice. But I would certainly be content playing the role of trader, or merchant, or shipbuilder. Supplying resources and ships to other players for a fee. The things I've read about this game lead me to believe that this is a viable path, but time will tell.