Lol... realized yesterday that I was not following the tutorial and that I was doing k's of nanites just by visiting the planets and selling ships scavenged around.
So now I have found that place you can upgrade basically everything... and now I don't know where to spend 150million of units lOL... nanites almost all gone just on blueprints.
Ahhh, yes! If you have the patience for it exploration can be very fruitful! You could spend all that money on a REALLY nice freighter, or a cheap freighter and a bunch of frigates to start your expeditions!