Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich talks about the current state of Star Trek Online, and what the future holds:

State of the Game: January 18th, 2010 | Star Trek Online Official Site

Quote from the article:

Exploration Improvements

We’ve fixed many bugs in star cluster missions. We’re finding and crushing them. You target 'em and we fire the torpedoes. So keep those bugs coming, please.

More alien races and stranger alien races will appear with greater frequency in those clusters now. Some are friendly and in need of assistance... Others, not so much.

Scanning

Due to popular demand, we’ve added in-game scanning FX.

On ship and on ground, pressing the scan button located near the mini-map will point you to the nearest object that you can interact with.

Looking for that last alien artifact on a bizarre and unfriendly alien world, but you just can’t seem to find it? Hit the scan button! Looking for a particularly hard to find spacial anomaly in a far-off star system? Hit the scan button! Looking for Sulu? ... Look out! He’s right behind you!