Pretty much self explanatory. Since every planet does not have it, if you are looking planets with villages or other various things with friendly npcs it would be nice if you could find or make a tech upgrade for your ship that would make it possible to scan planets for intelligent life.
I second this. Also would be nice to have mineral scan, that would give you a list of possible mineral finds. Once you get past silver, it is so far incredibly hard in my experience to find gold, platinum, titanium and what have you.
someone has made a post with an idea similar to that but a bit more in-depth which would also be a great idea