With version 0.160 you no longer pick a danger level in Orbit+, but a system on a map.
From the outside in
The galaxy has 15 systems in five rings. The rim is calm, the center dangerous: enemies there have more than three times the hull, and loot reaches up to Legendary. You start on the outside. Destroy a system’s Core and you have liberated it and unlock all neighbors along the jump routes.
Every system is different
Each system has a name, a faction and a fixed planet with its own effect, for example ice world, lava world or gas giant. Which planet lies where, you only see once you have been there. The four factions are just color and story for now; later they bring trade and reputation.
Jumping
After the Core kill the map opens, and the jump to an unlocked neighbor is free. At the trading post there is the GALAXY tab: a jump there costs 30 ore times the target’s danger. Before every jump your cargo is stored. After a death the next flight begins where you last were.
All details are in the patch notes.