This will be all the more easy once we can get out of our ships. The only other way would be to put manipulator arms on all the ships and SRVs. That way you could more than scan, shoot, or listen.
I think the lack of tools and the lack of puzzle options are what is doing it.
Right now all the puzzles have been forced outside of the game.
The first thing that is needed is a complete suite of sciences and exploration modules.
Second thing that is needed is the ability to create save and send notes/emails inside of the game.
Third needs to be access to the forums inside of the game. Tools can be created for the forum that can do all kinds of things to make the game more immersive. They can just create an in game skin that makes it look like another UI. Heck throw it into Galnet.
That would be a quicker fix than the space legs will take. They just need to create puzzles that are both compelling and rely solely on the tools inside the game.
Would love to see science/exploration modules! Notes would be swell too.