Since the FSS (Full Spectrum Scanner) is built into every ship, you can do some decent exploration with even a combat fitted ship if preferred like your Corvette. Guardian FSD boosters will add a flat jump range to whatever ship you place it on, so it will be of the most benefit to ships with smaller jump ranges (like the Corvette), and useful, but proportionally less effective on ships like the Anaconda (at least those of which aren't fully geared out for combat).
In any case other things I would add to an explorer in no particular order:
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Fuel Scoop is absolutely essential (unless you are trying to see how far you can get without refilling eg something like the
"No fuel scoop challenge" ).
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DSS (Detailed Surface Scanner) for discovering where points of interest might be located on a newly discovered planet (and if you are after extra cash for exploration data)
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AFMU (Auto Field Maintenance Unit) for repairing modules in your ship (of critical importance if you use Neutron Star boosting as you will need to repair your FSD)
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Planetary Vehicle Hangar to house an SRV (Surface Recon Vehicle) to collect essential materials for synthesizing. You can refill your AFMU, or collect materials to give your FSD a range boost. If you aren't doing these things, it's not so important, but can be a bit of a boredom buster if you want to try some planetside driving.
Engineering your FSD can makes a huge difference to exploration. While others say that jump range isn't the be-all of exploration, it does allow you to fly a little higher above the galactic plane or dive a bit deeper below it where the stars start to thin out and the distances between them become greater. It also allows you to cover more distance faster. If possible, I would at least unlock Felicity Farseer even if you don't bother with any other engineer. There are a few guides out there, but this one by Commander Exigeous is reasonably short:
Unlocking Felicity Farseer
You can make use of your current ships if you don't want to outfit a new Hauler.
A lot of ships can make great explorers:
-Type 6 (A budget explorer with great views..)
-Dolphin (Recently discovered how nice this ship is for exploration, not quite as open views from the cockpit compared to others, but still great to explore in).
-Diamondback Explorer (2nd Best jump range after the Anaconda, it's small size makes it great for the Guardian ruins as it is easier to find spots to land close by with).
-Asp Explorer (Best views in the game IMO).
-Krait Mk II/Phantom (Make for great robust exploration ships, the Phantom has comparable jumping range to the Asp Explorer).
-Imperial Courier (sensitive to weight changes, so not as good for jumping range as the others, but it is a fast, fun ship).
And the Anaconda and Python that you already own can make for great exploration ships (Not familiar with the Federal Corvette unfortunately).
There really isn't any best load-out for exploration ships, but there are a few things to consider (besides the above mentioned Fuel Scoop, DSS, AFMU and PVH):
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Use the best FSD you possible can. That means using the biggest possible A-Graded FSD that you can fit in a ship. They are expensive, but they are worth it.
-Use A-Graded Power plants, of the smallest size that will power your ship. Sure you might be able to 7A power plant on your Python, but it adds weight and if you aren't using all that power it is a waste. So keep downgrading the size of the power plant (keeping it A-rated), until any further downgrade will mean you can no longer power everything (There are some exceptions; the Planetary Vehicle Hangar doesn't need power while your in space, so you can safely power that down to free up some power. In addition with some power management you can set your ship up so that if you do go over the power limits, you can control which sub-systems turn off in response, freeing even more power).
The reason for using A-Grade power plants is because they are the most thermally efficient ones. Each ship has a fixed heat capacity and choosing a less efficient B/C/D/E power plant means that your modules will all contribute more heat to your ship. This can easily be seen while exploring during Fuel Scooping; with a less efficient power plant you may find yourself overheating when you refuel your ship.
-Use a Fuel Scoop of the same size or bigger than the FSD. eg if your using a Python with a 5A FSD, use either a size 5 or size 6 Fuel scoop. A-Graded Fuel Scoops are very expensive, but if you happen to be able to go one size above your FSD drive for the fuel scoop, you can happily make do with B or C-Graded. This is probably one of the biggest set backs of the Diamondback Explorer in that it can only equip a size-4 Fuel Scoop which is one size
down from the size-5 FSD that it uses.
-Use D-Graded modules for everything else (well except AFMU's which don't weigh anything). D-Graded modules are the lightest and tend also to use less power than higher grades of the same module; this is especially important for engines which are the biggest power drain of the entire ship (Also you can sometimes use a slightly smaller sized engine while still being D-Graded for even more power/weight savings). If you do decide to try unlocking Felicity Farseer, you will get access to Grade 3 Engine mods which while not the best of the best, will add a significant boost to your overall speed.
-Offensive/Defensive Options. If you want to get the best jumping range possible for the ship you are currently in, then that is easily possible, but sometimes you only need to sacrifice a few light years of jump range to enormously improve your defensive/offensive capability. Even if you are out exploring in solo, an unsafe landing on a High-G world with an AspX using the lowest grade shields can easily result in destruction, where by adding a higher grade of shield, some lightweight 0E shield boosters, and even a 1D Hull Reinforcement Module can give your ship quite a bit more durability without sacrificing all that much jump range.
Here are some of my own ships, they are however fully engineered, but you will see that they share quite similar characteristics (Coriolis is a great tool for experimentation):
Type 6
Diamondback Explorer
Dolphin
AspX
If you want a basic template, let's say your Python:
Non-Engineered Explorer Python
Some build commentary for the above:
3A Power plant - The smallest A-Grade power plant I could place on the ship un-engineered. Sure I'm at 97.9% power usage, and switching on the Planetary Vehicle Hangar will cause it to exceed the power that the 3A provides, but you don't ever need to have the PVH on while traveling in space, so once you land you can switch it on and you will have no power problems since your engines turn off once you land, freeing up heaps of extra power.
A final note here is that I used "Priority 5" the lowest power priority for the PVH; so even if I accidentally switch on the PVH on the above Python, by default the power management will switch off all Priority 5 modules first if a power shortage occurs, which happens to be the PVH, so apart from the warning you get about power being overloaded, it will have no affect on your other modules.
5D Thrusters - One size down from a 6D, I save 8 Tonnes of weight while only losing 6 m/s. This is where a bit of experimentation is needed to find a balance that you are happy with.
6D Power Distributor - This is the smallest (lightest) un-engineered power distributor that will allow the Python to boost. The amount of energy required from the distributor for each ship to boost varies considerably; some like the Krait Mk 2 needs very little distributor capacity to boost so can actually make do with a smaller distributor, but the Python is more distributor hungry so requires a bigger distributor.
4D Life Support, 6D Sensors - You can't use a smaller size for these modules, so the D-Grade is the lightest version of that module you can get.
6B Fuel scoop - It's only 1/4 of the price of the 6A, and since the Python is using a 5A FSD drive, it will give us a pretty good refuel rate since we are using a fuel scoop one size larger than the FSD (even a 6C Fuel scoop will collect fuel faster than a 5A, while being much cheaper)
5D Shield Generator - I find this size of shield generator has a pretty decent protection/weight ratio for the Python in particular, but you can go smaller to save on weight further by using a 4D or even 3D generator. For each ship I tend to experiment with sizes by stepping down and seeing the effect that the size downgrade has on the overall shield capacity, vs how much the additional weight saved gives me (or whether or not I need those larger sized slots for something else) and work from there at finding an optimal balance.
3B AFMU - I don't think personally it matters what size you use for your AFMU as long as you take one with you. The reason I go with B-Grade AFMU's is because I only ever take a single one with me, and B-Class modules have the greatest amount of integrity (And second fastest repair rate); which in the case of the AFMU means that it takes less damage from ship overheating conditions. If you take another AFMU with you, you can then have each AFMU repair the other, so grade doesn't really matter here, although A-Grade AFMU's will be the quickest to repair modules if you are looking to cover as much ground in the shortest time possible using Neutron Star highways.
2G Planetary Vehicle Hangar - Not much to say here, except that I generally take the lightest version I can. the 4G though will give you an extra SRV vehicle so that if you accidentally destroy your first while being far from civilization you don't need to immediately head back to replenish the lost SRV.
This is a bare-bones build however, and as far as ships go is very fragile, so with my engineered explorers I try to pack in a bit more survivability by sacrificing a bit of the maximum jump range, but here is where you can experiment yourself on adding those characteristics that you yourself want your ship to have (More shields, weaponized, faster (you don't have to use D-Graded engines, put some A-Graded ones on to have a fast explorer)).
