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The RAW include some system-information-gathering rules, letting players gather info about other systems -- starting with basic stats and working on up to particular fleet dispositions, amount of Defensive Intel, and current construction projects.

Is there any reason the basic System info gathering mission couldn't be used on unexplored systems?

The range penalties get pretty exhorbitant and there's a chance of failure that's a lot higher than simply throwing ships at the problem, but still if one were so inclined, some exploration could happen without risking fleets (though spending the price of a cruiser to avoid sending a cruiser down a jump lane might only be useful under very specific circumstances).

Does that seem fair, or like it'd be an exploit?

If you're not using rules that make exploration particularly difficult to accomplish, then I don't see any reason why couldn't use the Espionage: System mission to reconnoiter a system. However, this shouldn't be allowed in campaigns that use the exploration rules from the 1E Companion because those rules assume that an empire hasn't figured out how to even get to that system yet, which makes it a bit difficult for an empire to send spies there to take a look around.

Right, that makes sense. A core conceit of my current scenario (see "The Wolves") is that the player races are all bequeathed jump technology and a map of the known jump web out to the edges of the sector, but no specific information about individual systems. So we're not technically using the Exploration rules to uncover jump lane connections, just to determine system contents on first visit.

Cool; I'll let my Spymaster player run his Intel recon missions. It ends up being about the same cost in EP as commissioning and losing a corvette or destroyer per nearby system, and more than that as distance from colonies rises.