...
Introduction
Stations require a variety of different resource wares in order to produce new wares, and this is potentially lucrative activity for the player to get involved in. Wares come in two basic varieties; harvestable resources and manufactured goods. Ultimately, they feed into the production of ~100 ships, ~50 stations, weapon turrets, drones and missiles. Generally speaking, a player will acquire harvestable resources via mining, although there are also a few unique stations dotted around the galaxy offering some (spoiler at the bottom of here).
Automated Station trading (via Manager)
Once a station is built or upgraded, it's production lines can work straight away if you manually supply materials but for it to really work for you, it needs a Manager. The Manger will begin to advertise Buy and Sell orders for wares using a budget that you can define the size of within the Manger's Detail Menu. Those trade deals may be fulfilled by NPC traders, your manual traders (see below) or civilian ships that you assign to the Manager (recommended to reduce the probability of the station becoming stuck due to missing wares). See here for further details about how
Production Modules will often need multiple types of cargo (Bulk, Container, Energy and/or Liquid). Although the station will generate Upkeep Missions for missing ship types, as your stations grow you may need to invest in multiple ships covering the same type(s). Civilian ships come in Trade and Mine varieties, although the distinction is a little soft since both types can do fulfil both rolls with what they chose to do for a station being largely driven by whether they carry mining drones or not. See here for further details on Manager-controlled ships and about how to control where your ships will operate.
...