Considering making an application now. Good Sci-Fi sandboxes are hard to come by and this seems promising.

If I might make a suggestion though, you may want to consider some sort of unifying plot arc that encourages us to cooperate/compete with one another. Open world RPs, especially when you have an entire galaxy to play in, are easy for people to be isolated in. Some sort of galactic congress where each player is represented would be a neat way to get people to interact. Open NRPs need something to drive everyone together, otherwise the RP becomes a collection of unrelated plotlines.