I'm not an expert in this game (I prefer GalCiv 2), but I'm pretty sure you have everything you need to get started with starbase construction. No techs required. You can use the mining ring to get a mining operation started. Economy ring for economy boosts to planets, military ring for military boosts to ships, and culture ring for culture. You can also build a xeno archeology module for precursor relics and ascension crystals.

Techs will unlock more modules for your starbases.

Starbase modules need a turn to be built, so don't expect everything to start working the moment you pick modules. They should take effect the very next turn.

When you are looking at a tech there will be small icons under the name of the tech that show what is unlocked.  Put your cursor on one of the icons to get a tool tip that gives you more information.  If you click on a tech, the right side of the screen will also give you the information.  You can put your cursor on the the icons there to get more information.

While in the Research screen, another option is to click onto the "Tech Tree" in the bottom left corner of the screen. (See Old-Spider's pic above) That option works better for me personally, but it's whatever works best for you.

I haven’t played the base game since I got the DLC ( which by the way is highly worth it but it does add a lot of new things to learn ) I believe you need administrators to build survey ships in the base game I know you do in the expansions. You will find them at the top of your screen among the resources. You will unlock more via technology or can train citizens to become administrators ( I am unsure if the base game has citizens if it does you will unlock one every ten turns ) 

Anyways welcome to the game it is fantastic and the DLC makes it absolutely brilliant.

It is a lot to learn and a lot of the wikis seem outdated thankfully people on the forums are helpful.

The survey ship you start with is made with a medium hull.  You don't start with the tech for it, so you can't build it.  You will have to research Zero Gravity Construction to get medium hulls.  There are several techs before it.  You should go to the tech tree as PUREVENOM mentioned in Reply #5, then look in the Engineering section to see what needs to be researched.

You don't need to do this to get a survey ship.  At the beginning of the game you can build a ship called Guide that is a survey ship.  You will need an Administrator to build it.  It is weak and unarmed, so don't use it for anything dangerous.

As the Admiral said, you can design your own ships at any time, but you will be limited by the techs you have researched.  The survey ships the game designs after Zero Gravity Construction is researched aren't very good, so I have designed my own.  I could have designed some before I could use medium hulls, but I waited so I could put enough weapons and defenses on  them.

I forgot to mention earlier that nearly everything has a tool tip associated with it.  That is very important.  You can learn a lot by putting your cursor on something (anything) and reading the tool tip.  They are basically a manual.  You should do this while in the tech tree to learn where things are.  You can put your cursor on the name of a tech and on the icons that are below the name of the tech to learn a lot about them.  Again, this works nearly everywhere because nearly everything has a tool tip associated with it.  Try putting your cursor on things to see what you get.

If you want a real manual to read, there is one available in the game directory.  If you have installed steam and the game in the default locations, you can find it in this location:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Galactic Civilizations III.

It will get less complicated and less confusing as you play the game more, so don't give up.