Hello. First of all the obligatory I love this game so far, I cannot believe I didn't try it sooner. I mostly started because I got a VR headset and wanted to commit to a game while I'm working away from home for a few months; and VO is the game I always wanted in VR. The quests are fully voiced like I'm flying around in Iron man armor, and sometimes things fly so close to me that I actually duck my head. The space exploration is perfect for VR.

Last night and this morning I hoped to play, but the zone I am in has a green smoke effect and I cannot warp away. I read up and I thought maybe it is an Ion storm? But that is described as rainlike, and the wiki says there will be an indicator on radar about how to exit the storm, and it will only last a few hours. My radar only shows the station I'm sheltering in and the warp point I cannot use.

Now that I have waited 12 hours I wonder if there is something else going on?

Bonus questions- because this is a good time to ask
What ships would a miner/trader use in the early game?
Is there anything stopping a recreant UIT from heading to the back of the blue area to explore the universe in the least populated area?
When is a good time to ask about mentoring and guilds? (I think it is important to learn the basics of the game first, but clearly learning from others is essential at some point).

Thanks everyone.

Welcome!

Green fog around a station is just a cool effect and does not change how jumping works. Ion storms are very blue, and generally do not happen in station or wormhole sectors. If you can't jump out, it is either due to not having a destination set (in which case, you wouldn't see a jump indicator) being too close to some sneaky rocks (which is unlikely if you flew to a jump indicator) or due to a weird bug.
Remember, when it comes to in system jumps, the requirement is to be 3000m away from any rocks, not necessarily on the jump indicator, so might be worth it to just turbo in a direction for a while.

Also, this isn't super relevant but an ion storms lasting 12 hours doesn't strike me as unusual.

Ships:
A good early mining ship is probably a revenant. As far as I know, mine launchers are all large port weapons, so any ship with a large port is a good start.

Blue space:
As a member of the hardest nation to play, you have free access to all three nations' space! Congrats! I guess. It doesn't make up for having no hive of your own, or for having the easiest nation space to kill newbs in, but hey, you can fly to both of the universe's most boring sides of the world, isn't it great being a member of the "great people on both sides" nation?

Mentoring and guilds:
There is never a good time to start thinking about mentoring or guilds.