Well you obviously need materials and blueprints to build them. You also need tools. Haven't played Starbound but that's how it goes in Terraria. You collect materials until you're able to build something, then you collect different materials to build something else and so on. You can be stuck in Terraria as well, if you don't know how to progress and what to look for. Wiki is like cheating in these games, but it eases things a lot. Consult it if you're stuck.