Expendables (2nd Edition)

from the introduction

Your job as a beginning Expendable is to land on a newly discovered planet and survive until you are picked up. While there, you gather information by testing local plants and animals, etc. After you return to headquarters, you file a full report on all your findings and make a recommendation as to whether this planet should be colonized. For this service to The Company, you are paid sums of money that most people only dream of.