Alright, two things. I finally got my Atlas Pass v1. The 2 hours counted down and I got a message to return to the space anomaly. I talked to Polo again and he requested language data. Stood there for 10 seconds, it said mission completed, talked to him again and he gave me the pass.

Also, warp drive upgrades ARE backwards compatible. I just now warped to a green star system with an Indium Drive, so as soon as you get an Emeril Drive, you can ditch the Cadmium Drive, and as soon as you get an Indium Drive, you can get rid of the Emeril Drive. The Indium Drive will take you to every color system, yellow, red, green and blue, in the game.