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Objects of interest can be tracked using hector_object_tracker. This tracking is independent of the SLAM system, but positions of objects can be drawin into GeoTiff files the plugin provided in hector_worldmodel_geotiff_plugins.

I´m not sure which interface to hector_exploration_planner you are using. The class itself provides a makePlan member function that can plan from start to goal poses. If you look at the exploration_node example, just calling planner_->makePlan(...) instead planner_->doExploration(...)would do the trick (ignoring the issue of specifying a concrete target pose for the moment).

As for the last question: This coloring effect is achieved by publishing exploration transform data as a PointCloud message. By using the grid cell x,y world coordinates, but assigning a z value from 0 to (exploration_transform_value/max_exploration_transform_value), all points have a z coordinate between 0 and 1 meters high in the cloud. Now, if you got into "TopDownOrtho" mode in rviz, select "Flat Squares", a size of 0.05m and Z-Axis coloring for PointCloud options you´ll get that nice looking visualization basically for free. See also this helper class.