I think we need a new mining method, the drill rig.
The drill rig would be a internal component and would allow mining on asteroids (and planets when/if we can land on them) that you have landed on.
The rig would extract or directly to the hopper of the refinery so you skip the fragment chasing. It would also fill the hopper gradually (like a fuelscoop) and indicate how much (in %) of each ore is left in the drill site.
Maybe the rig could even yield a better total extraction amount of an asteroid due to the more precise extraction method.
In balance terms there are several factors that make laser mining still viable:
The drill rig would be a internal component and would allow mining on asteroids (and planets when/if we can land on them) that you have landed on.
The rig would extract or directly to the hopper of the refinery so you skip the fragment chasing. It would also fill the hopper gradually (like a fuelscoop) and indicate how much (in %) of each ore is left in the drill site.
Maybe the rig could even yield a better total extraction amount of an asteroid due to the more precise extraction method.
In balance terms there are several factors that make laser mining still viable:
- The mining rig would take up an internal slot
- The rig mining rate could be adjusted to be less than a laser
- Landing on an asteroid is hard so actually getting into a mining position would take longer than with laser mining