planetary probes and composition scaners (for explorers)

after doing some exploring I have found a number of interesting planets that could contain resources beneficial for humanity. except the only resources obtainable are either through mining asteroid belts or roaming surfaces of planets compatible with SRV.

there are many planets we can't land on but may have resources such as heavy metals and even water. I propose one of 2 ways to broaden gameplay for the benefit of humanities resources.


- (a trick from the Mass Effect 2 Book) probes that determine composition of planets contents in the zone.

- advanced scanner that determines composition and percentage of resources (basically a digital prospector drone).

to use either, the CMDR must be very close to the planet and once either is deployed/ activated. the CMDR must wait until impact/ complete scan. which will take a considerable amount of time. these methods also scan a portion of the planets, entire planet scans may take a very long time. but are profitable with patience.

however, this data is then stored on the ship and cumulates with other exploration data. massive payouts are awarded for useful/rare resources such as water, gold and even painite (if you are really,really lucky). factions can then send miners (NPC statistical ones) to collect resources from these planets and thus advance humanity even further!
 
So the mechanic can be summed up as "stand still near planets for more money."

Or "carry lots of limpets and fire them at planets, then wait, for more money."

This does not sound like particularly interesting gameplay.
 
This sounds interesting. Prospecting on a planetary scale. Nice. You could place about 4 of them around the planet to get planet wide composition data. Would they do hard or soft landings? Maybe if soft then the probe might be able to return to orbit and be collected for reuse? Lots of potential here, I think. But that is just me.
 
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