Asteroid mining module

An asteroid mining module is a medium sized ship module that can extract minerals from small solar bodies like asteroids and comets. They mine at the base researched rate modified by availability (a base rate of 10 tons mining minerals with .5 availability will produce 5 tons per year). The minerals are left on the planet until gathered by either a freighter or a mass driver. A colony must be present on the asteroid in order to store the minerals, or else the mining module will not operate.

Asteroid mining modules are very efficient for mining asteroids as they allow the delivery of multiple mines with a single order. However, as they will not mine planets or moons, they won't replace automated and manned mines for large scale mining projects.