Editing Mining (section)

==Orbital/Asteroid miners==
Both [[versions]] have [[ship]]-mounted miners that can extract minerals from small [[bodies]], but mechanics differ slightly. They are somewhat expensive, but large fleets of mining ships can make short work of an asteroid belt, using their mobility to clean up all the small deposits littered around. 

In [[CSharp|C#]], there is the [[Orbital Mining Module]], which can mine any body with a diameter that's small enough. The diameter ranges from 100-500km, depending on your technology level. 

In [[VB6]], there is the [[Asteroid Mining Module]], which has no specific upgrade techs, and no specific size limit. Instead, they can only ever mine bodies that are considered asteroids or comets, but never moons or planets. 

To begin asteroid mining, simply create a ship with at least one mining module, create a mining colony on a suitable asteroid (via the {{key|F9}} System View, or a right click on the body within the system map) and move the ship there. On the summary page for the colony, a new entry labeled "Orbital Mines" will appear.

===Ship-Based Mining Strategies===
Depending on what ships you have constructed, there are a number of ways to organize asteroid mining:
* Use mining ships without cargo holds to extract minerals and then collect the ores with freighters.
* Use mining ships with enough cargo capacity to take away the minerals once the asteroid begins to deplete.
* If you use larger mining ships with enough cargo capacity to move a [[Mass Driver]], a few mining ships can then use their mass drivers to move mining output to a single location within a system for easy collection.

''VB6-Specific Warning: If you have a group of asteroid miners or harvesters working in orbit, don't send new ships to join that task group. You must send ships to the asteroid or planet first, then tell them to join the task group, otherwise their mining rate won't be added to the total. The same applies to terraformers, orbital habitats and maintenance vessels.''