Basic Mining

This small guide covers the absolute basics of mining ores in celestial command.

Basic mining

Equipment

In order to setup your starter ship for mining, you'll want to add a few components:

• mining drill
  
• ore container
  
• grabber

As the mining drill requires a power connection, you should also add solar panels (or a power generator) and a power storage.

In order to better maneuver your ship towards asteroids, you also might want to add a rocket engine and the required fuel tanks. This is all covered in the basic controls guide.

Mining drill

The mining drill is used to extract ore from asteriods, you simply touch the asteroid with the mining drill, and it will automatically start extracting ore, provided your ship is equipped with ore containers for storage.

You will hear a drilling sound and notice dust plumes coming from the mining drill as soon as it starts extracting ore.

The type of ore you receive depends on the section of the asteroid you are mining. See this screenshot:



Hover your mouse over the asteroid sections, the different colored bars on the circle around the asteroid, and it will show the type of ore you can expect from that section, and the remaining amount of ore that section has.

Ore container

This is the storage component where the ore that you extract with your mining drill will end up. They will only hold one type of ore per container, so you should add a couple in order to be able to mine different ores.

Keep in mind that containers will gain mass while they are being filled with ore, so your ship might be harder to maneuver when the containers are fully loaded. You can move ore between containers in inventory mode if you want to balance out your ship.

Grabber

The grabber is your hi-tech grappling hook, you can use it to attach your ship safely to the asteroid you want to mine. You can mine without being attached to the asteroid, but it is not very convenient, since you'll need to maneuver constantly to stay close enough for the mining drill.

If you select the grabber, you'll notice it has a special auto-connect setting. If you activate this, your grabber will automatically connect to anything it touches. See the screenshot:



In order to attach yourself to your asteroid, you enable the auto-connect on your grabber, then maneuver your ship slowly towards the asteroid, and simply touch it with the grabber.

Once you are finished mining and want to leave, select your grabber again, and push the disconnect button. Your grabber will stop holding on to the asteroid, and your ship is free to move away, or reposition itself in order to reach another section of your asteroid with the mining drill.


After modification, your starter ship could look like this, the parts described in detail in this guide are highlighted in yellow circles.

Note that the mining drill, while not strictly touching the asteroid, is still in close enough range to extract ore. It does not have a lot of range, but just enough to make the setup in the picture above, where you place the mining drill and the grabber directly in front of your ship a very convenient basic mining setup.

[Rambo_99]

Very very old . NEED UPDATE !!!

[BeanSlinger419]

nice guide so nice

[whatdoesthisbuttondo?]

Mining drill now requires a power connection, thanks for pointing that out. I'll update the guide accordingly.

[MagneticJerk]

Was mining changed again? I'm doing exactly what it says here in the guide, but my drill just won't mine anything. I'm just sitting here, attached to the asteroid and nothing's happening.

[whatdoesthisbuttondo?]

Guide updated for new mining system.

[Romenics]

In 0.542 mining system has been changed.
Please, update this nice guide.

[ElmerJones]

Thank you for this clear mining guide ! ;-)