X3: Albian Prelude

The Mobile Drilling System is used for breaking up asteroids and space rocks for collection using Ore Collectors.

“The Mobile Drilling System accelerates and emits small fast rotating helical particles which drill into rock and use supersonic resonance to break up the rock. Its effectiveness against other materials is very low.”

Although the MDS can be used as a weapon, it is of very limited effectiveness due to the low power, low projectile velocity, and low refire rate. Its only real use is for breaking up asteroids into smaller rocks, the alternative being expensive heavy missiles. Once the larger rocks have been broken, a smaller laser (like the IRE, PAC or possibly PRG) is better for further decomposing the rocks into collectable chunks.

The power output of the MDS is substantial. In particular, the blast radius of an MDS projectile is sufficiently large enough to breakdown asteroids in close proximity to the targeted asteroid. Additionally, when an asteroid has reached a sufficiently small size suitable for collection, and is impacted directly by an MDS projectile or indirectly from a nearby targeted asteroid, the small, harvestable asteroid itself is destroyed and the potential resource yield is lost. As a consequence, Mobile Drilling System operators are urged to use caution during mining activities.