Moon Prospecting

Moon Prospecting

How do I scan a Moon for resources?

Warning: be sure there are no Player Owned Structures at the Moon you want to survey. This can be done by either warping in with a cloaked ship at 100km, or using your ship scanner with the "Control Tower" entry checked in your overview. In low security space, warping to an occupied Moon will most likely result in the loss of your vessel.

First find yourself a moon (they are found orbiting planets) and warp to it. Align your ship so that it is pointing straight at the moon, then activate your probe launcher and launch your probe directly at the moon. This method, while a little crude, is necessary since the probes don't have automatic guidance. It is best to get as close to the moon as possible, as the probe you launch has to fly to and land on it before its flight time expires. 5000km will probably be sufficient if you are using the Quest Survey Probe I, as it has a 40 minute flight time.

Once the probe hits the moon it will begin its analysis. This can take a while, but once the timer expires you will receive the results. They appear in the 'Moon Analysis' tab of your scanner window and contain data on any usable resources that the moon might have. If the moon contains nothing of use, a window will pop up to inform you that the probe found nothing of value. Be sure to stay online and in the system during the scan, since the probe cannot send its results to an absent ship.