I promote Mining probes like bot only with out the ability to wander the vastness of space. Simply place one on a roid of you choice depening on the probe model it will function as Mining beams do ecept you won't have to sit and wait for ever you can work on combat,trade,PvP. down side will be you dont receive the Exp so probe would be purely for revenue purpose. When the cargo hold of probe is full you reicive a message telling you It is done,then come pick up the load by ordering it to jettison its cargo.btw You will have to choose between cargo hold and efficiency. bigger cargo hold lowers the ability to mine a certain ore or hinders its ability to gather as fast as a probe with a smaller cargo hold would.

I like. Also make it possible for others to destroy your probe and steal the ore ;)

Additionally, I'd like a miniral scanner probe. Maybe a quick guided missile that tells you stats on the astroid when it hits it?