Tai-Pattern Rock-Sucker Mining is messy. There is a lot of dust when a Miner drills into an asteroid or comet, and all that dust can have something interesting in it. Though small on it's own, it all adds up to quite a bit if just left to float in space.
Enter, the Tai-Pattern Rock-Sucker!
Inspired by the massive constructs of her home in Nergal Station, and a showcase of how Egwene Tai is pretty poor at names sometimes, the Rock-sucker was prototyped after she finished the Tai-Pattern Rock-Splitter, and made to be sold as a package deal to the Mining Guild. It was put into production at the same time as it's brother drone.
Overview A small drone, it can uncomfortably fit in the palm of your hand, and is activated remotely. It possesses four directional electromagnetic sluthes that activate on command and can stay active for four hours. These sluthes hover around an asteroid field and suck in ferric particles into their storage bays. Each bay can hold three kilos, for a total of twelve kilos of particulate matter. Not a lot on it's own, but adds up over a large field.
Core Systems The drone has a more robust energy generator that it's brother, the wind-up kinetic generator is made larger and more capable of putting out the energy, giving it a run time of four hours of use when fully wound. It moves by releasing jolts of free ions from six different ports, four for directional movement and two for forward and backwards momentum. Given the fact that the drone does not need to move, these jolts are much weaker than it's brother and usually used for course correction and returning to the designated area if nudged out of it.
Primary Systems The sole system of this drone is the electromagnetic sluthes on the sides, top and bottom. It is designed to be deployed, and then left until it needs to be rewound, and then recovered at the end of the day. A very basic drone doing a very basic task.
Auxiliary Functions Cheap, basic, and easy to make en masse were at the forefront of this drone, so it has basic security systems to protect it. Able to hold off casual assaults, it will not stand for more than a few moments against anyone that knows anything proper.