Looking for Mining and cargo ship any ideas?

Whats up friends.
Im looking for a way to start mining and running cargo. Turns out my ship the Aurora MR does not have cargo. Is there a way to upgrade my ship for mining or more cargo? Sorry for newb question lol

Yes. Go to Pledge Store than Ship upgrades. In the left field drop down select the ship you are trading in. In the right field drop down select the ship you wish to upgrade to.

You can’t “downgrade” (meaning get a ship of a lesser price). You will need to pay the difference in cost. Everything that came with the original ship (to include insurance) will transfer over to the new ship.

For mining only the Prospector ($155) is available. But if you want one you can better buy a vulture warbound and upgrade ($120 + $15 = $135 and you’ll have LTI).
You could also upgrade your Aurora to the Prospector but it also will cost $135 and I will not recommend this.

A better plan for you if you just want to move cargo and a bit better ship, The Avenger Titan is an awesome starter ship. You can upgrade your Aurora to an Avenger titan for $25.
If you recently bought a game package, it’s possible to meld it and buy the Mustang package. The Mustang is worth $5 more and you can upgrade to the Avenger for $20 instead of $25

Note all prices here are in USD and without vat.

Bartje’s idea of getting a lesser cost ship with LTI and upgrading it to what you want is the right idea. I do that all the time.

Best mining ship: Orion
Best cargo ship: Hull E
…neither currently available, together both would be expensive, and I’m not sure how the system will allow the Orion to transfer ore to the Hull. Really don’t see those 2 working alone either…you’ll need a small cast of other players and/or NPCs.

Budget mining ship: Prospector
Budget cargo ship:

But the Prospector can hold 128 SCU of ore. So a cargo ship that can carry 128 would work best. The Titan (and again Bartje is right…IMO it is the best starter ship package/inexpensive cargo hauler in the game currently offered) but it falls way short with only 8 SCU. Of course…we can’t say yet if 1 ore SCU = 1 cargo SCU or even if a SCU cargo ship can carry ore…but I think they will.

A reasonable priced ship that can carry ~128 is the Freelancer MAX at 122 SCU. Certainly more expensive to pledge or get in game than a Titan, but would meet needs and mining/transporting ops should be able to be done by just 2 players…provided SC develops a system of transfer of the ore similar to how we transfer cargo in game today.

If the prospector carries 128scu of ore it can’t be 128 cargo scu. Its to small for that amount

Like I said…we don’t know yet. So what does 128 scu of ore equal to in scu of cargo?

From the vulture q&a:
“The Prospector has its 128 SCU capacity spread across its multiple saddlebag containers, but cannot hold the full 128 SCU at a single time and must detach these containers to keep collecting material. Each container currently holds 8 SCU so without detaching them the Prospector can naturally only hold 32 SCU at a single time, the current value in 3.2.”

Then go with a Cutlass. But not a Titan.

I ended up getting the prosp. Enjoying it so far. Still learning the best ways to mine

As it stands now, depends on the percentage purity of the rocks mined and collected, as the Prospector doesn’t refine like the Orion will.

Example, A rock is 10% Titanium and 90% inert (almost worthless) rock. Titanium can be sold for 2.29 aUEC per unit. In-game the Prospector currently holds 32 SCU, or 3200 units, of ore (still subject to change).

So 3200 units x 0.10 = 320 units.
320 units x 2.29 aUEC/unit = 732.8 aUEC

Add around 50 aUEC for the inert rock and that is what the ore is worth.

How quickly do you fill your prospector when mining?

One good rock can fill up a Prospector with some left over.

Yeah, the prospector might be the only option right now, in terms of availability to buy and actually usable in game. The anniversary sale in November will open up larger mining ships (like the orion) if that interests you, though it’s only for a day (or several days at times).