This page, Moon Mining, was originally published in EON Magazine, and is copyright to MMM Publishing. It was written by Nyphur.

MOON MINING
You've mined asteroids before, but have you ever mined a moon? With a properly set up POS you can, and make ISK while you sleep. Or whilst you're awake, or down the pub, or...

We've all found ourselves mining asteroids at some time or another, whether it was for five minutes at the start of our Eve Isk careers or currently as a full-time profession. With the advent of POS (or 'Player-Owned Structures') we now have the opportunity to mine moons. While asteroids yield ore that is refined into minerals used in Tech I production, moons yield minerals that need to be reacted together to produce advanced materials for Tech II production.

So, how do we mine moons? First you need to establish a POS, which is essentially a mini starbase that belongs to your corp, nearby the moon of choice. The POS is the driving force behind the Tech II market, but they have also been put to extensive military use in planned 0.0 regional invasions and serve a key role in outpost defence. They can also be used as factories and laboratories using special modules. This guide, however, will focus on the moon-mining aspect of the POS rather than its military or other industrial uses.

SCANNING YOUR MOONS
Unlike asteroids, whose types are clearly marked, the mineral content of a moon is not immediately known. It has to be scanned using a survey probe to discover its contents. Also, unlike asteroids, each moon can have up to four minerals present. Most moon materials will be marked on a scan as 'Abundance 1' but occasionally you'll find 2s or even 3s or 4s. Abundance currently doesn't do anything, but it's rumoured to be a planned feature linked to Tech II Moon Harvesting Arrays.

To scan a moon you'll require a scan probe launcher and several survey probes. Warp to the moon you wish to inspect, fly your ship in close until you're pointing towards it and launch a survey probe. Don't worry about it reaching the moon - even if it seems that it will not get Eve Isk, if you've aimed properly it will. After its flight duration, it will report back the results of whatever materials, if any, are present within the planetary satellite. You don't even need to stick around. You can keep scanning other moons until the duration is up. However, if you log out, jump into another system or dock, communication with your scan probes currently in space will be lost and you will have to start again.