Mining - RaptorCalculus/mars-endeavour GitHub Wiki
Types of ore
There are many types of elements and minerals found on Mars [0]. Some of the most plentiful and useful are Titanium, Iron, Aluminium, Lithium, and Copper. Scattered throughout the lava tubes are rocks you can instruct a miner bot to mine. Depending on the size of the rock and the colour, you can determine which elements are likely to be found in that particular rock.
How do we know which rock contains what?
Let's say you have a need for a lot of aluminium, so you'll be on the lookout for rocks which you think have a high concentration of that element. How do we know which elements each rock contains? A really handy tool built into each miner bot is a "ChemCam" which can determine, using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) [1], just what the rock is. This is a real tool that's been built into a rover on Mars at this very instant! Cool!
Okay, I found a rock. How do I mine it?
Mining a rock is pretty simple. Once you've found one that you'd like to mine, click on it. The laser will begin to cut away pieces of the rock. Each time you do this, you'll deplete your energy levels, so be sure to return to home base to charge up once you've run your batteries down.
What about water?
Thankfully, in some of the lava tubes on Mars, you'll be able to find ice. If you don't see any ice in the laa tube you're in, try exploring another tube. You're bound to find some then! Follow the same method you use to mine ores in order to "mine" the ice into water. Tasty H2O!
Note that this isn't exactly how we expect to find ice on Mars. We know there's plenty of ice at the poles and it's possible there may be some under the surface, but we've taken this liberty since we are making a videogame, after all :)