I made a spreadsheet to help me gather materials using the space elevator more efficiently.
The main Calculator page lets you enter a drone, distance and motor tier and will show you which asteroids you'll be able to mine from and the chance of mining from said asteroid. In order to use this part of the sheet, open the File menu at the top left and then select Make a copy. this will create a personal copy where you can edit the values for yourself. Bookmark your copy so you don't have to constantly make more of them.
The mk# motors best pages display the optimal distance for each drone tier for a given asteroid while using a specific motor.
The Asteroids page displays the raw information about every meteor that was extracted from the game.
Here's a link to the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xRApa3HnQiJDstr8I5csIi24Mx4mJNsalRJh8PVa52M/edit#gid=1497391303
Calculator
Drone Type:,(ZPM) Mining Drone-VII,file -> make a copy -> edit values -> profit
Drill Material:,Naquadah
Motor Tier:,MK-II
Distance:,5
Asteroid,Chance,Materials,Material Chance,Voltage,Time,Motors,Distance,Size,Computation
Iron,45.45%,Iron, Gold, Magnetite, Pyrite, BasalticMineralSand...


