Deployable Phagelet

[hushed wadi]

In a similar vein to claim beacons, deployable phagelets would be "passive" devices that can be deployed onto a moonlet to harvest the resources inside of said moonlet for later trips into the rings, processing materials for the owning ship to pick up when astrogating to or from the desired moonlet.
Downsized to be carried by ships rather than be a small flying station, gameplay-wise meant to incentivize re-visiting previously inert moonlets and being possible for further events to happen (Maximum lazy example: Pirate ambush waiting by a phagelet expecting it's owner to come back around for a refill).
May also allow for interesting events and story pieces, such as a moonlet breaking up upon being sufficiently depleted by multiple phagelets, or for crew member interactions with said phagelets.

[cold maple]

Aren’t phagelets supposed to have ||their own AI||?

Also since Phagelets use a net in order to capture moonlets, it would probably have to be a relatively small moonlet to be captured by a miniaturized phagelet

[hushed wadi]

Phagelets are essentially supposed to be baby phage stations, so yes they would have their own AI
As for the net, I feel like it wouldn't be too difficult to pack a similarly sized net, or have an alternate attachment mechanism

[past glade]

Maybe instead of a full Ai like a smart computer almost to save space for cooling and maybe it just attaches directly onto a single moonlet then nets around it maybe it could have some fuel Gen or just more ore

[raw mauve]

I have a deja-vu.
I think we didn't discuss phagelets, but using the claim beacons as a target for a full-scale phage deployment.

Either way, this is a cool idea

[fair cove]

Would be cool if they had no expiration time and just a small upkeep cost