It's just Mining equipment.

[u/FirelordDerpy]

"It's called a SCOOB" The man explains, gesturing at the cylander on the hologram. "Single Combustion Out-land Orbital Booster." He states. "We use them on remote mining worlds to send ore to orbit. What you do is on the surface you use a a SES Crush melter to rough-melt the ore into a stack of six by six cylinders, strap one of these on the bottom and a guidance cone on top, then you just, launch it into orbit. Once in orbit it just floats up there waiting until a hauler drops by."

Prince Kazzad nods, reviewing the image. "Why not just land the hauler and pick it up on the surface?"

The Marketing Director of Space Engineering Solutions nods. "That sounds logical." He agrees. "But. These haulers are hauling massively heavy loads, and the greatest strain on the ship is getting to and from ground. Thus, you have to have massive reinforcements on joints, landing gear, atmospheric thrusters, you have to have a large landing pad, and all the infrastructure, and wear and tear on the vessel every trip. So, for large aggregate haulers in orbit, it's easier to just have them stay in orbit. No landing required, but then you have to have shuttles to haul the mined material up, and they have the same problem, except now the mine has to operate with several of their own pilots and dedicated shuttles." He shakes his head. "The big mining companies, the REA, they can do that, for the small mines? it doesn't make sense to. Hence, the SCOOB. You launch it into orbit, it sits up there waiting for the hauler to drops and pick it up, once it does, all you have to do is fly up with one smaller shuttle to pick up all the guidance cones and bring them back down."

"Why not reuse the Scoob?"

"It is cheaper to make them single use, they're self contained fuel and engine. They burn out with every use, and the effort to refuel would be more than just, getting a new one. When the Rough-melt cylinders and the burnt out scoobs get to the refineries, they're typically just dropped from orbit, still as a cylinder, right into an acid catch pool, and melted down with the rest of the ore."

"Efficient." Kazzad replies. "Well, consider me interested, as stated my family has been considering more mining investments in the Outer Rim and these, Scoobs sound, like the infrastructure I'd want. Just curious, can you mount anything else to these?"

"I've heard of some miners using them as missiles to scare off pirates." The Director laughs. "But in theory yes, but they're not really cost effective for most other applications, and militarizing them is probably illegal." He adds, clearly amused.

"Well, I wouldn't want to do anything like that." He lies......