Skiffs refer to the smallest of craft that are often used for short-range transportation. Utilized by both the United Nations (UN) and the Martian Congressional Republic (MCR) as well as by Outer Planets Alliance (OPA) and civilians for transport between vessels, stations, and planets. Variants include military dropships, short range shuttles, and repair skiffs.
Prospecting ships are spacecraft used to mine ice, valuable minerals, and metal ores from asteroids for commercial purposes. The ships that prospect and mine asteroids are varied and run the gamut from well-equipped corporate survey ships to barely functional skiffs. Larger ships have internal ore bays while smaller ships tow ore loads in mining nets. There is a process by which prospecting ships do to secure an ore load with a mining net.
Towing an ore load requires keeping a constant tension on the tow cables attached to the mining nets.
Thrusters are used to rotate and reorient the ship and cargo for deceleration burns, without changing momentum.
The ship fires thrusters to slow momentum of ship and cargo.
While most prospecting ships are unarmed, Belters have developed a tactic to defend themselves using their cargo against attacks. After re-orienting the ship and cargo as they would to decelerate, the ship instead disengages its mining net, allowing the asteroid rubble in the net to continue on to strike their target.