The lander is a small ship built to go down to a body's surface, and the only kind that can. It lands on any body but a star and launches back into orbit, and it cannot move or jump while landed. A Shipyard builds it from thrusters, frames, a drill head and a container.
Capabilities
While landed, a lander can:
- build surface bases;
- dig out the sites its owner has found at that body;
- take the builders' ruins apart into scrap;
- move cargo to and from a surface station. Cargo passes between the surface and orbit only aboard a landed ship.
Protection
Sensors in orbit do not see a landed lander unless their side is deep scanning its body, and fire from orbit does it less damage.